ewe lambs, to tup or not??

[Guiggs]

Usually I do but last year I didn't.
Very happy with this years group of replacements so far and last years shearlings look well, but when they come to lamb I'll probably regret it as they do tend to be much calmer if they've lambed as hogs!
Easier to manage through the winter though if they haven't been tupped!
Decisions decisions!!
What do you do?

 

[Gedd]

Lamb them if big enough cant see the point in running sheep around for another 12 months empty

 

[Highland Mule]

Tupping mule ewe lambs - minimum weight?

Great advert for the Scotch mule, fantastic they could lamb Texel lambs. I would have used llyen or similar & tupped the lot, but those Texel lambs will be more valuable. Do you run Scotch Blackface pure & crossed to sell mules or do you buy in draft Scotch Blackfaces, HIGHLAND MULE.

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[neilo]

Your shearlings will look well if they haven’t lambed, the lazy sods haven’t done bugger all.

I’drun them empty if I ha£ some really sh *te ground to run them on incredibly cheaply, otherwise they ought to be paying their way imo.
My ideal would be every sheep on the place rearing a lamb, with anything that didn’t hold getting hung up. Each to their own though.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Hate lambing shearlings that have run dry. Breed makes no difference, they can all be wild as f**k and super ignorant. Would rather lamb 250 hoggs than 150 shearlings. Hoggs always seem much quieter and willing too take the lamb.
As @neilo says, if your shearlings don't look well after running dry there is something wrong.
I'd carry on with lambing hoggs if I was you, but I'm young and daft so my opinion may not be very helpful!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I'd rather feed a 70kg ewe who's already given me a lamb, than a 75kg ewe who hasn't earned her place; all things being equal lambing your hoggs makes way for a more efficient ewe flock as it helps keep the weight off them, without breeding it off them IYSWIM

also they tend to be far more maternal given a practice lamb and also milk better

The question I then have is what do you do with the 10-15% dries, do you give them a second chance or not?

 

[Jim75]

Never lambing hoggs again, maybe it’s my management but could never get them in the sweet spot and if you get the get that fine balance wrong you’ll curse yourself silly. Find they’ve less attitude as gimmers rather than hoggs who spit them out and pee off. Been involved elsewhere and like I say it’s not all champagne and strawberries like some would make on. Run them on the poorest ground or following the in lambers and make for a stress free life, life’s too short.

 

[yellowbelly]

maybe it’s my management but could never get them in the sweet spot and if you get the get that fine balance wrong you’ll curse yourself silly.

Too much and you're pulling lambs, too little and you've got scrawny lambs (and ewes), too many lambs to foster on at the end of lambing.......
Stopped doing it last year as my management is so bad I always seemed to fall off one side or the other of the tightrope


............got a few biggish she lambs I might tup this time though

............or maybe not , as @Jim75 says, "Life's too short."

 

[Agrivator]

Never lambing hoggs again, maybe it’s my management but could never get them in the sweet spot and if you get the get that fine balance wrong you’ll curse yourself silly. Find they’ve less attitude as gimmers rather than hoggs who spit them out and pee off. Been involved elsewhere and like I say it’s not all champagne and strawberries like some would make on. Run them on the poorest ground or following the in lambers and make for a stress free life, life’s too short.

As last. Some sanity,

The disasters can never make up for the successes. In fact, I am certain there are more welfare issues with lambing hoggs than anything else in farming.

 

[irish dom]

Lambing ewe lambs is like marmite. Personally I couldn't afford to not lamb them. Slightly higher quality management required to have a bonus crop of lambs seems like a fairly handy to me. Also I find ewe lambs so much easier than shearling. Real good wee mothers in the main. When I used to buy in shearlings that group were all big selfish friggers who would run a mile from the foreign object that was trying to suck them

 

[Jim75]

Lambing ewe lambs is like marmite. Personally I couldn't afford to not lamb them. Slightly higher quality management required to have a bonus crop of lambs seems like a fairly handy to me. Also I find ewe lambs so much easier than shearling. Real good wee mothers in the main. When I used to buy in shearlings that group were all big selfish friggers who would run a mile from the foreign object that was trying to suck them

 

[Jim75]

Too much and you're pulling lambs, too little and you've got scrawny lambs (and ewes), too many lambs to foster on at the end of lambing.......
Stopped doing it last year as my management is so bad I always seemed to fall off one side or the other of the tightrope


............got a few biggish she lambs I might tup this time though

............or maybe not , as @Jim75 says, "Life's too short."

don’t do it, there’s helplines that you can speak to

 

[irish dom]

As last. Some sanity,

The disasters can never make up for the successes. In fact, I am certain there are more welfare issues with lambing hoggs than anything else in farming.

I have a wee cheap ram lamb coming out of lanark that will suit the ewe lambs. Full of spark character and whatever bulls**t people look for these days

 

[neilo]

I’ve always found that the tighter they (& all ewe singles) are stocked over lambing, the easier they get on with it. Yes, I might have to catch a few more than the small number of ewes that need help, but I smile every time I see a Hogg glued to her newborn lambs in the morning. They are far less likely to bugger off and leave them than maiden shearlings IME, and better milking for having developed an udder in the first year.

Life’s too short to be chasing maiden shearlings about imo, which I remind myself every time I have to do so.

 

[neilo]

The question I then have is what do you do with the 10-15% dries, do you give them a second chance or not?

I‘m too tight to sell a yearling that I’ve already put six quid’s worth of abortion vaccine into, unless hogget price is really high. I did sell the empties two years ago, when all hoggets were well over £100 a piece in the Spring, planning on keeping extra ewe lambs back to replace them.
What it meant was that I had fewer lambs to sell after the following lambing, but I had the easiest lambing ever without those maidens shearlings.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I‘m too tight to sell a yearling that I’ve already put six quid’s worth of abortion vaccine into, unless hogget price is really high. I did sell the empties two years ago, when all hoggets were well over £100 a piece in the Spring, planning on keeping extra ewe lambs back to replace them.
What it meant was that I had fewer lambs to sell after the following lambing, but I had the easiest lambing ever without those maidens shearlings.

That's fair. These hoggs have had none of that, one clear drench and one combi as a quarantine, I think we'll shear them Monday and send the dries away to help flood your market

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Weight or wait.
If a ewe lamb is heavy enough to go to ram at tupping time it seems illogical not to.

There wouldn't be a huge amount of difference between a late born lamb on poor keep, lambing as its teeth erupts and another earlier born lamb being fed well to lamb as a 'lamb'.
I would love to know what the conception rates were on the 'best' lambs kept and sold as the 'best' maiden gimmers.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

I’ve always found that the tighter they (& all ewe singles) are stocked over lambing, the easier they get on with it. Yes, I might have to catch a few more than the small number of ewes that need help, but I smile every time I see a Hogg glued to her newborn lambs in the morning. They are far less likely to bugger off and leave them than maiden shearlings IME, and better milking for having developed an udder in the first year.

Life’s too short to be chasing maiden shearlings about imo, which I remind myself every time I have to do so.

This is interesting. I've always been terrified when I find a wet lamb in a field of hoggs, so much so that I would catch the hogg and pen her up with her lamb as I wouldn't trust her to come back to it and, when busy, would fear that I would come back to a wet unmothered lamb. Weirdly, you would often come to the paddock and find hoggs mothered up with their dry lambs so I perhaps should have given them chance.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

This is interesting. I've always been terrified when I find a wet lamb in a field of hoggs, so much so that I would catch the hogg and pen her up with her lamb as I wouldn't trust her to come back to it and, when busy, would fear that I would come back to a wet unmothered lamb. Weirdly, you would often come to the paddock and find hoggs mothered up with their dry lambs so I perhaps should have given them chance.

I lamb inside most of the time so it's a bit different but I find a skittish lamb more likely too calm down faster and love it's lamb than a skittish run dry shearling? They just want to jump out of pens and knock you flying when you get in the pen to put the lamb on for a suck.
As said before, I do get a nice warm feeling when I find a Hogg with a lamb all bone dry and full in the morning.

 

[neilo]

This is interesting. I've always been terrified when I find a wet lamb in a field of hoggs, so much so that I would catch the hogg and pen her up with her lamb as I wouldn't trust her to come back to it and, when busy, would fear that I would come back to a wet unmothered lamb. Weirdly, you would often come to the paddock and find hoggs mothered up with their dry lambs so I perhaps should have given them chance.

Definitely. I only see ewe lambs running off if I've messed with them and interrupted the bonding process. If you have to catch one to assist it seems to upset them, and I usually stick them in a pen for an hour to settle. It’s my intervention that causes the issue though, not the sheep.