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You are here: Home / Blog / Joining time

Joining time

February 14, 2017 by Wendy Beer

Joining time, also known as “tupping” or mating, is the period of weeks that the rams spend time with the ewes – and hopefully get them all pregnant.

Here at Beersheba Farm we prefer a rather short joining time which delivers a corresponding short lambing time.

The rams are out for 5 weeks and this basically allows the ewes 2 oestrus cycles to get pregnant. Lambing is usually completed in around 4 weeks.  This greatly assists paddock and ewe management and keeps one of our busiest times of the year from dragging out.

Ewes are in oestrus for approx 24-48hrs every 16-17 days. When that happens you can often notice that a ram will have separated from the main flock of ewes and will be with 2-3 ewes that are currently in season. Ewes in season will seek out the ram and we’ve had many cases over the years of “illicit liasons”, “not-so-covert breakouts” and “shameless flirting”. Sometimes a ewe will reject the ram she is with and seek out another that she feels is “more her style.”

One way or another they certainly keep us on our toes. 🙂

 

Merino ram and ewe away from the main flock.

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Filed Under: Blog, Sheep Tagged With: Biology, Ewes, Rams

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