Some odd stuff in Northumberland

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Pale Rider

Legendary Member
Sheep - like us - can breed at any time of year.

Compressing 'lambing' into a few weeks is imposed on the sheep by farmers to fit in with the agricultural calendar and our weather.

Some farmers - particularly in Canada and America - just let the sheep get on with it, so they are 'lambing' throughout the year.
 

Ganymede

Veteran
Location
Rural Kent
Some types of sheep can come into season at any time of year - my bezzie mate used to run an educational farm set-up and had (I think) Dorset Horn sheep in order to maximise the chance of having a ewe-and-lamb pair to show the kiddies. Many farmers breed very early lambs (January, February) to catch the market, but you have to have sheds to do it - I breed a few myself but we lamb late, around the end of April/beginning of May as we can't bring them in. We send the ewes to the ram in November or early December.

Compressing lambing of large flocks into a couple of weeks meant that the farmer can minimise the time that she needs extra hired help.
 
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