[Jacob-list] breeding lambs

[Heather Hettick]

I like to breed my ewe lambs the first year for two reasons.  First, I only
have one pasture and prefer not to feed hay until I absolutely have to.
Second, I like to see how they do as mothers.  I'd rather sell a proven
yearling than an ewe lamb as it gives me more complete information to make a
sell or keep decision.  I do carefully watch the first time moms and have
had some trouble occasionally.  This year, I had a girl who had a difficult
birth  with her lamb and I think the lamb had some brain damage and we ended
up putting him down.  The year before I had a petite ewe give birth to tiny
twins and handle them wonderfully, but I was a basket case until I saw them
nurse and they were coordinated enough to keep up with her.  I carefully
watch my younger ewes and usually like to pen most first-time moms a short
while for my own peace of mind, but they usually do pretty well on their
own.  I do keep my rams separate during lambing season because they are
often disruptive and overly curious if not a bit aggressive - 1 ram in
particular.  Our llama was been good around newborn lambs so I plan on
letting him stay with the ewes again this year but I keep an eye on him too.

The ewe lambs tend to conceive at least a couple weeks later than the mature
ewes as well.  I have had a couple not conceive because it seemed the ram
gave up chasing them around as they were extra playful and energetic or
maybe just not ready or immature, but both those two were good mothers their
second try.  Actually, a third reason I like to breed the first year is that
the open ewes tend to get hugely fat on my pasture over the summer.  One of
the non lambing yearlings looked so huge last fall that I was afraid she
would fail to conceive again because she was so round or would have a really
huge lamb or get ketosis.  She's a big girl and my ram was actually somewhat
shorter in stature than she was, but she ended up producing a nice healthy
average sized daughter and is carrying a more normal weight this year.  I
also leave my lambs with their mothers as long as possible to keep the
mothers getting too fat.  I don't feed grain except sparingly towards the
end of pregnancy and my grass hay is on the old side, so I may supplement
the winter diet with a little with alfalfa this year too.
Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Jacob Sheep
Creston, OH
hettick.1 at osu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com]On Behalf Of Robin Lynde
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 12:28 PM
To: Jacob-List at Jacobsheep.Com
Subject: [Jacob-list] breeding lambs


  I'm just curious. How many of you breed your ewe lambs the first year?
What criteria do you use to decide?
  Robin Lynde
  Meridian Road Studio & Jacob Sheep
  Vacaville, CA
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