[Jacob-list] new guy

[Mary Hansson]

Betsy,
 
Best sheep I have ever eaten was a 3 year old son-of-a-gun ram butchered in the height of breeding season.........
 
You can put rams together in a pasture to themselves throughout the year---most breeders with multiple rams keep them together that way.  Just be careful and put them in a VERY TINY area----and I mean shoulder-to-shoulder space!!!---when you put them together.  Leave them there at least 12 hours or until most of the pushing and shoving are completely over (meaning longer than 12 hours if they are still rotten).  Generally speaking a small ram will recognize the large ram as dominant and won't fight---but all generalities can be off-base and you can have a real dummy in the bunch that winds up dead.
 
Mary Ellen

Joe & Betsy Guarino <bguarino at shentel.net> wrote:
I'm the new guy on the list -- a homeschooling mom with 4 ewes and 3 rams, among goats, chickens, geese, rabbits and Aussies (not to mention our childre) here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
The three rams are my problem, for which I need advice:
One is 2.5 years old, and has already got sisters, daughters and granddaughters in my flock, so I guess he's got to go.
The next is a ram-lamb from this year's lambing season that I guess will have to be culled (he's conforming to standard, but just barely, and no-one has answered ads about him as a 4H project, etc).
And the third is our new addition, a great looking, well-behaved ram-lamb to replace the  old guy.
The Question is: What to do with our "old" ram?  I've advertised him locally, no bites, even though he produces great babies and would make a great herd sire for someone.  He's a friend, so we don't want to take him to the slaughterhouse and put him in the freezer (although I wouldn't mind that nice rug his pelt is going to make some day).  Is Mutton really any good? We do eat a lot of venison around here, and I figure it must be about the same?
I don't want to put the new ram in with him and start a ruckus.  Do you all replace your herd sire every two or three years?  Do you keep the rams in separate pastures from the ewes?  (We've kept ours in year-round, as we only had one and Jacobs only breed once a year)  Wouldn't that cause the ram to go nuts, and knock down fencing to get to his girls? 


Mary Ellen Hansson, MEd, RD, LDN
ISeeSpots Farm
Jacob Sheep:  Lambs, adults, wool
www.iseespots.com
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