Sheep farming and the use of colouring on their coats?
I live in Sussex, UK. Many of the sheep in farmer's fields seem to have different artificial colours on their backs e.g. bright red, green, blue etc. Is this just a simple method to identify different groups of sheep, or does this have some sort of mating-relationship function (i.e. when they mate do the colours get transferred from one sheep to another)?
Or did I just eat too many mushrooms ;-> ?
Answers:
This time of year is the mating season for sheep. Rams are known as tups and mating is known as tupping. Tups are marked with these colours on their chest and this is called a raddle. When he mates with a ewe then this mark is transferred to her back and the framer knows that mating has occurred.
Traditionally the raddle colour of each tup is changed each week during the season, so that the farmer knows which week each ewe will lamb in. If there are lots of tups at work then the colours might refer to different tups and there are probably addtional marks added later to colour code each ewe ready for lambing in the spring.
ease back on the sroons a little and go wash the artificial color off your belly before someone see's it hahaha
Ok this is the answer. As the daughter of a sheep farmer the colour has a few diffierent menaings. First it could be a way of identyfing which sheep have been given a dose and which haven't. Or it could be a way of identifing which sheep are over a certain weight so they can be sold. But it could also be an indication of which ones the ram has "done". The ram wears this harness and when he jumps on the ewe the colour is left on the ewes back. That way the farmer knows which ewe's are in lamb and which aren't. The colour itself doesn't mean anything it was what was handiest to the farmer at the time. Any time you want to stop gaps for us let me know...........
Must be the mushrooms. Sheep from different owners are often out together, especially in hilly areas like the Lake District. The colour flashes are simply for identification and no, they don't then produce lambs with colour flashes on them.
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Or did I just eat too many mushrooms ;-> ?
Answers:
This time of year is the mating season for sheep. Rams are known as tups and mating is known as tupping. Tups are marked with these colours on their chest and this is called a raddle. When he mates with a ewe then this mark is transferred to her back and the framer knows that mating has occurred.
Traditionally the raddle colour of each tup is changed each week during the season, so that the farmer knows which week each ewe will lamb in. If there are lots of tups at work then the colours might refer to different tups and there are probably addtional marks added later to colour code each ewe ready for lambing in the spring.
ease back on the sroons a little and go wash the artificial color off your belly before someone see's it hahaha
Ok this is the answer. As the daughter of a sheep farmer the colour has a few diffierent menaings. First it could be a way of identyfing which sheep have been given a dose and which haven't. Or it could be a way of identifing which sheep are over a certain weight so they can be sold. But it could also be an indication of which ones the ram has "done". The ram wears this harness and when he jumps on the ewe the colour is left on the ewes back. That way the farmer knows which ewe's are in lamb and which aren't. The colour itself doesn't mean anything it was what was handiest to the farmer at the time. Any time you want to stop gaps for us let me know...........
Must be the mushrooms. Sheep from different owners are often out together, especially in hilly areas like the Lake District. The colour flashes are simply for identification and no, they don't then produce lambs with colour flashes on them.
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