Starting out.

[Nekatlla]

hello all, been working on a herd for two years now with a buddy. My question is why do we seem to breed only males, and why did the first year we get twins and now out of 9 ewes we only bred two sets of twins? Is this just luck / chance or is there something we can do to improve our odds of twins and females?
Thanks for the help.

 

[mysunwolf]

Welcome to BYH!!

Sex is determined by your ram, so you might want to consider switching rams for better odds! Then again, if you only have 9 ewes, you may just have had a run of bad luck and will achieve females in later years.

As for multiple births, ewes can be flushed starting 2-4 weeks before breeding to increase your chances of more lambs. Basically, this means that they are low to average body condition a few months before breeding, and then you begin to increase their body condition with high quality forages, putting them on an upward plane of nutrition. This will cause them to release more eggs when you introduce the ram.

Hope this helps!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings and welcome to BYH. Sounds like you've just been on the wrong side of the equation... Hopefully things will even out over time. I'm not a Sheeple, but we have quite a few really great ones here If you browse around the sheep threads, you'll get to "meet" many of them. Please make yourself at home! One other thing I heard and don't know if it's breed specific (what breed do you have by the way?), but ewes from single born dams tend to produce singles themselves. So twins is a hereditary trait... So maybe only keep and breed ewes who produce twins.

Please consider putting at least a generic location of where you are in your profile. When you ask for or need help, many responses are determined by where you're physically located. What works here in TX might not work where you are.

 

[Nekatlla]

Welcome to BYH!!

Sex is determined by your ram, so you might want to consider switching rams for better odds! Then again, if you only have 9 ewes, you may just have had a run of bad luck and will achieve females in later years.

As for multiple births, ewes can be flushed starting 2-4 weeks before breeding to increase your chances of more lambs. Basically, this means that they are low to average body condition a few months before breeding, and then you begin to increase their body condition with high quality forages, putting them on an upward plane of nutrition. This will cause them to release more eggs when you introduce the ram.

Hope this helps!

Thanks
For flushing is this the same as graining upto four weeks before breeding? This was suggested to us this spring and we are going to try just letting them grass feed for the summer then grain feed with hay and pasture for the last 4 weeks prior to breeding. Does this sound like what you are describing?

 

[Nekatlla]

Greetings and welcome to BYH. Sounds like you've just been on the wrong side of the equation... Hopefully things will even out over time. I'm not a Sheeple, but we have quite a few really great ones here If you browse around the sheep threads, you'll get to "meet" many of them. Please make yourself at home! One other thing I heard and don't know if it's breed specific (what breed do you have by the way?), but ewes from single born dams tend to produce singles themselves. So twins is a hereditary trait... So maybe only keep and breed ewes who produce twins.

Please consider putting at least a generic location of where you are in your profile. When you ask for or need help, many responses are determined by where you're physically located. What works here in TX might not work where you are.

We bred twins on all the ewes a few years ago so hopefully we will be good to go. Also thanks for the hint on location.

 

[norseofcourse]

Welcome from Ohio! What kind of sheep do you have?

Some of it is luck/chance, and some of it you can influence the odds. How old are your ewes, and how many of them were twins and triplets themselves? Is/was your ram a twin or triplet?

Is the ram with the ewes year round? Are they seasonal breeders or not?

What @mysunwolf said about flushing. Although, check your ewes body condition before you do it, I don't flush my ewes because they are already at good weights. Also make sure they don't have a high parasite load.

Another thing that may help is keeping the ram away from the ewes for a few months, and then moving him adjacent to their pasture for 2 or 3 weeks before putting him in with them.

As far as boy/girl ratio, it's correct that the ram decides the gender of the lambs. So it may be your ram or just luck. I would prefer boys, but I've gotten more girls the last two years.

Got any pictures?

 

[purplequeenvt]

My guess is you have a nutrition issue. Not that your sheep are unhealthy, just that they are deficient in some key nutrients.

I'm not sure why people are always saying that the ram has any say in how many lambs are produced (he might *possibly* influence his daughters in that regard, but even that is questionable to me), because it is the ewe that releases eggs. Unless your ram has really crappy semen that only manages to fertilize 1 egg, he's not going to determine single, twin, triplet, etc.

Most of your basic reproductive issues like single births instead of twins, trouble getting ewes to settle, and even birthing problems boils down to nutrition.

I'm in the Champlain Valley of VT and our area is very deficient in selenium which is vital for proper reproduction. We help the situation by giving our ewes BoSe or MuSe (an injectable selenium/vitamin E supplement, can only get through a vet) a couple weeks prior to breeding. All the lambs get a dose at birth as well. We also feed a loose mineral mix from Pipestone that has selenium, vitamin E, and iodine - http://www.pipevet.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=03D25A35DF4341329A0AA233D75EAFF6.

As for management, keep rams away from ewes until you are ready to breed. In the month leading up to breeding, start upping your ewes plane of nutrition. This could be with grain or moving them unto the best lush grass or a combination of both.

 

[Nekatlla]

My guess is you have a nutrition issue. Not that your sheep are unhealthy, just that they are deficient in some key nutrients.

I'm not sure why people are always saying that the ram has any say in how many lambs are produced (he might *possibly* influence his daughters in that regard, but even that is questionable to me), because it is the ewe that releases eggs. Unless your ram has really crappy semen that only manages to fertilize 1 egg, he's not going to determine single, twin, triplet, etc.

Most of your basic reproductive issues like single births instead of twins, trouble getting ewes to settle, and even birthing problems boils down to nutrition.

I'm in the Champlain Valley of VT and our area is very deficient in selenium which is vital for proper reproduction. We help the situation by giving our ewes BoSe or MuSe (an injectable selenium/vitamin E supplement, can only get through a vet) a couple weeks prior to breeding. All the lambs get a dose at birth as well. We also feed a loose mineral mix from Pipestone that has selenium, vitamin E, and iodine - http://www.pipevet.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=03D25A35DF4341329A0AA233D75EAFF6.

As for management, keep rams away from ewes until you are ready to breed. In the month leading up to breeding, start upping your ewes plane of nutrition. This could be with grain or moving them unto the best lush grass or a combination of both.

Thanks for the info, we have run into the selenium issue already and supplement it but will talk with vet on the injectable and trying it before breeding. We'll be trying the flushing also, we do notice and have been told by others are sheep are "well fed" so the flushing should not be a problem.

 

[Nekatlla]

I have a couple restaurant owners asking to buy our ram lamb, anyone know where to start with this to be on the right side of the laws?

 

[Latestarter]

There should be no issue with you selling them the lamb, alive. It only becomes an issue if you sell processed meat from the lamb. Once they have the lamb, they can do with it as they please. If they butcher it and sell it as consumable in their place of business, it's their obligation to obey laws pertaining to that. Many here sell their lambs and goat kids to people who are planning to eat them (private consumption, not sales).