Mating Hoggets or Yearlings
Mating hoggets or yearlings is one way of recovering breeding numbers more quickly after a drought. By mating well-grown ewe hoggets next autumn, you can almost compensate for selling ewe lambs this year.
However, liveweights are critical for success and young stock must be well fed during lactation. As an example, it takes four times the energy to produce the milk for a lamb in the eight weeks after lambing than it does to produce the lamb.
To be successful, a ewe hogget must be at least 35 kg, preferably 40 kg, at the time she is mated and a yearling heifer must be at least 250 kg, preferably 280 kg. Exotic-cross ewe lambs can be considered as they will be heavier at the same stage compared with Halfbred and the purebred wool breeds such as Corriedale. Ideally, hoggets should be 40 kg and rising when put to the ram, and heifers should be 320 kg and rising when put to the bull.
Mated yearlings or hoggets also need different feeding than mature cows or ewes. They must be well fed in the early part of pregnancy and then held back in the last few weeks so that the foetus is not too large at the birth. With in-calf heifers, aim to achieve a target liveweight of 380 kg eight weeks before calving. As soon as the heifer has given birth, her feeding must go back up to a high level to allow for lactation and possible growth, and to get her back in calf again for the following year.
Ewe hoggets may be tupped four weeks after the main flock, which will allow them to lamb after the main flush of the flock ewes have finished. The rams should be out for a maximum of six weeks only. Wean the hoggets at the same time as the ewes, or when the lambs are about eight weeks old. If feed is short in spring, hoggets should be weaned earlier than eight weeks.
Heifers should be mated four weeks earlier than the cows so, if conditions are tight after calving, they have another cycle to get in calf, and calving is not late the following year. Put the bull out for a maximum of eight weeks only.
Scan the heifers or hoggets, and separate them from the rest of the flock so they can be more carefully managed until weaning. If there are enough animals involved, it may be best to keep them separate after weaning until they are the same weights as their dry counterparts.
The right sire will minimise any potential lambing or calving problems. For example, choose a small-framed bull with light forequarters and a streamlined body. Keep a close watch on the flock or herd at lambing or calving to be able to assist if necessary. If feeding and sire selection have been right, difficult births are uncommon.
The lamb or calf will be smaller than the comparable young from older females will, but the genetic potential will be as good as or better than the older ewes or cows depending on the fertility, conformation and growth of the sires you select.
Calving or lambing a year earlier does slightly reduce the time that the animals are in the flock or herd by about six months on average, but you gain the additional lamb or calf that can either be retained on the farm or sold.
Ken Muscroft-Taylor
Agricultural Consultant
Agriculture New Zealand
Darfield
Contact for Enquiries
Manager
North Island Regions
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Hamilton
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 7 957 8313
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