October is generally the month where sheep farmers, who operate a mid-season lambing system, let their ram(s) out with their flock of ewes.

It is well documented that not enough record-keeping takes place on sheep farms across the country. However, the mating season provides an ideal opportunity for farmers to start.

To avoid disappointment at scanning time, a good idea is to raddle your rams. This will help farmers to become aware of any issues that may occur throughout the breeding season.

Raddling your ram(s) will help you to monitor mating performance and spot problems quickly. It is too late to do anything about it when you find out at scanning time that your ewes are empty.

By changing the raddle colour, a farmer can estimate the date the ewe had mated with the ram and calculate the approximate date that ewe will lamb down.

Along with scanning, this allows the farmer to batch the ewes correctly and prevents over-feeding or under-feeding of the sheep prior to lambing.

To ensure as many ewes go in lamb, it would be best to have more than one ram, so that you can replace injured or infertile rams if needs be.