Battering rams can give ewe a real headache!
WELL, the broon coo might not have broken oot and eaten all the hay – but the other day rams broke out and managed to join the ewes.
So we had a bit of a race on our hands to get them all into the sheep pens and extract the rams – or tups as we call them – before there was too much opportunity for nature to take its course. However, I now suspect that we might be looking at a few early lambs in April.
The normal “at least two fields separating them” policy we operate to make sure no little accidents like this happen had been suspended for one night – after we’d brought the ewes down from the hill.
We’d left them overnight in the adjoining field, planning to make use of the dry spell to get ahead with the work and give them their autumn health check and vaccinations the next day.
But I now know where the term “battering ram” comes from – as the steel gate separating them had given in to the efforts of a dozen loved-up tups during the hours of darkness.
Up the field to bring the ewes down at first light, it didn’t take me long to realise
we’d need to move pretty swiftly to curb the tups’ ardour.
It wasn’t until later in the day, when I got a friendly call from The Sunday Post wondering if the e-mail containing this week’s article had gone missing, that I realised I’d been so distracted that I’d forgotten to send it off.
Judging when to put the tups in with the ewes is always a bit of a gamble – because you’re trying to predict the weather and the amount of grass available five months down the line when the lambs are born.
Over the years we’ve aimed to start lambing any time between mid-March and mid-April – but sod’s law normally dictates that the first lambs to be born will coincide with either a snowstorm or a week’s worth of sleet.
Recently we’ve moved lambing to later in April in the hope that we’ll get the spring crops sown before they start and that some grass might have grown.
Deciding on the timing used to be far easier, though.
Eventually the kids worked out that the reason I always asked them during October when they’d be getting their Easter holidays was to know when to put the tups in – and make sure that lambing coincided with their spring break.