Sheep mating: when puberty occurs and insemination methods

Sheep rearing is one of the most profitable branches of the livestock business. With proper organization, the reproduction and rearing of these animals can be profitable. For successful activity, you need to know the terms and rules for mating sheep, how to select and prepare a sheep and a ram for mating, how to care for a pregnant female and a newborn lamb.

Reproductive age of sheep

Female sheep reach puberty at 7 months, but this is a rough estimate as this age can vary by breed. However, even if the animal has theoretically already reached puberty, it still cannot happen, since its body is not yet able to normally endure the lamb.It can happen when the female becomes older than 1 year, her weight will be at least 40-45 kg. In sheep, sexual maturity occurs at 5-7 months. But, like a female, a male can be used for breeding later, when he is 16-18 months old.

So, a sheep can be bred from 1 year old, a ram - from 1.5 years old. The animals must be normally developed and moderately well-fed.

Sheep selection rules

Age has already been mentioned, but it is also important to take into account the mass of animals, females should not be thin or, conversely, obese. Both of them have no desire to go into mating, they can remain single or bring a weak offspring.

Sheep of many breeds come into hunting during a certain period of the year, which lasts from the end of summer to the middle of winter.

Animals of the Romanov breed can happen throughout the year. Usually hunting for females lasts 2-3 days, it is at this time that they need to be allowed to approach the male.It is possible to determine the readiness of sheep for mating by their behavior - they are worried, bleat, calmly relate to a ram, as well as by physiological signs: swelling and redness of the genital organs, mucus flowing out of them, first transparent and liquid, then unclear and thick. If, after mating, fertilization did not occur, the female comes back to hunting after 16-20 days.

Subtleties of sheep selection

Sheep should be young, strong, he althy, well-fed. It is these individuals that actively reproduce. How well he will be able to inseminate sheep depends on the conditions in which he is kept, how he was looked after. During the preparation for the mating season, the sheep must be properly fed, the diet must contain foods rich in vitamins and minerals.

If the male is active, he is considered ready for mating. If there are many sheep in the farm, 10-20 females can be allocated per ram.

Insemination methods

Sheep can be inseminated naturally or artificially. The first one is used almost exclusively in the household.

Natural

Mating should be carried out either during the day, and take the sheep away from the ram at night, or, conversely, leave the female with the male for the night, and take it back in the morning. There are several options for natural insemination:

1. Cool mating. For 30-40 days, rams are launched into the flock of sheep (2-3 rams per 100 females). Animals are kept together during the day, rams are removed at night.
2. Free mating. The ram is kept together with females, the animals mate for a long time. The disadvantage of this method is that the sheep can remain single.
3. Harem mating. The method is used in livestock breeding. For 30-40 sheep, 1 male is selected. He is kept with females only during the day, removed from them at night and fed with nutritious food.
4. Manual mating. Sheep happen to rams only when they are in the hunt. This increases the fertility rate. The rest of the time, the male is separated from the females.

As you can see, you can choose any of these methods, if the number of individuals in the home herd allows. With natural manual mating, sheep breed most successfully, rarely remain single.

Artificial

Artificial reproduction is a method in which not a ram is used for insemination of sheep, but sperm, which is injected into the female's vagina using a special device. The advantage of this method is that less seed is used than with natural reproduction, since either pure or diluted sperm can be used.In artificial propagation, it is important to observe sterility, dosage of seed material and rules of procedure.

Calculation of lambing time and ways to speed up / slow down the hunt

Hunting occurs in a sheep when germ cells mature in the ovaries. Its duration depends on seasonality, the state of he alth of the animal, its age and breed. Duration ranges from 0.5 to 3 days. Ovulation occurs 30-32 hours after the onset of estrus. Usually it is not always possible to accurately determine the start of the hunt, so it is recommended to have sheep 2 times: as soon as signs of estrus appear and after a day. This is usually enough for fertilization to occur.

To speed up the onset of estrus, sheep should be left in a darkened room for 2-3 hours for several weeks in a row. Thanks to this method, animals can come to hunt 1-1.5 months earlier than they are supposed to season.

For more effective acceleration, as well as to slow down the process, hormonal drugs are used. They are used along with vitamins and bovine colostrum.

Preparing for lambing

Sheep pregnancy lasts 143-153 days. Animals usually happen in the fall, so that the lambs are born in the spring, when it is already warm and the grass is green. 2-3 days before lambing, the female's udder and genitals swell, the belly sags a little. Just before giving birth, the female starts digging the bedding.

If childbirth takes place in winter, the animal should be placed in a warm, dry room. Bedding must be dry and clean, water must be present.

Sheep giving birth

Sheep give birth to 1 to 3 lambs. If the animal is he althy, and the birth goes without complications, he does not need help.However, it is desirable that a veterinarian be present at the time of delivery in the household in case of problems or complications. It is not always possible to help an animal on your own; this requires knowledge and certain experience.

Lambing lasts no more than 1 hour. If there are more than one lambs, the interval between them is approximately 10-15 minutes. The afterbirth comes out 0.5-3 hours after the appearance of the last lamb, it must be removed along with the bedding and disposed of. If more than 6 hours have passed, and the placenta has not come out, you need to contact your veterinarian. As soon as the lamb is born, it is necessary to clear its nose of mucus and, if the mother has not gnawed through the umbilical cord, cut it with sterile scissors at a distance of 10 cm from the lamb's belly, treat with iodine. After that, the female should lick the lamb.

After the end of childbirth, you need to give the mother warm water to drink, you can feed her after 4-9 hours. You also need to make sure that the lamb drinks colostrum within the first hour after birth (the first portion must be expressed, this colostrum is too fatty).Then remove the newborn from the mother and bring to her only for feeding (on the first days with an interval of 3 hours).

Baby care

During the week after lambing, the female should be observed to ensure that the uterus is clean and there are no complications, which include infections, such as postpartum paresis.

If a sheep does not have enough milk for all the lambs she has, they need to be fed with the milk of another female or, in extreme cases, cow's milk. Cow's milk is more liquid, so it will need more than sheep's. Sheep feed babies with milk for 3 months, young animals, if they grow in good conditions, get plenty of milk, grow quickly and gain weight. When the lambs are 3 weeks old, they can begin to feed them with the same food that adult animals eat.

Propagating and raising sheep can be a profitable business if done right. The mating, pregnancy and childbirth of sheep occupy an important place in the livestock process. The success and profitability of sheep breeding depends on how and when the mating will be carried out, how the care of pregnant animals will be organized and how the birth will take place.

With good care, every he althy sheep can produce lambs 1-2 times a year. Considering that from one individual you can get 1-3 lambs in each lamb, the animals will quickly pay off and the farm will become profitable.

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