It's joining time!!

Well Osiris and Hermes are doing their 'stuff' and each has 75 stud ewes to mate with. So far about half the ewes have coloured marks on their backs from the ram harnesses. That's pretty good going and hopefully they will complete the task by Easter. Obviously the reproductive rate (number of lambs marked per breeding ewe) is the most critical factor for Daramalan's profitability. In some operations ewes are not joined until two years old but we join our one year olds too. Research has shown that breeding ewe lambs will increase lifetime productivity of ewes, but it requires a higher level of management and feeding than if ewes are handled more traditionally. Breeding a ewe as a lamb can often increase her lifetime lamb production by as much as 15 to 20 percent.

Ewe lambs can be mated successfully providing they achieve a threshold body weight within the breeding season. It is possible  to get as high as 95 to 100 percent of the ewe lambs bred but in some years we may only get 10 to 40 percent bred. In general, ewe lambs must weigh approximately 65 percent of their mature body weight at the start of the breeding season in order to insure a high percentage of them breeding. Because we have had such good feed this season we will be okay.

In sheep the oestrus cycle is about 17 days and 'standing heat' lasts about 30 to 40 hours with ovulation occurring during the last half of heat. During a 35 day breeding period a ewe should have had the opportunity to cycle and be bred two times. A 60 day breeding period will allow the ewe three opportunities to become pregnant. We have chosen 60 days this year but as Border Leicesters are a British breed the ewes begin to cycle as day length decreases and all we probably achieved was ram teasing and excitement!

Typically multiple lamb bearing ewes will have slightly shorter gestation periods. It is not unusual for individual ewes within breeds to vary in gestation length by 3 to 5 days. We will scan the ewes in July and cull out any dry ewes over two years old. No point giving dry ewes the best pastures.

Gestation is about 150 days so we should commence lambing last week of August and finish mid September.

Last year when the ewes were at Sylvia Vale the lambing 'season' took over a month and we want to have that tightened up. Ewes with multiple lambs will drop a little earlier. With our 'guard' alpacas in paddock we are hoping to get a lambing percentage of 130% or more. That means almost 200 lambs from 152 ewes.

Last year's flock rams are going up for sale on November 5th so we will need to shear them in mid August and we are already looking at a busy time again.

The above photo is of artist Jean-Luc Cornec's 'wire wool' sheep made from old telephones for a show at Frankfurt's Museum of Telecommunications. Neat way of recycling.

Ciao!!