The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Primitive Sheep => Topic started by: islaSkye on February 22, 2019, 07:14:34 pm
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Hi All,
We lambed in 2017 and had two males born which we decided to keep and halter train. one was castrated at week 1 (or so we thought! - turns out he must have sucked them up into his stomach that day!) the other left intact as a tup. We since have had a change of heart and no longer want to use the intact ram and a tup as he doesnt show favourable traits and it constantly head butting everything in sight from fence posts to his water trough!
would sending them in to the vets for castration calm the tup down? we would ideally like to merge the two rams (who are currently in a field together and seem to get on other than a few arguments over the food trough) with a small flock of ewes as its getting hard to keep them separate. They are both Hebridean sheep and the ewe flock is a mix bag of breeds.
what do you all think? is it possible castration will prevent the anger issues? or is he destined for the meat locker? :'(
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I would send them off for meat together (it's cruel to send just one). Castration might calm him down but on the other hand it might just have little effect at all, as he has now developed all his male characteristics. A tup, who will get stronger year on year, who smashes up posts, gates and so on, will go for you next, and the ewes. Quite honestly the cost of castration of a mature animal is not cheap. I would spend the cash at the abattoir and enjoy some tasty meals. You could send them off in May, before they get smelly by tupping time, but after they have fattened on some Spring grass.
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If you've got a head-butter I would get rid of asap. I think castration will probably help, but after spending a lot of time and money fencing my place any ram that wrecked the fencing would be gone pretty sharpish! I watched my neighbours ram systematically destroy her fencing and let the other sheep out on a weekly basis!