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Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

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DMIOM:
OT:  Andrew will have a pretty good idea of when his flock will start lambing - you just add 145 days to the date of conception. You can't assume that the tup(s) will 'do the business' on the day when they're first let into the ewes' field, so the tups are fitted with raddle markers (a block of greasy paint on a body harness, so that the paint marker is under their abdomen) so that when a ewe is served a coloured mark is left on her rump. These are changed periodically, so you can tell, within a week or so, when a ewe ought to be lambing; and in a big flock you may stage them in groups of a hundred or two at a time, from out-fields to near-fields to lambing pens on the yard. Raddle marks are also useful as you can see which ewes aren't likely to be in lamb and can move them to leaner keep and keep all the good keep for those lambing productively. (Its a lot easier to use, and particularly change, the raddle nowadays - it used to be just a mixture of tractor grease and powder paint).

There is though Jeff, what I suspect you're seeing, variation by flocks as a result of climate or a particular farmer's practice or risk profile - early lambing can be more vulnerable to bad weather, and due to colder weather there's less good grass on the fields so more hay & other fodder required, so costs higher & returns possibly lower for early lambs - these are all weighed up when deciding when the tups will be put in with the ewes.

Dave

vtsteam:
You learn something new every day here!  :lol:  :beer:

awemawson:
The move now among some sheep farmers is to put the Ram in later, and have late lambs, the argument being that 5 th November tupping, which is traditional, brings forth lambs very end of March / early April. But generally the grass has barely started growing by then (*) so there are feeding issues. Down side is that the early lambs command a better price at market. There are those that over winter their flock indoors, tup very early and have lambs ready for Christmas to get very high prices. That's silly in my book - expensive production and rather insipid meat, all you taste is the mint sauce :)

We had our Ewes scanned this year for the first time, so we known which have singles, which twins, and which are empty.

(* grass needs 8 deg C to grow)

NormanV:
 Most sheep farmers in the Falkland Islands leave the rams with the ewes and get early lambs and shear later in the year. A friend of mine kept the rams away and sheared early. He had to be careful where he put the sheep after shearing to protect them from the weather. His later lambs got better grass and weather therefore fewer losses. 

Pete W.:
Andrew,

Please forgive me for an   :offtopic:  question:

Nick, is all the mutton/lamb produced in the Falkland Islands consumed locally or is some of it exported? 

And the same question for the wool? 

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