The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: postman88 on May 28, 2013, 05:16:33 pm
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I have some small paddocks which I have my sheep in, the ram is in one and I have 6 ram lambs to wean and they will need to go in the paddock with my ram, is it safe or will the ram be aggressive to them. They are about 10-12 weeks old now! please let me know asap to [email protected] as I need to get them out the shed I have put them in for the time being. Cherrs
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They will jostle a bit for the first day or two but they will very quickly settle. With a single older tup he will obviously be the boss, so there's not much to argue about.
He will probably try to mount all the lambs, but that is just a dominance thing.
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I would be cautious about feeding the lambs creep in the same pen as the ram. If they are not separated at feeding, and he thinks they are eating his food, wow, watch those lambs fly!
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HELLO, IM A BIT OF A NOVICE TOO, HAVING OUR FIRST ATTEMPT AT BREEDING THIS YEAR. MY RAM HAS REMAINED WITH THE EWES THROUGH BIRTHING, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE PENNED FOR A WEEK BUT RELEASED BACK INTO THE GROUP ONCE STRONG AND UP AND AROUND WITHOUT PROBLEMS. THE YOUNG LAMBS TEND TO PLAY WITH OUR RAM AND OCCASIONALLY BITE HIS EAR TAGS. THEY ARE OUESSANT SHEEP - WE HAVE FOUND NO PROBLEMS, AS LONG AS THEY HAVE PLENTY OF SPACE WHEN FEEDING TO AVOID BEING BUTTED OUT OF THE WAY.
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Rams are rams, and can be unpredictable. Its always best to be cautious when they are concerned. They are not all red eyed snorting monsters, but even the nicest and quietest can suddenly change. My experience is limited, but all the shepherds I talk to, say, never turn your back on one
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My ram lives with my ewes and lambs all year round and he is great with them I know for a fact if anything tried to get to the lambs he would soon put and end to it....but he is fine with me and father in law near them but no one else.....when the male lambs get older they know who is boss though....
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Lambs with their mothers with the ram - no problem. Orphan lambs, no ewe to protect them - could be different.
Having said which, I wouldn't expect any problems except perhaps over the feed trough; the ram can assert his dominance over wee lambies without having to try too hard!
What breed is your ram?
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I'm now wondering why you are weaning them so young? I didn't notice that bit with my first answer. We leave ours until 4 months, so 16 weeks, before separating them from their dams, and they are never fed creep feed. The ram shouldn't be eating any concentrates, especially in the summer, and yes, if the lambs are being fed creep feed then the balance of behaviour will be changed
So I suppose the answer to your question is, as always 'it depends'.
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I too am mildly confused about the weaning. 4 Months is nescessary if the rams aren't ringed, but if they were, I could leave them 5.
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We have put our cades and early weaned lambs (we weaned the hoggs' lambs at 6-7 weeks old) out with a couple of rams and they have been fine together, obviously observed them at first to see if they would be ok together. We are however bringing this group of lambs back in overnight at the moment to feed them, and if we stop bringing them in overnight would set up a creep feeding pen for them to keep the rams out.
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we are currently very anxious about putting our ram lambs (4 months old) in with our mature wilts horn ram as he is one of those snorting monsters- great care has to be taken around him and DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK
. until yesterday he was living with our neighbours mature ram who settled down peacefully together after an initial few days of pretty full on butting.. unfortunately our neighbours ram is now off to do his duty leaving our boy curentlyon his own. our worry is that if our small boys get the same treatment it will damage them or worse. - the alternative is that big fella as to be alone until the job starts in late october- cant workout what to do.
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The days are noticeably shortening now and we're moving towards tupping time, so caution with rams is advisable, particularly as the older they get the more aggressive many seem to become. I generally wean at 16 weeks too. The ewe converting grass to milk is a lot cheaper than creep.
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Was reading an article in Scottish Farmer about sheep production which recommended weaning at 12-14 weeks because after that the lambs are competing with the ewes for grass. We wean at 16 weeks or so and I did consider weaning earlier after reading the article. Then I went out in the paddocks and was mid-calf in grass so I didn't think competition is an issue at our stocking rates - I'll wait until 16 weeks.
I am also planning to put the tup lambs in with Nemo. Bit anxious as he can be a snorty monster, unlike his predecessor who was a gentle giant.
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Could be OK depending on how much room the lambs have to get out of the way.
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yes marches we were thinking tat provided they have plenty of room and realise early on that he is the boss and dont mess with him then it might be ok. we've got about an acre and a half earmarked so should be big enough. they're certainly nimble enough to evade us easily