How to raise a good ram

[Tommy_T]

Can anyone point me to a good article or information on how to raise rams correctly?

Picked my ram up from the society show and sale. Think he’d been a show ram. He was quite interactive in a nice way (I now realise he was probably too nice for a ram but that’s experience for you) and looked good. We put him in with the ewes and planned to keep him with them until lambing. He couldn’t keep it in his pants though so we had to take him out. He’s been on his own, although most of the time he has other sheep in sight/sound, and I plan to put my ram lambs in with him.

As his time with the ewes progressed he decided to get a bit moody. He gave me a dead leg the first time, took me by surprise as he’d always been pretty placid. Since then he has had his moments where he’s tried it on but I now have eyes in the back of my head when I’m in his paddock. I try to ignore him, but when he comes over should I try and dominate him one way or another? Is his behaviour likely to improve with company? I imagine it’s been stressful to be alone for a period of time and don’t know whether this hasn’t helped his mood swings. Someone told me “pets” can turn nasty. I understand rams should be respectful and ideally they probably should just stay away from you?

Also, can anyone give me tips, or point me in the direction of some useful reading, as how to raise a ram lamb properly? The lambs are coming on for four months and starting to try and butt and nudge at me (albeit not with the force of their father!)

Any comments welcome. Appreciate most will be to get shot of the ram if he’s a pain but really looking for methods of managing him rather than sending him off. He’s not like it all the time, and I think the other half would not agree with getting rid of him. I want to sell my ram lambs on for breeding (as they’re rare breed) don’t want to pass on problem children.

 

[MRT]

Don't fuss them or hand feed them - ever

 

[An ancient git]

Had a halter trained ex show ram for 2 years here . He really hit me once and could be 'difficult' in field . He went b4 I had a serious mishap ......

 

[clod hopper]

Can I ask what breed is he?
If he was jumping the ewes must be in season he'll stop when inlamb. (It is not a bad thing, it's what he's bred to do). Never a good idea to leave a ram by himself best with a mate or flock . DON'T MAKE PETS OF RAMS! And ALWAYS keep one eye on them!

 

[ShooTa]

since youve taken him out, does he have another ram to keep him company?

 

[An ancient git]

Luckily I always have about 3 rams , but , if only one , then easy to keep a wether as a pal . It could go out with ram when serving ewes .... Simples !

 

[cheviot53]

The only ram ( 30 each year ) iv'e ever been scared of was a texel bought as a shearling and sold the following spring cull ,turned out he'd been reared on a smallholding

 

[Tommy_T]

He’s a Hill Radnor. We left him in with them for company with a view to keeping one of his offspring for company but in March he was still going for it, obviously with a ewe that hadn’t taken. It was getting a bit silly as if it worked that’ll be an August lamb and we didn’t want to push it any further.
He has been on his own since then but as I said generally within sight and sound of the other sheep we have at least. Plus he started this whilst he was still with company. We wanted to wether our ram lambs but just couldn’t get the balls down to band them, they were just too tightly held. We did look for a wether but believe it or not couldn’t find anything suitable, so thought might as well wait for lambs to be big enough. I split ewes and lambs on 14th; not sure when best time to put the ram lambs in with him though? (Or when I can put the ewe lambs back with the ewes?)
We are only smallscale and only been keeping sheep for a year and a bit which is why I want to make sure I get this right. The lambs are cute, and it’s easy to fuss them, but I’m aware they’ll grow up big and I don’t want them to have bad temperaments. So do you basically ignore them? If they try nudging do you move away? Or nudge them back? I know I read not to touch their heads as they can see that as a challenge? (Whether this is as lambs or just full grown I don’t know.)
I do want to halter train one to have a go at showing for a bit of fun, but how you do this whilst keeping him respectful?

 

[Tommy_T]

I saw a piece the other day about this four year old kid and his ram. Walked him round on his halter, ram sat with the kid in the field, and let him wash him etc. Ram didn’t even blink, let alone butt! If they’re not meant to interact too much I don’t know how that works, or that I’d leave a little kid with a full grown ram!

 

[d-wales]

A few years ago I gave a neighbour a pet lamb to bottle feed, 6 months later they gave it back as it had gotten too big for their garden.

I put in with the flock that it originally came from and put them all out on an open commen

Few days later an irate villager phoned me to tell me that everytime they went running accross the common, one of my sheep chased them and they had to jump over a gate to hide from it, until it got bored and walked off ????

 

[Gator]

A few years ago I gave a neighbour a pet lamb to bottle feed, 6 months later they gave it back as it had gotten too big for their garden.

I put in with the flock that it originally came from and put them all out on an open commen

Few days later an irate villager phoned me to tell me that everytime they went running accross the common, one of my sheep chased them and they had to jump over a gate to hide from it, until it got bored and walked off ????

Could do wi about 30 like that, might just keep the crag rats away?? ? ? ?