The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Richmond on September 10, 2025, 04:59:24 pm
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Using our ram one more time this season and then he's up for sale. If no takers he'll have to go in the freezer, so what, in everyone's opinion, is the best time to do this? March? April? May? He will be 3 by then.
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We've sent tups off straight after tupping and had 'em minced just in case - but the meat was beautiful.
If you want to keep him through to spring, he'll be fine anytime. The meat tastes sweeter once they've been eating grass for a few weeks. Where I am, the grass thinks it's still winter until halfway through April, but we're often short of grass for lambing, so the tup would either have to hang around until mid May or so, or be going off without much new grass in his belly. Personally, I'd be guided by conditions and management considerations, rather than optimising meat quality for one tup. But if you have no constraints, then whenever he can have been having nice fresh grass for a month.
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I've read conflicting stuff on whether to send a ram outside of tupping time - in the main the advice seems to be before the testosterone levels get high or after
Anyone any actual experience of this ?
Sally - you seem to have, from your comments above What is your view please?
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As I said, we have sent tups off after tupping and never had any issues with the meat we got back. But, like boar taint, it could be one of those things that doesn't always happen but *can* happen. So if you want there to be no risk and it's not a problem to keep him till spring, then do that. If you'd rather have him away and would be okay if you were unlucky and ended up with mince that needs curried and/or fed to the dogs, I'd send him off now.
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Thanks. I'd rather sell him live if I can. We're not short of meat having already put an old ewe in our freezer earlier in the year and are also having back one of the lambs that are going to slaughter soon.
He'll be in with the ewes October and November and for grass management reasons we had planned to leave him in with them for December as well so his field is rested for a full three months, but I'll advertise him for sale in December so if he's sold then that would be great. But if not I think I'll just hang on to him till about May and send him to slaughter then. He'll have had a bit of spring grass by then. And another question - I normally have him shorn in May so should he go to slaughter after being shorn or shall I leave him with fleece on?
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Why don’t you send him to your local market? Cull prices are good and if you don’t need the meat back that’s where I’d send him straight after tupping. If sending in May I’d not bother wasting money to have him shorn.
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We’ve just sent a shearling ram to slaughter.. he hadn’t been used but was out with our older ram. The meat is rich but not in slightest tainted👌
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Why don’t you send him to your local market? Cull prices are good and if you don’t need the meat back that’s where I’d send him straight after tupping. If sending in May I’d not bother wasting money to have him shorn.
I've never sent a sheep to market! Not even sure when/where our local livestock market is - probably Swaffham - but if his destiny is to be turned into mince then I'd rather he went straight to the abattoir (less than half an hour from here) than have the stress of going through a market first.