[Jacob-list] Breeding Ewe Lambs

[Leigh Nelson]

This posting subject has been very interesting to hear everyones'
different perspectives, especially the observations made on twins where
only one is bred in the first year. For what it's worth here is my
experience!  I got my first ten Jacobs in October 06, prior to that I had
never had any livestock.  Since I was new to everything I decided to only
breed the old experienced girls to my one ram, the remaining four ewe
lambs were put in a second adjacent pen.  Breeding began in November (we
live in a cold climate and frequently still have snow until the end of
April).  Once the ram had "taken care" of the experienced girls he then
began trying to get at the un-bred yearlings.   As mentioned before, this
was our first year breeding and we didn't quite know what to expect.  Our
first mistake was to only have a single piece of page wire fencing to
separate the two pens.  The ram spent the best part of the winter ruining
our fence.  We didn't have any other pens to house the ram, nor could we
build any new pens at -40.  So we tried putting blankets on the fence to
obstruct his view.  By Jan/Feb the ram wasn't as focused on the yearlings
and we figured breeding season was complete.   In March we removed the
ram from the bred female pen because we were concerned about him hurting
the mothers/lambs.  Having no other pen we put him in with those four
yearlings, figuring breeding season was way over....our second mistake. 
In August, three of the four yearlings each had a lamb unassisted.  The
first of those ones born was found in the barn in the morning, all
cleaned off, first meal complete, and taking a nap.  The rest proceeded
in the same way.  Since it was August we didn't have to worry as much
about hypothermia, the lambs never got a big as those born in April but
did start eating from the pasture much quicker. In our second year we
decided to make our lives easier and breed the yearlings but wait an
additional three weeks from the main group.  This would give the
yearlings more time to grow and ensure warmer weather when they lambed. 
We had four yearlings lamb that year, no problems with any of them during
labour.  Some of the yearlings sometimes forgot about their lambs when
going out to the pasture or when grain was being dolled out but other
than that it was fine.  Last year we did the same thing, and had two
yearlings that did not want to let their lambs nurse...after a bit of
human intervention everything was fine.  This year I also plan on
breeding my yearlings with the same schedule.  In the future when I have
reached my ideal flock size I might not breed yearlings but so far it has
worked out for us. Hope that helps with your decision,Leigh NelsonBent
Willow Farmwww.bentwillowfarm.ca 

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