Tup harness issues.....

[hubbahubba]

Im starting to worry. So using harnesses for the first time. Went with flexmark. Tups out 2 weeks today. Some nearly every sheep marked but other lots only half marked. One lot 40 out of 91 ?. Crayons seem to be ok. Do they always leave a mark? Maybe in the frost the stuff wont mark as well....? 2 or three tups per lot. One lot has a yellow crayoned ram lamb and a orange shearling, theres not too many with orange on them either.

Finding green and red making better as orange and yellow too.

Other years i just raddle up once and make sure there all working to start with.

One went and broke a buckle and need to have the strap opened up and restichted too!

 

[ShooTa]

ive avoided yellow usually as its a bugger to see.

 

[Nithsdale]

That 1 lot might just be slower cycling... 2 weeks with tups in, they'll tup up this next 2 weeks. I wouldn't worry about that


It might depend what hardness the crayons are, Sire Sign have different weather types (warm, mild, cold)... your crayons may be too hard for the current weather? That's just a suggestion because I bought an unbranded crayon for my pures. The entire crayon was used up in 1 night on 3 sheep it felt a bit soft before I put it on the harness, but I expected it to last all 5 sheep


I hate yellow - it doesn't show up well IMO, Orange is usually OK but depends on the shade...

My preference is darker/stronger colours - red, blue, purple, green, black

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Won’t need to worry about a harness here...it’s that wet the ewes will be clarted up to their necks when the tups mount them

 

[hubbahubba]

There flexmark ritchey crayons. Will swap them all for blue this week and we will know for sure, or have a better idea. We are lambing 5 days earlier as last couple years so maybe are a bit slower to cycle.

 

[startinghandle]

I remember years ago my late father talking to someone in Welshpool market that was having problems with a harness
"Take that bloody harness off that tup and burn it , could you perform with your wife wearing a harness?"
My late father told the guy who couldn't stop laughing

 

[Nithsdale]

I remember years ago my late father talking to someone in Welshpool market that was having problems with a harness
"Take that bloody harness off that tup and burn it , could you perform with your wife wearing a harness?"
My late father told the guy who couldn't stop laughing

I'm led to believe there's wives who perform with a harness on

 

[Hilly]

I find raddle better fir the tips

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I think you will find it all works fine.

I always use harnesses and rarely get any problems but last year I was disappointed when none of my ewe lambs got marked during the month the ram was in.
Most of them lambed.

 

[Paddington]

Found a brand new green crayon in the drawer one year, can't remember buying it as we don't use green, but perhaps the previous owners had left it. Fitted it to the tup who was in the next field to the ewes before he went in with them. We number the ewes sides with green stock marker so we can see from a distance who has been tupped. Now the fact that the raddle crayon and the marking scheme were the same colour were discussed beforehand and any confusion had been dismissed as unlikely, but as the ewes left the holding pen freshly numbered it appeared that several of them had been "tupped" without the tups assistance.

 

[primmiemoo]

If the harness is too slack at the brisket, it can slip sideways and not leave a mark - particularly when hot weather crayons have been bought by accident.

Some rams have interesting styles of serving their ewes, too, and leave barely a dab of colour. None, if hot weather crayons used.

I'd be inclined to run a sweeper ram with a black crayon after the main rams removed, but it could add to the length of lambing time.

PS., if you want to track rats and mice, let them feed on raddle crayons...

 

[Al R]

Like Nithsdale said they may just not be cycling? Breed to breed comparison is far more important, plus tup breed. My TexX will be 60% served by 7 days with Charolais tips, Welsh Mules will be 60% by 9 days With texel tups, welsh will be 30% served in 14 days to BFL tip.

I find the exlana for the last 3 years has consistently served 20% more ewes in 17 days by himself than his BFL counterpart in the field next door with fields of welsh which were split the day before for each tup.

using different colour raddles in the same field won’t work and the darkest colour will be the only one that will show as I find all of my rams all serve every available ewe, some repeat the ewes all day too so they all get the same colour.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

I use raddle, leave the ewes like red Indian, no mistaking what's done and what's not

 

[neilo]

Some rams have interesting styles of serving their ewes, too, and leave barely a dab of colour. None, if hot weather crayons used.

^this. I have had two mature rams out with my pedigree ewes, in single sire groups, for the last fortnight. Both have harnesses on with 'cold' Mating Mark orange crayons. One mob has everything plastered orange, the other has a small, light, orange mark to one side of the rump on each. The two rams did the same last year and they were all in lamb fine.

I very rarely use raddle paste, as I have better things to do than catch up the rams to pee about with them.

 

[neilo]

There flexmark ritchey crayons. Will swap them all for blue this week and we will know for sure, or have a better idea. We are lambing 5 days earlier as last couple years so maybe are a bit slower to cycle.

Do those crayons have a 'temperature' on them, usually 'Cold' or 'Mild', or are they 'all weather/AW'? I find the AW ones (which most suppliers stock for some reason) are too hard to leave a decent mark unless it's the middle of summer. The 'cold' ones are far better in the Autumn IME.

 

[Al R]

^this. I have had two mature rams out with my pedigree ewes, in single sire groups, for the last fortnight. Both have harnesses on with 'cold' Mating Mark orange crayons. One mob has everything plastered orange, the other has a small, light, orange mark to one side of the rump on each. The two rams did the same last year and they were all in lamb fine.

I very rarely use raddle paste, as I have better things to do than catch up the rams to pee about with them.

Once a week with raddle oil is enough if the rams are serving 1-40 each per week..

 

[muleman]

Do those crayons have a 'temperature' on them, usually 'Cold' or 'Mild', or are they 'all weather/AW'? I find the AW ones (which most suppliers stock for some reason) are too hard to leave a decent mark unless it's the middle of summer. The 'cold' ones are far better in the Autumn IME.

If your struggling to get the yellow crayon to mark use red raddle powder,it shows up well!

 

[neilo]

Once a week with raddle oil is enough if the rams are serving 1-40 each per week..

I know, but I'd rather not gather up ewes during tupping, any more than absolutely necessary. After 17 days is just fine by me these days, but we used to change colour every week when we were daft enough to lamb indoors, and only had room for a week's worth at a time.

 

[Guiggs]

If the harness is too slack at the brisket, it can slip sideways and not leave a mark - particularly when hot weather crayons have been bought by accident.

Some rams have interesting styles of serving their ewes, too, and leave barely a dab of colour. None, if hot weather crayons used.

I'd be inclined to run a sweeper ram with a black crayon after the main rams removed, but it could add to the length of lambing time.

PS., if you want to track rats and mice, let them feed on raddle crayons...

Or your dogs, my collies love them,
They will be leaving red turds tomorrow as the tups were swapped onto blue today!!!

 

[Al R]