I’ve been asking around, on forums and in person, over what to do about one of our ewe lambs.
After much deliberation, we now think we shall keep back Arabella, one of the lambs we bought, along with their mum, a while back. We decided to replace our barren ewes with one that might actually lamb, and we chose her for a number of reason. Partly because she is pretty. Having moved away from just having a Devon Closewool flock, we might as well have a mixture, and she is white with black face and legs. Her wool is good, and she is not related to the ram we hope to borrow this Autumn (unlike the other ewe lamb we have ). She is a Roussin xzwartlbesx Suffolk.
The problem is though -not having vast tracts of land, it will be difficult to keep her separate from the ram when he comes for his holidays. If we did, she would need a companion, so we would have to hang on to one of the other lambs a bit longer.. and we dont have that much grass.
But, the advice from fellow shepherds is often conflicting. Many feel they are too small to be put the the ram in their first year, and will only lead to lambing problems. Others feel she will be too young to take anyway. Some have told me it is important that we do put her to the ram in the first year.
The only really useful bit of advice is that ‘there is no right answer’! But it is clear alot depends on how well she has done by then, what breed she is vs the breed of the ram. etc.
Whenever someone tells me they are thinking of keeping sheep, after the usual lines about sheep spending their whole life looking for ways to die, I always suggest they make friends with an experienced shepherd local to them. But it has to be said, all along we have had very diverse opinions on the best approaches.. on the subject of triplets, we had everything from ‘bump one off’ (yes, really, but we wont be doing that) to bottle feeding them all. We have found the vet to be really helpful, we can phone and just ask a question, but they tend to be , predictably, very into intervention. Smallholders usually want to do everything by the book, and farmers trying to make a serious living, have to weigh up the cost of each action.
so I guess at the end of the day, we ask questions, listen to answers, compare notes, write up a lot to experience, and make our own decisions. It’s just the best we can do.