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Livestock
Livestock & Forage
Ewe lamb/ram lamb ratios
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<blockquote data-quote="Highland Mule" data-source="post: 6701824" data-attributes="member: 33090"><p>I found a couple of years ago that a new, younger tup produced way more females than the older ones. My theory was that in their eagerness they jumped earlier in the ewe’s cycle and before the egg had fully descended. The female sperm are slower moving so will take longer to get the point of fertilisation, whereas the male sperm could swim faster, but had run out of energy before the egg was in place. That was my theory - interestingly the next year the eager tup has slowed a big (now a shearling) and the proportion drifted back towards more males. An older tup will wait until he’s sure it’s time, which means the egg will be in place and the after male sperm would do the job before the females were out of the starting blocks? Depending on how hands on you are, you could maybe experiment by only letting the tup in every other day, to try and push things back for the ewes?</p><p></p><p>As for diet, I recall being told that the acidity of the female fluids can be affected by diet and that this can be more favourable to one type of sperm over the other. I can’t remember all the details but remember being told that rice pudding (presumably alkali) would help bump the chances towards sons, or maybe daughters - it was a long time ago. Perhaps your soil is such that the ewes’ insides are particularly acid, or alkali?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Highland Mule, post: 6701824, member: 33090"] I found a couple of years ago that a new, younger tup produced way more females than the older ones. My theory was that in their eagerness they jumped earlier in the ewe’s cycle and before the egg had fully descended. The female sperm are slower moving so will take longer to get the point of fertilisation, whereas the male sperm could swim faster, but had run out of energy before the egg was in place. That was my theory - interestingly the next year the eager tup has slowed a big (now a shearling) and the proportion drifted back towards more males. An older tup will wait until he’s sure it’s time, which means the egg will be in place and the after male sperm would do the job before the females were out of the starting blocks? Depending on how hands on you are, you could maybe experiment by only letting the tup in every other day, to try and push things back for the ewes? As for diet, I recall being told that the acidity of the female fluids can be affected by diet and that this can be more favourable to one type of sperm over the other. I can’t remember all the details but remember being told that rice pudding (presumably alkali) would help bump the chances towards sons, or maybe daughters - it was a long time ago. Perhaps your soil is such that the ewes’ insides are particularly acid, or alkali? [/QUOTE]
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Ewe lamb/ram lamb ratios
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