[Jacob-list] vets

[sbennett]

I heard somewhere that in a lean pasture year, sheep produce more rams 
(that way, if they don't all survive, it doesn't effect the population as 
a whole, since not as many rams are needed as ewes to continue the herd). 
And wasn't there drought and poorer grass/hay last year for most of us?

I feed and pasture my animals the same. I used an older ram over 6 ewes 
and a ram lamb over 7 ewes. the older ram gave me 4 ram lambs, 2 ewe 
lambs, one ewe miscarried and one didn't get pregnant, two sets of 
boy/girl twins. The ram lamb produced 7 ram lambs and 3 ewe lambs, one 
set of ram triplets and one set of boy/girl twins.

Six of the ewes I bred last year were first time mothers and 5 had a 
single ram lamb, the other had a single ewe lamb. In prior years, as 
well, I've noticed that first time mothers more often have a single ram 
lamb.

I would say, for an experiment like this to be valid, you would have to 
factor in the age and productivity of the ewes and divide them evenly 
between the two rams.

Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre

>Something else that caught my eye, considering that some people on the list 
>were calling last year the "year of the ram" is a study they did to test the 
>question of breeding for sex.  One flock of ewes was placed in good pasture 
>with young rams (15-18 months old), and another was put in poor pasture with 
>rams over 4 years old.  The flock served by the young rams had 35 ram lambs 
>and 76 ewe lambs.  The flock served by the older rams had 55 ram lambs and 
>31 
>ewe lambs, and not one twin birth.   They don't claim that this is 
>conclusive 
>about anything, but interesting and maybe worthy of further study.  I was 
>wondering if anyone on the list has noticed if the age of the ram had an 
>effect on gender.  I wonder why they didn't put both flocks on the same 
>quality of pasture.
>
>Got to go.  Melanie, I hope your ewe pulls through.
>
>Sharon
>