what not to do as first time shepherds

[Bill Fosher]

Hi Claudia,

 

Since your ewes were running with rams until as they began to cycle, I think you're going to find that you have a long, spread-out lambing season, and towards the end you'll start to have some more synchronized activity.

 

What happens in most breeds of sheep is that they don't start to cycle until the rate of chance in the length of day is speeding up -- that is to say, when you're losing daylight at a fairly rapid rate. Ewes respond differently to this cue, based on nutrition, age, weather, presence or absence of rams, and of course there are individual differences in how the hormones that cause ovulation are generated and how the ovaries respond to them.

 

Usually there is some triggering event when conditions are right that will bring a small percentage of ewes into season. This might be a cool night in mid-August, or a ram starting to chase them around and court them. (Rams are also seasonal, and sometimes start to engage in breeding behavior before the ewes are cycling.) So a few ewes will cycle over a relatively short period of time. If they are bred and fertilized during that cycle and the embryo implants, then, obviously, they stop cycling. If they are not bred, they will continue to cycle, roughly every 17 days, until they are bred, or until the spring equinox approaches.

 

When ewes are around other cycling ewes, it tends to bring them into season, and after a few cycles, they will all be on more or less the same schedule, a phenomenon known as the dormitory effect because the same phenomenon can be observed in womens' dorms. In groups of ewes where breeding is planned for a specific date, the rams are not introduced until the ewes are all cycling together, so the ewes are fertile at more or less the same time, the rams get the job done, and are removed from the flock, producing an intense, but brief, lambing period.

 

In your situation, the ram was probably breeding each ewe as she came into season, so there was no ongoing estrous to get the dormitory effect going. Other events triggered other ewes here and there, the ram bred them, and they stopped cycling. My guess would be that you will probably be lambing until March or April, because by October or November the days would have been short enough to start estrous in all the ewes even if they didn't respond to other triggers.

 

Even in planned breedings, there's a bit of a pattern to breeding. Unless you happen to hit it right when all the ewes are cycling together, what usually happens when you introduce the ram is that a few ewes get bred within a day or two, and then nothing happens for about a week. Then they all cycle together, and 17 days later they cycle again if they weren't bred on the first cycle. As a result, you get a few lambs on the leading edge of lambing, followed by a big wave about a week later, followed by a second, smaller wave two and a half weeks after that. Because of variation in gestation and estrous. these waves are usually six to seven days long. Using a teaser ram eliminates those first few lambs, and puts a larger percentage of the lambs on the crest of that first wave.

 

If you start selecting breeding sheep born in the first 21 days of lambing, you will have a shorter and shorter lambing time, assuming that there was adequate ram power available to the mothers at breeding time. Early fertility is highly heritable -- something on the order of 50 percent.

[Bill Fosher]

Meghan,

 

When I am contemplating producing ram lambs for breeding, I know which ones I intend to keep before the father and mother are introduced. The only question is whether a ram lamb will be produced from the mating. As a practical matter, this means that if I want to keep a ram lamb out of ewe 4001 and ram 7008, I make sure that 4001 is in 7008's breeding group. When 4001 lambs, if she has a ram lamb that meets my criteria for birthing ease, litter size, and has no obvious structural defects, then he is left entire. In the end, he still may or may not make the team, but at least he has the gear needed if he grows well, etc.

 

I recently purchased a ram lamb from a very advanced breeder who uses a genetic program called Lambplan to estimate the breeding value of her sheep based on the traits they express and their genetic background. Based on this, we can predict that lambs sired by this ram will gain about 4 more pounds post weaning than the average of the rest of her flock and have an additional 2.5 mm of eye muscle depth. That's pretty impressive, and I'm hoping that I will see it in my next lamb crop!

[juliepoudrier]

I currently have a buyer who wants intact rams/ram lambs, so this year I will leave everything intact. I can do that because I have the means to separate ewes from rams. Normally I wouldn't do that. With my karakuls, the last time I lambed, I saved back the three lambs I liked the best, grew them out, picked the one who ended up the nicest and sold the other two to ethnic buyers who didn't care if they were intact or wethers. Bill has given you a good explanation as well for choosing breeding stock. But sometimes you may have help in making a choice if you have a ready market for ram lambs....

 

J.

[The Good Shepherd]

Okay Hanging my head in shame - no pics today

 

Thanks for explaining the rate of lambing Bill! We still have no new lambs as of this morning!

 

Since it was a very nice weekend (3day weekend for me) we put everyone outside during the day!

I had 3 neibghors stop by or look over the fence becasue of the lambs!!

 

I have serious cureness overload!!

[Lenajo]

Our buyers prefer au-natural rams so we do not castrate. Also, of the 3 (wethers, ewes, and rams) the ram lambs will grow the fastest and be ready for slaughter before the rest.

 

I'm still docking tails because I prefer a mix of hair and wool genetics. Reason being both sanitation and uniformity of the lamb flock.

 

When selling larger lots of breeding stock (50 or greater) I find that having a mix of tailed and docked does negatively affect the price. That may be a regional thing, or just human nature.

[Kelliwic Border Collies]

Thanks for the input in selecting lambs as future (possible) breeding rams. The different answers are very interesting to me.

[The Good Shepherd]

Okay, Morning update:

 

 

1 single yesterday when we came home fron work

 

A set of twins when we went out to the barn this morning!!

 

[Bill Fosher]

Right on schedule! How many ewes left?

[The Good Shepherd]

One more single when we got home last night

 

As far as Ewe's 4 more ewe's and 1 more angora goat

 

Do not laugh, but I have named the biggest lamb and I do mean big: "Godzilla"

[Bill Fosher]

With just four left, it might not take as long as I predicted. If those four are showing bags now, you'll probably be done in three or four weeks.

[The Good Shepherd]

With just four left, it might not take as long as I predicted. If those four are showing bags now, you'll probably be done in three or four weeks.

 

 

Geeeesh 3-4 weeks I don't think I can last that long

[Bill Fosher]

Could be less, too. You'll last just fine.