On farm or at the surgery we can prepare teaser animals for use on your flock.
A teaser is a vasectomised tup. This is a simple operation done under a short general anaesthetic to remove a short section of both vas deferens. Cross bred rams often make the best teasers due to hybrid vigour. Mature males make better teasers but the procedure can be performed on ram lambs for the next breeding season
Teasers can be used in a natural mating situation to induce ewes to come into season up to two weeks earlier than they would naturally. They also lead to a compaction of the lambing period. This is known as the ram effect. Ewes must be kept out of the sight, sound and smell of tups for at least six weeks before the introduction of a teaser. After two weeks the teaser is removed and the desired tup introduced. In this situation teasers can be used in a ratio of up to 1:100 ewes.
Teasers are also very useful in ewes undergoing AI and ET. They aid with heat detection allowing better timing of AI and the ram effect can help to boost success rates. In this situation a ratio of 1:30 is more appropriate.