Off Topic: sheep - Biology question

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:08 pm

Sorry for being off topic but can't seem to get an answer on this. Can a ewe have lambs from different rams like a cat?? My ewe was exposed for a few days to a Border Cheviot then moved, due to fighting, to a group with a Shetland ram. She has triplets and the moorits are obviously Shetland but the white ewe lamb is questionable!

Thanks ???

Kathy

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:40 pm

Perfectly possible, I have known more than one of my father's sheep have one pure blackface lamb and one blackface x border leicester during the 1960's. No doubt lots of others are still doing it.

Duncan

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:54 am

Rats

I was really hoping it would be impossible so now I have this beautiful white ewe lamb out of my favourite ewe..............

Will have to breed her again next year and hope for another ewe lamb! Thanks, Duncan, for answering so quickly.

Kathy

marion · Post by **marion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:10 am

Hi Kathy, Do you think the Border Cheviot cross (if that is what the lamb is from) would give her an undesirable spinning fleece?...marion (Cdn)

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:12 pm

Hi Marion,

The Shetland fleeces are so variable, the ewe lamb might well have a lovely fleece but I can't afford to keep many sheep so most of the lambs have to go off to market. I also don't have a very good market for fleece so not much incentive to keep more sheep anyways. Same problem with the Dexters. I'm praying for a bull calf as I hate the thought of having to kill a heifer and I have a small but appreciative market for the meat.

Kathy

marion · Post by **marion** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:08 pm

Kathy, I'm in the same boat. I need to keep heifers to get where I want to be with my "breeding program", dont want to sell my original girls. Hay has tripled in price and once it's reached a price, never seems to go back down. I think my last two sheep (Romney=lovely fleece) and a good milking doe and her (bound to be milky) doe kid, will be going, to make room for another Dexter!
I put a nice Dexter heifer in the freezer last year as I didn't have a steer, and was worried about hay supply

Marion (fellow Cdn :D )