Cheviot superstar in the making?

As part of the plan to keep lambing to a short period having put the tups in on the 31st October with the majority of the action happening on the 1st and 2nd of November, this weekend was the opportunity to take at least some of the tups out.

For the Jacobs our main tup 'Tom' had completed his task with his 7; 1 of the 2 of his offspring, Sarah's favourite had also covered his 4 (our old favourites) leaving only the 4 that had lossed or retained sponges.  each of the other 2 tups then, each had 2 ewes left.  Sunday evening (7/11/10) sees them with only 1 left each.  The white allsorts still have their 2 texels in with them but I am pleased to say that our on loan pedigree cheviot tup who succesfully completed his tasks very early on in the week was brought in to the race and loaded without incident.  I feel priveliged to have been able to use a tup from such a prolific and regarded flock, but with Tina's tups selling for over £1000 a time, it is with some relief that we send him back in one piece.  Hopefully all 6 ewes have taken!!

Red is the colour,

If you sponge your ewes then lambing can condensed into a short period of time.

That  is how the explanation goes.  Well there is nothing quite as descriptive as the sight of raddle marks on the backside of the ewes.  As of this tuesday evening all 6 Cheviots are now marked.  Of the 21 jacobs, 17 are marked.  of the 4 left; 2 had lost their sponges so expected in the next 2 weeks, 1 we think had a partially retained sponge.  the remaining ewe will hopefully be tupped overnight tonight.

I took the ewe that we thought might have retained some of the sponge (very tight when withdrawing and at the time was reasonably convinced that not all came out)  to the vet.  The vet did her best to find anything but it was all a bit tight in there so nothing definative.  It may be that there is none in there but if there is we will just have to wait until the hormones wear off.  So chances are she won't get in lamb this year which is a shame.  Still the important thing is that she will probably not have any ill affects.

stats suggest 85% take in the first cycle.  As this year we are planning a very short lambing it is likely that we will have to wait until January when the ewes are scanned to get the news.