[Jon Feather]

We havent got a tup yet but got our eye on one.

We now have 2 pedigree shetland ewes and their 4 ewe lambs from this year (plus 2 wether lambs).

We plan to split the field to keep the tup from the ewe lambs.

But when do we put a tup with the older ewes???  We don't want to miss the boat. so to speak.

[Foobar]

147 days before you want them to lamb .  Or rather 147 + up to 17 days (or more), depending on when they are in their cycle.


Look at a gestation calendar to help you work out dates: http://www.raisingsheep.net/sheep-gestation-calculator-and-table.html


If they are shetland then I would guess that they won't start cycling until October?  Other folks here will know more on that.

[Me]

142-152 IME 145 twins 147 single mean average

[Anke]

Depending where you are in the country (North or South) and how you are going to lamb (outside vs indoors)....

Since lambing my Shetlands outdoors again (Scottish Borders about 120m above sea level), I have aimed for mid-April onwards, so tup goes in 3rd week in November. I have also in the last two years sponged my ewes, but this may require a three field set-up for you (lambs in one, tup in one and ewes in a third field next to tup while sponges in, the ewes together with tup 2 days after sponges come out). Sponges just make life a lot easier for the small flock shepherd... you know when they are about to lamb and won't have three weeks or more of really early starts...

[bloomer]

We put rocky in with the ladies late last year nearly end of November as we needed to avoid April lambing due to family issues, we then just let nature do its thing and got lambs born 3 may, 6 may x2, 9th may and 20th may...

This year we are putting 10 to the tup and aiming for earlier lambs so rocky goes in Nov 5th for 1st April lambing, we'll still trust nature for the rest and leave rocky in for 6 weeks...

[Bionic]

It does help to know the dates if you put a raddle on the tup. Its not fool proof but it worked fairly well for us

[Fleecewife]

The 'natural' time for the Shetland tup to go in is Nov 5th, start lambing April fools day-ish.  Being mature ewes I can't see you having a problem with conception, and to me, unless you are working away or have some other problem, sponging a primitive sheep is unnecessary. It just complicates matters, when the sheep are perfectly able to get on with reproduction without our interference.   
Ours usually lamb within about 2 weeks of each other, in mid April - just in time for the new grass to make them good and milky.  We leave our tups in for 4 weeks, and we set aside 4 weeks in April for lambing.  We used to leave them in for 6 weeks but occasionally there was one very late lamb, into May.  I would rather not have that, and prefer to have that ewe without a lamb.

[Coximus]

I leave my tups in with the ladies until the lambs arrive and sometimes later - I've found with the hebs at least that it causes them to flock in the winter around the ram, and as my rams are gluttonous well fed things they will lead the lot into a pen or another field as needed.

You will always get the odd late one this way, especially if your tupping ewe lambs - as some decide to cycle in January and you get a june lamb, but that doesnt bother me too much as Hebrideans idea of lambing difficulty is escaping the night before so they lamb on the road verge.

[mowhaugh]

We also do Bonfire Night for April Fools' Day.  But depending on your breed (our Cheviots will tup earlier than that, but our Kerrys won't!) and when you want to lamb, any time between now and january should do the trick!

[Rosemary]

We also do Bonfire Night for April Fools' Day. 

Who says sheep don't have a sense of humour 

[Marches Farmer]

We run the tup in the field next to the ewes for a few days before he goes in (Southdowns can't jump fences, although last year one of the Badger Face ewes did and we had a surprise lamb two weeks early as she'd jumped back into her own field afterwards).  The tup is left in for 19 days - rarely had a barrener.

[Jon Feather]

Cheers everyone.  I thought I was about to miss the boat.

On a related topic; am I right in thinking that it's best not to tup the ewe lambs?

I was told that they will be too young.  Also that if left for another 12 months they will probably have a single followed by twins most other years, were as, if they are tupped in their first year they are likely to have a single followed by other singles every year.??

[Anke]

If these are Shetlands I would not breed from them as lambs  they are quite slow-growing and will put a lot of size on next spring, which would also coincide with lambing.

As to having twins vs singles - that's why commercial farmers "flush" their ewes just before tupping - a ewe in good condition is more likely to have twins. But I have found for Shetlands it was not necessary, as long as they had good grass at the end of summer (I also do not take the lambs off, except for entire boy lambs) they would normally have twins. It's triplets that are the real nuisance.... so you don't want them in too good a condition either...

[jward]

I bought Shetland ewes in November last year who'd been tupped as ewe lambs and lambed singles in 2014, all had twins this year for me, and I tupped all the ewe lambs I bought at the same time too and all had lovely singles with only one going an extra week after the others, and I expect them to have twins this year.  Depends on personal prefferance I suppose though.

[SallyintNorth]

One of the biggest problems with tupping ewe lambs is if they have twins.  Hoggs, IMO, should not be asked to rear twins, so then you have a spare lamb.  But the effort of having carried and produced twins wears her out too much and may wreck her for her future career.

This is the exact same reasoning given by some farmers for tupping hoggs.  If you leave her untupped she'll almost certainly have two as a shearling, and as that's her first time, not bond with them both, and/or not have enough milk for them both.  So getting her to lamb as a hogg readies her better for lambing twins as a shearling, is the thinking.