A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE OLD RAM

The Old Ram-Australia

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Hi Bruce,There are a group of fires north of Sydney totaling about 1,000,000 acs currently and they expect this weeks weather to be quite confronting.Our local fire to the East is still about 10 kms away and we are hopeful they can hold it at about 5 kms away,but its a wait and see situation at the minute.

Bay, in response to your question.We allow "natural weaning " wherever possible,the ewes just seem to naturally "dry off".We joined to lamb when they are almost 2 years old in the old flock ,but the new breeds are a different thing altogether and we will learn as we go along i guess,but in the long term i think we could be joining at 12/14 months of age when we access who will go forward into the breeding program.For the next couple of years we will be concentrating on the new ewe flock and all males will be "marked" and new sires purchased as required...T.O.R.
 

Baymule

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I breed my Katahdin hair sheep ewes at 10 months old. Some people breed earlier than that.
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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Hi Bay, that's interesting ,do you encounter any first timers problems? How quick do they recycle and go into lamb again?.......The way i look at it ,these days girls reach puberty at 12 years of age ,does that mean they should get pregnant? I apply the same rationale to the sheep.....T.O.R.
 

Baymule

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No first timer problems. They know what to do. I can’t leave the ram with them after lambing, the ewes will breed back 6 weeks after lambing. I have had a couple of “oops” lambs because I didn’t take him out soon enough. I suppose the ewe lambs would breed at a very young age, so I keep them separate until 10 months.
 

Beekissed

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We breed at 7 months at a minimum as long as they are at least 90 pounds when we let them in with the ram. and most are at 100 lbs plus.

That's here too....if they are 2/3 or greater of their adult wt./size they are bred at 7 mo. Anything without that level of growth and potential growth would be a cull anyway, so it all works out.
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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G'day folks and thank for your reply's.

Here is a fire update,the fire to the west is now in a control phase.....The fire to the east has in the main moved north away from presenting immediate danger to us.It is a fact that these two fire s will burn for "months" until we get a decent fall of rain,which they are predicting will not happen until maybe the end of February...We will have to start carting water for the sheep after xmas and buying household water in January...The cost for house water is Au $400 .00 for 2,000 gals...We are allowed to collect 1000 lts per day for stock water (at the minute,stage 3 water restrictions apply to our area at the minute).

We can only "hope and pray" for some rain in the meantime....T.O.R.
 

Baymule

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There is no ground water where you are, is there. So no drilling a well. Do you have a cistern for collecting rain water? I pray that you get rain soon. What is your annual rainfall?
 

Ridgetop

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Exciting purchase especially since you have a new Wether market readymade! Heavy milking ewes mean you can market a good percentage of lambs straight from their moms without having to wean and feed out. Can’t wait to hear how this goes. What were his Wether specs? Weight, age?
 

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