[Jacob-list] Lamb is missing something...

[gordon johnston]

Our intact males tend to grow well, but spend all their time fighting which
can lead to injury, so we only leave a few possibles intact.  By about 8 or
9 months we have a pretty good idea which ones are not going to be good for
breeding, so they go off with the wethers.

I don't like the idea of 'deliberate crypts' (nice expression !) - I have
heard abattoir workers complaining about many pregnant ewe lambs coming
through from certain producers.  This is probably due to 'accidental crypts'
or rigs (where one testicle has been missed by the elastrator and is hiding
in the abdomen), running in with the fattening lambs - they are certainly
not always infertile. Where it is routine to deliberately push the testes up
into the abdomen instead of proper wethering, then there is the chance that
many of these 'neither one nor the others' will be fertile .  No one wants
to send pregnant ewe lambs to slaughter, so it would be necessary to keep
the rigs separate from the ewe lambs, in which case why not just leave them
entire?

Going back to Michelle's question - if your lamb looks like a wether then he
is probably infertile.  How would you wether him at 4 months?  Here a vet
would have to operate, which would be difficult, or at least more expensive,
with the testes in the abdomen. I would play safe and keep him with males
only until he's ready for the pot.
Juliet in Scotland