Flock mating in sheep

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Abstract
Flocks of two-tooth and mixed-age Romney ewes run together were joined with different numbers of ewes per ram in two experiments (4/200 and 4/400, Experiment 1; 4/240 and 4/720, Experiment 2). In the first experiment, increasing the number of ewes per ram decreased the percentage of two-tooths mated in the first cycle by 18.5 and also decreased the mean number of rams mating each ewe. Barrenness was not affected. There were no effects on the mixed-age ewes. In the second experiment, increasing the number of ewes per ram caused a small decrease in the percentage of ewes mated in both age-groups and also decreased the mean number of rams mating each ewe. There was a significant increase in barrenness of two-tooths but no effect on the mixed-age ewes. In the 4/720 group in Experiment 2, only 57.1% of two-tooths less than 36.8 kg were mated during the first 16 days compared with 84.7% of animals above this weight.