So we have caught the lucky lad and brought him down from the field. he didn't co-operate - he clearly didn't know what was expected of him, from the move . And liberally applied raddle to his front.
And we have also separated out the ewes and moved them to a convenient field. They were given some additional minerals ( a drench, as Orkney soil is low in Cobalt and Selenium). A FEC( faecal egg count) showed they didnt need worming.
And the next step is to put the ram in with the ewes. Ewes come to season about every 13-19 days with an average of 17. So the ram will go round sniffing the ewes to recognise when they are fertile
If the ewe isn't fertile, and therefore not interested she will walk (run) away , so there is a bit of chasing going on initially and the ram tries his luck
And if the ewe is in season, or she isn't quick enough, the signs are there for all to see.
Once the ewe is pregnant , she will ignore the 'approaches' of the ram. We change the colour of the raddle in a couple of weeks . If one of them wasn't successfully impregnated first time round and the ram had to try again , we can spot it.
And if the ram does the business first time round and with a 147 day gestation the calculators mean we are lambing on 8th May 2016 ( with a range from 29th April to 20th May)
No comments:
Post a Comment