Whilst most of us groan when Autumn brings daylight shortening, I do a little happy dance. It's the signal that we start the Sheep Calendar once more. This is where all the preparation for the lambing season begins. The reduction of daylight hours triggers our Babydoll ewes to start their fertility cycle, repeated every 17 days until Christmas (or till pregnant). Each time she has her cycle at the moment she is on the season, she will accept a tup - she will stand still for a ram to tup her, but only for a short time -just 30 hours - and if missed it’s another 17 days to wait to try again (and he will chase her around the field but she will not stand still). So timing is everything. Add 145 days to a successful tupping and 🤞the lambs are born.
So how do I know, & how does the ram know when a ewe is in season? Here's nature's clever bit, and the main reason why the rams live over a mile away from the ewes for the rest of the year. Combining the shortening of daylight hours with the intro of a ram in the field, the smell of him also triggers the girls into their cycle. So, to try to sync all the ewes to have their cycles closer together we use a Teaser Tup. The introduction of a Teaser Tup - our Babydoll Baby Bear, who smells, acts and behaves exactly like a normal ram triggers the girls to come into season, except there is one important detail - he has had a vasectomy so he isn't fertile. After 14 days of having an altogether amazing time with the girls, he exits the field and in come Dennis and Beau our two Rams for the season… hopefully, they’ll have girls ready for them to tup and we have a short 2-3 week window of lambing in the Easter holidays 2023.
Baby Bear the Teaser Tup arriving off the fell after a year of being apart from the girls... watch him SMELL the air, and then in true BB style saunter off with a swing of his tail to find the girls. Don't be deceived by his laid-back attitude... he tupped 3 in the first 3 hours.
The preparation for the girls is intense. All get "dragged" the fleece trimmed and a tidy around their back ends to allow easy access for the ram and a pedicure - if you can imagine nothing could be worse than being mounted by a 50kg weight if you've got a sore foot. 2 weeks before meeting the tup they start an extra ration of concentrate nutrition. We have 5 older babydoll ewes, all on the brink of retirement and these especially need TLC. Feeding extra nutrition, "flushing", helps older ewes, particularly with their condition and fertility. You can imagine the girls are extremely happy at a breakfast helping of their favourite sheep nuts so no complaints there!
Dennis, our mature ram with a beautiful face, and powerful body. He's not aggressive to me at all but EXTREMELY competitive, we;ve found it is a special kind of companion that can put up his bossiness! So, he lives with Beau our young tup that is super shy and gains a lot from Dennis's confidence. 31st October the boys will separate to be with their own group of ewes. They will come off the fell to the house field so I can closely monitor them. Each tup will have its own colour marking smeared on its belly so they leave a mark on who they have mounted & tupped. The aim is for all the girls to have a red or blue bum by November and they will stay with them until December making sure all are covered for 2 cycles.
The boys don't miss out on the nutrition boost, even though our boys have never looked so healthy this year once they start they will still have a small daily breakie of Tup Ration - a rich mix of molasses and energy-boosted grains and flakes to keep them in tip-top condition throughout what is a very strenuous time - tups can lose up to a 1/3 of their body weight by the end of the tupping season.
Unlike ewes, Babydoll Tup lambs can mature in time to start tipping at only 7 months old. We had one ready this year, Stewie who has gone to start his own flock in Wales. The remainder of our tup lambs will wait for next year before they see any "action" 😉
What makes a tup a great one? His physical characteristics, size and his "attributes" in sheep the size of his testicles does matter!
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