# Breeding question?



## TheSheepGirl (Sep 6, 2010)

I have some new ewe lambs and was wanting to know about breeding them. They are about seven months old. They are Finn crosses and so I am expecting multiple births. 

I have acces to a very nice Katahdin Ram lamb and also to a shetland cross ram. Both are the same price and both would make a nice cross with my ewes. 

I was wondering if a breeding to a shetland would produce smaller lambs and make lambing easier for them.

Any help or thoughts on the subject?


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2010)

What kind of product lambs do you want?  Will you keep them all or market the whethers?  Do you plan to use the wool for projects?

What kind of ewes did these lambs you got, come out out of?  Were they larger ewes or smaller (100#) or less in size?  

You need to think WHY you are breeding the ewe lambs, what is your goal for the product you mean to raise.  Then you make choices to aim yourself towards that goal.  If you are going for market lambs, you will need some size on them when they finish.  In my area, a market lamb is around 130# for showing.  Can go heavier or lighter just headed to the freezer.  Customer usually wants more meat for the processing prices, which are consistant regardless of size.

Pets or lawnmower sheep, good and wooly for hand spinners, would not matter about size as much.  Just a flat price per head, not weight as a goal.

Sorry, I guess I am more about the finished market lamb as a goal.  We eat a fair amount of lamb, so I want a meatier animal when I purchase one.  Meat has to be on before 11 months old, so they still taste like lamb, not mutton when the adult teeth come on.  I don't even look at little sheep or little breeds that don't even reach 100#.  Not enough meat return on the expenses invested with their small weight.  You end up with MUCH higher price per pound!!

So maybe you could give us more information about your final goals with sheep, before we could share the right ideas and information.


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## TheSheepGirl (Sep 6, 2010)

Perhaps you misunderstood the main point of my post. I was not so much asking about the outcome of breeding the ewes to a hair sheep versus a smaller breed. I was mainly asking if was safe to breed my ewes this year at their age. 

I actually am a full blown wool raiser. I am more in favor of the smaller breeds, because they produce the more prized and finer fleeces. 

I would only be breeding to a katahdin in order to cater to the meat favoring market in my area and to produce a more dual purpose sheep. Since the hair sheep are known for their meat qualities. 

If you need to know one lamb is from a polypay I'm pretty sure. The other I have no clue. The breeder told me they were lincolns and wenslydales. They have short wool and open faces, so that's false. I'm just going by the other breeds the breeder raises. 

In my area none of the kids know a thing about breeding sheep, all they know is how to raise a market lamb. There is not a single breeding sheep at my fair, nor is their a wool sheep. They are all Suffolk wethers and it's the same at the state fair. I am trying to increase the recognition of the wool breeds in my county and state. One of the 4-H'ers can't even tell the gender of her sheep and that is just sad. 

Plus I hate the taste of lamb.


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## aggieterpkatie (Sep 7, 2010)

How big (as in weight) are your lambs?  From the pictures you posted earlier, they looked fairly small, though it's really hard to tell from the picture.  

I know lots of people breed lambs, but I personally like to wait until they're yearlings to breed them because it's a stresser on their bodies.  I like to make sure they reach their full growth potential.

Did you get any information from their breeders? Do they breed their ewe lambs?  If so, what rams are they using?  The breeder is generally the best person to go to for information, since they know those particular sheep.


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## TheSheepGirl (Sep 7, 2010)

The breeder said she has bred her ewes as ewe lambs before.  I'm not so sure she would know for these sheep, because she was unsure of the breed. 

They are about the size of a finn, so... 100 pounds? I don't have a scale and I suck at guessing weights. They are about waist hight if that helps. 

I've seen the breeder's sheep and they aren't much bigger than that, not even her rams. 

She raises so many different breeds of sheep and she doesn't like her finns and told me she had gotten out of them and then she remembered that mine might be finns. I know they are not wenslydale/lincolns like she originally said. At first she had named off a list of about five breeds she though might be crossed into them, so I have no clue accept for the Finn.

They might be border leicester crosses, she raises those or Gotlands, she raises those and they are kinda small. When they were in wool you could definitely see the finn in then though.

I just thought I'd ask, that's all.


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## aggieterpkatie (Sep 7, 2010)

If you think they are big enough, they will probably be fine lambing.  Just make sure to feed a balanced sheep ration.  You don't want too much protein because you don't want the fetuses growing too big, but you don't want too little protein because you want the lambs themselves to be able to grow well while pregnant.


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## goodhors (Sep 7, 2010)

TheSheepGirl said:
			
		

> Perhaps you misunderstood the main point of my post. I was not so much asking about the outcome of breeding the ewes to a hair sheep versus a smaller breed. I was mainly asking if was safe to breed my ewes this year at their age.
> 
> I actually am a full blown wool raiser. I am more in favor of the smaller breeds, because they produce the more prized and finer fleeces.


I guess you should flat out ask EXACTLY what you want to know!  You sort of touched on their age, but went on to sound like you already planned to breed regardless, worrying about multiple lambs.  You recognize the lambs as Finn with their wool on, but throw a bunch of other breed possibilities around too.  Breeding small breed ewes to a bigger ram, could cause delivery problems for the ewe.  Just reading it is very confusing.

It also sounds like you will go for the fleece lambs with the Shetland, over meat lambs, because you are a wool raiser.  Doesn't sound like you like meat lamb folks!  

Is either ram of any quality?  Special fleece features or a nice body frame for meat lambs?  I have seen some UGLY wooly lambs from junk rams, with no redeeming features at all except friendly.  Just like the ram.  Too small to eat, badly built with splay legs, bad teeth.  Sure no quality there!  Lots of wool, but not the best texture or lots of crimp, no sheen.  Without a good ram, breeding just to have quantity of sheep is not worth your time and not improving anything.  Kind of like breeding barn cats, luck of the draw when kittens arrive.  You may or may not get any good features.  

You should always try to breed up, even if you don't have access to buy the best now at the beginning.  Perhaps looking a little further away, could locate some excellent rams for a bigger pool to choose among for your specific ewes.  Fix their weak points, have a better lamb to upgrade your flock.  A Craigslist ad for ram service might get some responses, won't cost to ask!

Maybe your question should have been more specific about feeding young ewes to make sure they can support the pregnancy thru lambing.  Then how to prepare for multiple lambs they won't be able to nurse.  Pen needs for these babies.  Types of milk replacer that will keep bottle lambs going, how often to feed lambs, then get them going on solid feed.  Do you have selenium issues in your area?  Vaccinating the ewes before births and lambs after birth, will prevent white muscle disease and deaths from selenium shortages.  Other areas might have region specific problems you need to deal with.

Have your ewes been wormed?  Doing a fecal count could tell if you have a problem to fix before thinking of breeding.  Deworming saves you feed money, nutrition feeds the ewes, not worms to build strong bodies.


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## TheSheepGirl (Sep 7, 2010)

I never once asked what I should breed them to I simply asked if it would be alright to breed them. I don't understand what you thought was confusing, because you didn't actually say, you just rattled off a whole bunch of fairly off topic things all at once. 

At first you asked me if I knew what other breeds Besides Finn were in the lambs and I told you what it might be and that I wasn't sure.

I then proceded to explain to you why I didn't know the other breeds. I have no idea, because the breeder doesn't know.

Next I was asked by someone else how big the sheep were. I explained that I didn't know the weights because I don't have a scale and That they were about waist hight and I thought they were about 100 pounds.

I then explained that the breeders sheep were about that size and small when full grown.

I have tried to provide all of the information that I can based upon what I know.

I am simply asking if it would be safe to breed my sheep this year and have them lamb without any problems in the spring. 

I have nothing against anyone who raises meat sheep. I just thought I'd clear that up before anyone got the wrong idea.

 Thanks to everyone for your help.


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