[SallyintNorth]

As to having twins vs singles - that's why commercial farmers "flush" their ewes just before tupping

We are commercial farmers and we do not flush, we actively avoid flushing.  We prefer good strong singles that require no intervention and are away early when prices are high, leaving mum plenty of time to recover for next year.

My observation is a lot of smallholders flushing away like billy-o, while we, with a commercial flock, actively avoid it!   

[Porterlauren]

Here we lightly flush the flock age ewes, and hope for the vast majority to produce twins. Obviously we also get some singles and some triplets. Ewes are left to rear whatever they produce, with lambs lifted off triplets if they appear to be actively struggling. The only change to this is if I happen to be lucky enough to pass a set of triplets being born near a single, and i'll try to graft one on the single bearing ewe. Same if one losses her single, I try to find something to graft on to her. Hate having ewe doing nothing in spring.

We do not flush ewe lambs at all, as this gives a better chance of getting singles, this year every hogg dropped a nice single, which was ideal. As said, twins can be a pain for a ewe lamb.

I personally think they make a better ewe for lambing as a lamb, and are easier to deal with as hoggs, than maiden shearlings.

If every ewe here could have a single first time and twins every year after until se was about 8. . . . . i'd be a happy farmer!

[Fleecewife]

As to having twins vs singles - that's why commercial farmers "flush" their ewes just before tupping

We are commercial farmers and we do not flush, we actively avoid flushing.  We prefer good strong singles that require no intervention and are away early when prices are high, leaving mum plenty of time to recover for next year.

My observation is a lot of smallholders flushing away like billy-o, while we, with a commercial flock, actively avoid it!   

We never flush our ewes Sally, smallholders though we are  .  As in everything, I prefer the animals to exhibit their natural behaviour.  If a ewe is fit to have twins, then she'll have them, but if it's a single that's fine by me.

[Porterlauren]

But surely by flushing you are selecting her grazing and thus influencing what is a natural factor of sheep (and animal) reproduction? That's all I do, make sure the flock aged ewes go onto some good grass before the tup goes in, and during tupping.

Or are people 'flushing' ewes by feeding them concentrates?

[Marches Farmer]

I aim to keep the ewes in good condition all year as I never know what the Winter will bring.  I find variations in grazing quality through the seasons will keep the ewes from getting too fat.  I don't breed from tegs - I've found in the past that they're more likely to need to go in an adopter for a day or two and some don't have as much milk as those tupped in their second year - either you have to bottle feed or risk twins that struggle and possibly cause teat damage because they're hungry.  I think the ewe should do the work and have a long productive life and this has worked for us so far.  Around here they say better a good single than scrappy doubles.

[Jon Feather]

So it sounds like there is no problem putting th etup to the ewe lambs this November.

And, if I have read this right, it wont have any influence on whether a ewe has singles or twins in subsequent years: have I got that right?

[milliebecks]

What about tup lambs?
I've been offered a tup lamb (Shetland) to run with my gimmers (x10 Shetland). I appreciate that his fertility will be unknown, as will my ladies', but are there other issues? Should I run them together for longer, or hedge my bets and run 2 tup lambs?

[SallyintNorth]

If the tup lamb is well grown, at least 6 months old and at least 60% of his final size / weight, in good condition, he should have no trouble at all with 10 ladies.  Althouuughhh... It's generally advised to give a lamb no more than 15 ladies, ideally with most of them being experienced, while he learns his job.  If all his ladies are gimmers, so neither they nor he know what they are doing yet  , it might be wise to allow 2 cycles

Last year, Chad, my Shetland then aged 6 months, tupped my 15 girls (of which 6 were first timers) no problem, even Rosie Mule who dwarfed him (but was very experienced )

And we've used tup lambs on the commercial flock several times, never had a problem. 

[Jon Feather]

Surprised thats its okay to let a tup lamb "on the job" so young.  You learn something new every day.

[bloomer]

My rocky was 6 months old and nailed 5/5 4 experienced ladies first week the gimmer took 2 cycles.

All 5 had twins...

This year he gets 10 then he's being rehomed as I'm keeping all his daughters in the flock.

[Fleecewife]

One way of going about finding a tup, if you don't need a pedigree, is to buy in a lamb at weaning, wait til he's done the biz, then send him off for meat.  That way you don't have to worry about inbreeding, and you won't be spending hundreds on your tup. For a pedigree tup, you can buy a reasonably priced Shetland (in fact they're positively cheap), use him for two years, which will avoid his daughters, then eat him.

 We've never had a problem with the fertility of tup lambs, although as others have said, they can take a while to persuade the ewes to take them seriously    We would leave a tup lamb in for 6 weeks, whereas older tups get 4 weeks.

[mowhaugh]

I wouldn't run 2 tups together, they can spend far too much time scrapping and not enough concentrating on the ladies.  3, yes, then whilst 2 are scrapping, one can nip off and pay attention to the job in hand, but not 2.

[SallyintNorth]

I wouldn't run 2 tups together, they can spend far too much time scrapping and not enough concentrating on the ladies.  3, yes, then whilst 2 are scrapping, one can nip off and pay attention to the job in hand, but not 2.

Yes, one tup for first cycle is best.  You can combine groups after that if you want.

Last year we had two tups in together.  One got lame in a hind leg, couldn't mount.  But could still fight and wouldn't let the other near any of the ladies.    

[Porterlauren]

1 tup first cycle would slow lambing down a lot in big flocks. I put a team of rams in at once and hope for everything lambing in 3weeks, most are done in 2.

[SallyintNorth]

I guess it depends on flock / group size and area.  Yes I'd use multiple tups first cycle if I'd got hundreds of ewes across hundreds of acres, but for a more usual batching of 50 ewes, one tup should have no trouble getting them all first time, two would be counter-productive.

The OP has 10 gimmers...