Older Ewes First Time Lambing

[mf372]

By October I will have a handful of 2 and 3 yr old ewes that have never been to the ram. They were in poor condition at tupping time, and I planned to fatten them to sell. But they are now looking superb.

Question is - are they too old to lamb first time? I have always thought they had to go to rams as yearlings, or they wouldn't develop correctly inside.

 

[cheviot53]

Used to be the norm on a hard hill to not lamb until 3yr old and some smallholders have lambed older sheep for the first time

 

[Stewartry hill]

Take the money now they are a good trade.get something younger to tup

 

[ladycrofter]

This We just got a cull price for one (and not fat either) that we had reckoned would be the ewe plus a good store lamb. All for just the ewe.
You'll likely be worse off keeping them and breeding.

 

[BAF]

Problem with older ewes is that they carry a lot of internal fat even a hat rack old cull will have plenty of fat around her internals and now they're looking well you could find you struggle with fertility. Plus - and this why I try lamb everything as ewe lambs - older first timers are a pain in the arse if you have to intervene, ewe lambs can be a bit thick but shearlings upwards can be set in their ways and powerful with it. I'd be replacing them personally.

 

[Sharpy]

One thing I would consider is that if they weren't fit for the tup in October at 2 years old how will they do once they have the stress of rearing lambs? Get rid.

 

[jandl]

Hard to say without seeing them in the flesh, and much will depend on your ground if they’ve got over fat, but we don’t tup any ewe lambs and will run most gimmers on for a further year if they don’t scan for a lamb first time round. It’s never been an issue with them failing to scan next time round and many will run to 6,7 or 8 crop no bother.

They’re all hill ewes mind and the ewe lambs winter up the hills so they don’t carry much of a cost. Any gimmers not in lamb just run with the ewe hoggs till they go back to the tup.

As others have said you don’t want them to run over fat, but I’m more inclined to get shot of anything that ever scans for triplets than a gimmer that’s yeld first time round. Just depends on your system tbh

 

[BAF]

Hard to say without seeing them in the flesh, and much will depend on your ground if they’ve got over fat, but we don’t tup any ewe lambs and will run most gimmers on for a further year if they don’t scan for a lamb first time round. It’s never been an issue with them failing to scan next time round and many will run to 6,7 or 8 crop no bother.

They’re all hill ewes mind and the ewe lambs winter up the hills so they don’t carry much of a cost. Any gimmers not in lamb just run with the ewe hoggs till they go back to the tup.

As others have said you don’t want them to run over fat, but I’m more inclined to get shot of anything that ever scans for triplets than a gimmer that’s yeld first time round. Just depends on your system tbh

Depends on how much ground you've got as well. We're always running around maximum capacity or slightly over capacity with too many sheep and not enough ground on account of them being a sideline so I can't carry passengers. But even with too many sheep on not enough grass they'd get too fat here.

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Hang them up

 

[Denbren]

Get rid of them. If for no other reason than the fact that if you keep replacements out of them inevitably they probably won’t lamb until they are 2/3 years old either and the cycle continues. my moto is only keep replacements from the ewes that have never done anything other than what I wanted from them and it definitely helps over time.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What would be the reason for keeping them, now? If they look superb, sell them