Ewe flock annual mortality rate

[Guleesh]

This picture is a few years old now, If my maths are correct the ewe in it was 14 years old. She spent most of her life on grade 3 hill with no feeding. I put her down later the same year. Was happy to get this last ewe lamb from her.

 

[ringi]

However, at a flock level most genetic gain comes from the ram. Therefore younger ewes should have better genetics than older ewes.

Going back to the orginal problem, how do you know the rams will give you ewes that have a longer productive life? It one of the hardest attributes to measure as you can't know how well the ram's daughters will do after their 4th crop until the ram is about 6 years old.

Even with a full signet type system, it is uncommon to have breed wide data as many breeders remove ewes fron their flocks based on index long before the ewe stops being productive. (To get meaningful data the daughters of the rams being compared need to have been in same management group for complete life.)

 

[ladycrofter]

View attachment 1176713
This picture is a few years old now, If my maths are correct the ewe in it was 14 years old. She spent most of her life on grade 3 hill with no feeding. I put her down later the same year. Was happy to get this last ewe lamb from her.

Here -

What I mean is putting an old frail ewe through the ring and on lorries. Better they go when fitter and likely not suffering arthritis etc. - since we have to guess, they can't tell us.

I think the more unimproved breeds can go longer, they're reproductive machinery hasn't been compromised by trying to get another few kg on the backend. Possibly in the old days when the wool was worth more than the meat, the better wool producers likely had shorter lifetimes?

 

[Guleesh]

Here - View attachment 1176730

What I mean is putting an old frail ewe through the ring and on lorries. Better they go when fitter and likely not suffering arthritis etc. - since we have to guess, they can't tell us.

I think the more unimproved breeds can go longer, they're reproductive machinery hasn't been compromised by trying to get another few kg on the backend. Possibly in the old days when the wool was worth more than the meat, the better wool producers likely had shorter lifetimes?

I think you're right about less 'improved' breeds going on for longer. Agree about putting old frail ewes on lorries, of course they should be euthanised at home, but don't see any of that as a reason to clear off healthy, productive (and maybe most importantly, hefted) sheep in the prime of their life though. On a grazing only system ewes that are suffering won't be thriving so are identifiable and can be dealt with. Arthritis that's obviously causing pain is only something I've ever really seen in pet sheep whose lives are prolonged totally artificially through constant human 'care'.

I do like to see lambs sleeping on their mums backs.

 

[ringi]

What the condition scoring data like from the year before for 5crop ewes that don't do well?

 

[Guleesh]

What the condition scoring data like from the year before for 5crop ewes that don't do well?

In our system we don't record conditions, but we do pull out low condition ewes for feeding and record this event happening, ewes needing fed are spread pretty equally across all age groups - around a tenth of the flock this year, but it varies greatly depending on the winter. There's gimmers getting fed and there's 5 crop and above not getting fed. Generally older ewes that need fed for the first time are then on their last year, sometimes young sheep needing fed are suffering fluke damage and will fully recover so get a second chance, but are B flock from then on.

 

[Highcountry]

Yes indeed genetic constitution hugely important. There are large strains and small strains of animal with significantly different genetic backgrounds and genotyping is a very sensible way ahead. Presumably important in terms of longevity. But to go back to the original question relating to a reasonable on farm mortality rate of breeding ewes, we run at about five percent. Tups have a higher mortality rate. I would be interested to know what might be considered a reasonable mortality rate amongst tups. Blue faceds seem v susceptible up here. Lamb mortality also considerably higher during lambing and after put out. I read that during last three decades there is a consensus in the literature that it is about fourteen percent, including mortality during lambing and cumulative afterwards after put out to enclosures. Seems high. I would be very interested in comments.