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Buying a ram
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<blockquote data-quote="AT Aloss" data-source="post: 7583743" data-attributes="member: 134478"><p>I've started breeding my own rams because I can't find the qualities I require for outdoor lambing by buying ram lambs or shearlings. I want vigorous lambs with plenty of get up & go, so head shape, leg length and ease of lambing leading to very little assistance are essential. That vigour includes the time it takes a lamb to start suckling.</p><p></p><p>EBV seems to be the barometer by which most rams are sold, and my experience with it has been that it's another piece of data to baffle people with. The most expensive rams we ever bought (a few years back) were high EBV Texels. One did one season, the other did two. They both died in their sleep, not cast, no pneumonia, nothing to pick up on - here one minute, gone the next! So buying a ram on the grounds of carcass & growth rates is really only half the story. I came to the conclusion I'd rather have pocketed every lamb life I've lost ahead of growth rates & carcass finish (especially when the EUROP carcass system has no validity where taste & texture are concerned). I'd want to see the previous year's lambs from a ram if I was going to buy one now & that's what makes the ram lamb or shearling sales (where the ram has never been put to the ewes) so bizarre - you're buying a promise most of the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AT Aloss, post: 7583743, member: 134478"] I've started breeding my own rams because I can't find the qualities I require for outdoor lambing by buying ram lambs or shearlings. I want vigorous lambs with plenty of get up & go, so head shape, leg length and ease of lambing leading to very little assistance are essential. That vigour includes the time it takes a lamb to start suckling. EBV seems to be the barometer by which most rams are sold, and my experience with it has been that it's another piece of data to baffle people with. The most expensive rams we ever bought (a few years back) were high EBV Texels. One did one season, the other did two. They both died in their sleep, not cast, no pneumonia, nothing to pick up on - here one minute, gone the next! So buying a ram on the grounds of carcass & growth rates is really only half the story. I came to the conclusion I'd rather have pocketed every lamb life I've lost ahead of growth rates & carcass finish (especially when the EUROP carcass system has no validity where taste & texture are concerned). I'd want to see the previous year's lambs from a ram if I was going to buy one now & that's what makes the ram lamb or shearling sales (where the ram has never been put to the ewes) so bizarre - you're buying a promise most of the time. [/QUOTE]
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