Ewes Missed by the ram

docmartin

Been Running my own farm now for about 4 years and my problem is that every year the number of ewes missed by the ram seems to be growing.

I work a full time job, so last year i thought that by gathering all the ewes daily for feeding would rid this problem, but last year ouy of about 100 ewes roughly 35 were missed.

neighbouring farmers will tell me that they might only have 4 to 5 missed ewes per year at the most.

I'd consider my ewes to be in good shape at tipping time,

again any advice welcome!!!!!

epfff

docmartin wrote: »

Been Running my own farm now for about 4 years and my problem is that every year the number of ewes missed by the ram seems to be growing.

I work a full time job, so last year i thought that by gathering all the ewes daily for feeding would rid this problem, but last year ouy of about 100 ewes roughly 35 were missed.

neighbouring farmers will tell me that they might only have 4 to 5 missed ewes per year at the most.

I'd consider my ewes to be in good shape at tipping time,

again any advice welcome!!!!!

What have rams being up too the last month?
Were dosed ect at start of summer and put into best grass will not handle again untill xmass just open gates to let with sheep
dont even raddle incase i upset them

docmartin

epfff wrote: »

What have rams being up too the last month?
Were dosed ect at start of summer and put into best grass will not handle again untill xmass just open gates to let with sheep
dont even raddle incase i upset them

they've to be dipped and dosed this weekend and they'll be going back to the good grass, where the ewes will be joining them late october

whelan1

how many rams for how many ewes?

docmartin

whelan1 wrote: »

how many rams for how many ewes?

last year was 3 rams to 100 ewes

supersean1999

docmartin wrote: »

last year was 3 rams to 100 ewes

dag tails, dont have over fed ewes, seperate ewes into smaller lots, 3 x 33 , raddle the rams, switch them around after 17 days if you see some of marked ewes repeating, 35% is crazy high number, i had best yr think it was 3% 4% were dry when scanned,

DMAXMAN

docmartin wrote: »

Been Running my own farm now for about 4 years and my problem is that every year the number of ewes missed by the ram seems to be growing.

I work a full time job, so last year i thought that by gathering all the ewes daily for feeding would rid this problem, but last year ouy of about 100 ewes roughly 35 were missed.

neighbouring farmers will tell me that they might only have 4 to 5 missed ewes per year at the most.

I'd consider my ewes to be in good shape at tipping time,

again any advice welcome!!!!!

would defo seem to be a fertility problem or an abortion prob. normal is around 5-7%.we had a problem one time with a particular batch of ewes we bought once and it was because they had longish wooly tails which stopped rams doing their work.i always look for well tailed ewes when buying

whelan1

how long are the rams in with the ewes for? what age are the rams?

Username John

Hello Doc,

I feel for you...
I had the same issue last year, we would always have had a few empty, but last year - it was ~14% - see thread here
This was followed by a not very enjoyable lambing. We had a few sheep aborted, few more prolapsed for no apparent reason... Something wasn't right... I will vaccinate for enzo + toxo this year. (Actually, re-reading the post from Razor, he was spot on)

But... I don't think this applies to you. For me - it was sudden change. You seem to suggest that its happening / increasing with a while...

When I was looking around last year, I found some reports that fluke can affect fertility - so that's something to check. It maybe that the fluke dose you're using is not effective...

Is it possible your sheep are in too good condition? I have a bit of a tendency for over-feeding - 'killing em with kindness' as a friend of mine's father says
Is there someone, a knowledgeable neighbour maybe, who you can ask to call and have a look at them (both ewes and rams)

I am actually giving my rams a bit of ration these days, they will go with the ewes around the start of next month... But refer to my previous comment re overfeeding...

I think previous posters have asked all the other relevant questions...
Do you raddle your rams? How do you manage them normally? What size field are they in with the ewes? How long are they with them?

I defo wouldn't feed them daily when the rams are with them. Try to stay away as much as possible...

tabby aspreme

Do you scan the ewes, is it the younger ewes/ replacments that are not in lamb

eorna

3 rams wouldn't miss 35 ewes out of 100, unless they are sick..so i think you could have had an abortion outbreak of some sort...make sure you raddle the rams and watch if ewes repeat too much..that will give you a good indication to start with..

docmartin

Folks, many thanks for all the replies. the things i'm going to look at this year are,

1. peace; when i let the rams out, i will leave them alone to do their job, minimal feeding and stress for them, let the concentrate on the ewes.

2. Tails; having a look at those nielsen sheep shears on donedeal, they don't look like they are up to much and they seem to rev awful high, but they should last long enough to trim 100 odd tails.

3. Paddock size; still not happy with my farm layout in this regard, so my plan is to put a cross fence down thru the largest part of the main field to keep all ewes and rams closer together.

Is it really worth splitting the ewes as a poster suggested into 3 groups of 33? my thought would have been that with all in together(100 ewes and 3 rams) i would have less chance of ewes being missed. So i'd like more information on this if possible.

All ewes on the farm were given a cobalt drench this week, also done with a fluke and worm drench, this will be repeated the day or two before they go to the ram

As always, thanks a million folks

Docmartin

yessam

docmartin wrote: »

Folks, many thanks for all the replies. the things i'm going to look at this year are,

1. peace; when i let the rams out, i will leave them alone to do their job, minimal feeding and stress for them, let the concentrate on the ewes.

2. Tails; having a look at those nielsen sheep shears on donedeal, they don't look like they are up to much and they seem to rev awful high, but they should last long enough to trim 100 odd tails.

3. Paddock size; still not happy with my farm layout in this regard, so my plan is to put a cross fence down thru the largest part of the main field to keep all ewes and rams closer together.

Is it really worth splitting the ewes as a poster suggested into 3 groups of 33? my thought would have been that with all in together(100 ewes and 3 rams) i would have less chance of ewes being missed. So i'd like more information on this if possible.

All ewes on the farm were given a cobalt drench this week, also done with a fluke and worm drench, this will be repeated the day or two before they go to the ram

As always, thanks a million folks

Docmartin

Just one point on the three rams together. It is possible that the rams are stopping each other from doing there business. Something I seen before.

docmartin

yessam wrote: »

Just one point on the three rams together. It is possible that the rams are stopping each other from doing there business. Something I seen before.

Thanks yessam, not something i thought would be possible, my view would have been that the competition between them would drive them on.
But that's why i'm here taking on suggestions, because my way hasn't been showing rewards, so thanks again

snowman707

I haven't read all the posts in the thread,

one comment

over fed rams have a higher infertility rate

ideally l rams should be fit not fat (shouldn't we all :rolleyes:) and it does them no harm whatsoever (fertility wise) to lose body condition during the mating season.

docmartin

snowman707 wrote: »

I haven't read all the posts in the thread,

one comment

over fed rams have a higher infertility rate

ideally l rams should be fit not fat (shouldn't we all :rolleyes:) and it does them no harm whatsoever (fertility wise) to lose body condition during the mating season.

Thanks snowman. i'd scale one of my horned rams and my bought texel as being in perfect condition, on horned ram and my cheviot could be possibly a small bit thin, but these will be dosed this weekend

tabby aspreme

Cheviot and horned rams are usually not shy of work, are you getting lambs after each breed on the ground.
Do you keep your own ewe lambs or buy in replacments, if buying in at what age are they

docmartin

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Cheviot and horned rams are usually not shy of work, are you getting lambs after each breed on the ground.
Do you keep your own ewe lambs or buy in replacments, if buying in at what age are they

this year i have 40 homebred hoggets, so thats why i bought in the texel ram. other than that it's mostly 3 and 4 year old ewes on the farm.

are you getting lambs after each breed on the ground? i dont understand this part of the post

tabby aspreme

What I meant by lambs on the ground is, are the ewes giving birth to both cheviot cross and horned lambs.
My advice for what its worth is to scan the ewes as that will let you know if the lambs are being lost in late pregnancy or not

docmartin

tabby aspreme wrote: »

What I meant by lambs on the ground is, are the ewes giving birth to both cheviot cross and horned lambs.
My advice for what its worth is to scan the ewes as that will let you know if the lambs are being lost in late pregnancy or not

Yes tabby, getting both breeds at lambing, but just have a shocking ratio of lambs:ewes, I'll be taking your advice on board too about the scanning. this year is the first year i've had a proper way of doing things around the farm.

this weekend i dosed all the ewes with cobalt and fasinex, i'll do them too with trodax in about 3 weeks time, i really am desperate to get my number of lambs increased, i cant be having 30% missed, it's breaking my back on the farm