There's a new tup round town... and his name's Ivan

There’s a new tup round town… and his name’s Ivan. The year of the sheep will soon be starting all over again....

Our new tup: Ivan the “not so” Terrible

After a hectic weekend getting this year’s lambs tagged and ready for today’s market in Stirling, it’s back to quasi-normality this morning.

But amidst the drama of the departure of 20 lambs, one ewe, plus Mungo the tup* (who is now too closely bred to our ewe lambs for us to use him any longer), it would be remiss of me not to mention the arrival of a new face at The Sparrowholding: Ivan the tup lamb. Ivan is on loan for this breeding season from our kind neighbours F and A, who have a slightly larger smallholding (if that’s not an oxymoron!) just up the road from us, and who are also the proud owners of a flock of Shetland sheep.

As Ivan is still just a youngster, this will be his first time covering ewes, so we have no way of knowing whether he “works” – not to go into too much detail for the more sensitive among you, though I’m sure you’ll get the drift! He seems a dear wee fellow (so far anyway…), and as he needed someone to keep him company for the next few weeks before he joins his soon-to-be-harem, we reckoned that Pickle the Pet Lamb was the sheep for the job.

After a brief scurry around the newly created mini-paddock in our garden, the two lads seem to have settled down overnight, so fingers crossed that they’ll become good friends in time. Meanwhile, here are a few photos of the new arrival, including one with his new sparring partner, the inimitable Pickle!