Building up my flock

arctictree

For various reasons I have had to cull most of my ewes this year. So I just bought 50 nice ewe lambs and put the Ram in. Am I mad in lambing mostly ewe lambs? I couldn't afford 50 Hoggets the way prices are.

wrangler

arctictree wrote: »

For various reasons I have had to cull most of my ewes this year. So I just bought 50 nice ewe lambs and put the Ram in. Am I mad in lambing mostly ewe lambs? I couldn't afford 50 Hoggets the way prices are.

They're a bit more work and don't have as many lambs, otherwise they're fine, it's important to scan them and feed accordingly, you don't want overfed ewes having big singles and it's important that ewes carrying multiples are well fed.

I found lambs better mothers than hoggets. But you will have to give them extra care so they grow ok themselves along with the demand of a lamb on them.

OneMan37

I done the same, I'm feeding meal now until I introduce the ram, as it's advisable to keep lambs on a level plan of nutrition after servicing. Hoggs were to expensive this year alright.

wrangler

Deleted User wrote: »

I found lambs better mothers than hoggets. But you will have to give them extra care so they grow ok themselves along with the demand of a lamb on them.

I compare hoggets to men marrying late in life, they're set in their ways and don't want change, ewelambs are usually a lot more maternal first time,
You'd be amazed the way, after you'd sorted a difficult lambing, the ewe lamb mostly gets up and immediately turns around to look for her lamb whereas the hogget would usually have a different carry on

arctictree

And never leave a twin on a ewe lamb - right?

orm0nd

arctictree wrote: »

And never leave a twin on a ewe lamb - right?

we always leave them

feed the mothers until the lambs are eating creep,

wean early

give the ewes a good long dry period

some claim that you won't have a good lamb crop on the next year but we find with problem management we have found this isnt the case

any extra costs are more than covered by the sale of the second lamb

wrangler

orm0nd wrote: »

we always leave them

feed the mothers until the lambs are eating creep,

wean early

give the ewes a good long dry period

some claim that you won't have a good lamb crop on the next year but we find with problem management we have found this isnt the case

any extra costs are more than covered by the sale of the second lamb

We'd be the same when we were proper farrming when we'd have 40+ doubles and could leave them in a bunch on their own and feed really well.,
But now when we've only 4 or 5 doubles we take the second lamb off and rear them ourselves.
A neighbour takes the front off the creep feeder and lets the doubles, both ewes and lambs, into it,
He has huge hoggets after that

Green farmer

Ewe lambs would be fine if their of a maternal breed. Biggest thing to me would be what type of ram you put to them. ? Had good success with putting lleyns and easycares rams to ewe lambs before. They fire out the lambs and their up quick.

razor8

orm0nd wrote: »

we always leave them

feed the mothers until the lambs are eating creep,

wean early

give the ewes a good long dry period

some claim that you won't have a good lamb crop on the next year but we find with problem management we have found this isnt the case

any extra costs are more than covered by the sale of the second lamb

Doing the same for years. They definitely require special management and separated from rest of flock. If your not prepared to do that then you need to take a lamb off. Any with singles run with the rest of flock here and some lambs would be away in first draft for factory

I run a charlaois on them. Good breeding is essential. Need a ewe lamb with a wide pelvis. Get feeding wrong at lambing then expect disasters

Dickie10

breeding replacement ewe lambs the last 7 years, breed LLynns to a hampshire down ram, bought the hampshire for ewe lambs speciffically i now run just these and a texel. Llynn on hampshire is a perfect combo for ewe lambs the ewes spit them out and lambs are up and sucking within a minute or two, rarely i touch a ewe lamb to help her. ewe lambs 50kg at breeding though