Innovative Sheep Breeding
Home of Performancelleyns and ProlleyNZ
Call us on 07970 773840 an 07780 687416
Ram Rearing
How do you want your rams/tups reared?
Here at Innovative Sheep Breeding, all our rams are only forage-fed. We do not feed concentrates to our tups either as lambs or as shearlings.
When you buy a ram from us, it will not “melt”. They will serve a larger number of ewes with higher quality semen and live a longer life when compared to a concentrate fed tup. Grass-fed rams will change the cost per lamb by order of magnitude.
You cannot visually see the characteristics or traits that you want from a maternal ram or tup. It is only performance recording that will give you the information on the genetics and attributes that will advance your flock in a more profitable direction.
Breeders selling tups at auction inevitably end up in a “feeding arms race”. The human eye is naturally drawn to larger fatter rams, and this has nothing to do with their genetic quality. Even at auctions, where there are only tups from one vendor, such as an Innovis sheep sale, there is intense pressure to feed concentrates as the rams are on public display.
Concentrate feeding is like a drug, once you start, it is difficult to control, and in the long term, the rams and hence the customer suffers.
There is some useful information in “Fit for Purpose Rams.”
You may, however, depending on the season and available grass quality, have to adjust your expectations as to how fat the rams will look early in the season. Growing tups slowly is the way to go on all counts.
