[Jacob-list] Ram's horns

[Neal and Louise Grose]

We might want to keep in mind that "in the wild", rams live a short life. In 
severe climates, wild sheep divide up into breeding groups at the onset of 
cold weather and the rams that "win" spend all of their time breeding and 
fighting off rivals... not eating. This results in the death of the breeding 
ram by mid-winter, but only after leaving a few offspring. The alternative 
is reproductive death of the losing rams. Most rams best shot at 
reproductive success comes at a fairly young age. By ten (or even 5), these 
rams have lost out on the reproductive lottery.

I have often wondered if we wouldn't be better off emulating the wild 
pattern and eating (or hitching them out as nice lawn ornaments) any ram 
over the age of 4. Te only thing that makes a ram "good" is that they 
produce good offspring. If they produce superior sons, why not use the sons 
instead?

Neal

In the overly-rainy-balmy South, where we are still trying to catch up on 
the fall work


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ARTHUR PARTRIDGE" <aztreaz at earthlink.net>
To: "jacob-list" <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: [Jacob-list] Ram's horns


" I also heard that in "the wild", the

> survival of the fittest favor the rams with horns closer to the face;

> perhaps a more compact battering tool than a ram with widely spaced horns

> that could be broken off. "




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