The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: cairnhill on April 08, 2019, 03:44:58 pm
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I loaned out a ram and he was basically spoilt by the person by feeding him from the bucket. He has come back to the ram group and every time he sees me he comes running and looking for food and barging the others. This sets off everyone to shove and head butt and today my favourite little ram lamb has been battered senseless. I want rid of this boy asap. As he is not a very good example of the breed I don’t intend to use him in my breeding. I don’t want to pass on a problem but I don’t eat meat either so no use to me for that. I don't even think castrating him would help his pushy behaviour.
Any suggestions?
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He’s a problem and will only become more dangerous. You can’t pass him on.
Do you have any friends who eat meat?
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Hi SallyintNorth
I dont unfortunately and there wont be a great deal of meat on him as he is an Ouessant though bigger than breed standard. The meat is eaten in France where the breed originates but it is something of a delicacy I am told. I dare say it would be similar to other primitive breeds.
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Sounds as if the knacker would be your best bet, ie the company which collects fallen stock for incineration. They collect any day of the week, but you need to have him penned up ready. If you're anything like me, you point the driver, the man with the humane destroyer in the direction of the tup, then say 'give me a minute' and go and hide in the house til he's gone. For your tup, that will be the quickest and most stress free solution.
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Thanks for the reply Fleecewife. I didn’t realise the knacker would do that. I thought it was only for sick animals.
As you said it may be the best option.
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Ring the local home farm butchers shop and see it they will take him in on their next load. My butchers will take away any thing I have no use for which is a bonus as I do not have to pay the knacker, and they come and collect.
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Castration worked great for my charging ram . Didn't stop him being overly friendly so that may not be what you want but he might make a pet for someone else. Of course sending him for meat may be a preferred option. Can't see the point in letting the meat go to waste...
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Sounds as if the knacker would be your best bet, ie the company which collects fallen stock for incineration. They collect any day of the week, but you need to have him penned up ready. If you're anything like me, you point the driver, the man with the humane destroyer in the direction of the tup, then say 'give me a minute' and go and hide in the house til he's gone. For your tup, that will be the quickest and most stress free solution.
No need to pay the knacker to take him away. What a waste! Either sell him at the local meat market, or ring a local abattoir and ask if they'll buy him for meat. You might not get a lot for him, but he's definitely worth something!
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Sounds as if the knacker would be your best bet, ie the company which collects fallen stock for incineration. They collect any day of the week, but you need to have him penned up ready. If you're anything like me, you point the driver, the man with the humane destroyer in the direction of the tup, then say 'give me a minute' and go and hide in the house til he's gone. For your tup, that will be the quickest and most stress free solution.
No need to pay the knacker to take him away. What a waste! Either sell him at the local meat market, or ring a local abattoir and ask if they'll buy him for meat. You might not get a lot for him, but he's definitely worth something!
I am thinking what is the least stressful solution for both the ram and the OP who, being vegetarian, does not wish to eat him. A Ouessant is tiny so would yield little meat anyway and would only suffer going through all the stress of a mart, on his own, then travel somewhere else then finally a trip to the slaughterhouse. Getting the knacker in is quick and not stressful for the animal and not expensive in the great scheme of things. The way we treat our animals when they are pets is often very different to how we treat animals on a commercial scale.
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On a slightly different tack.... I am puzzled by the too small tag. We eat fish chicken rabbit..... quail? Yet a deadweight carcass of around 11kgs is deemed to small?
Put one of my own rams in the freezer last week. good size legs plus shoulders. Racks of ribs and the rest goes for ragout de mouton traditional slow cooked hotpot. Crocpot with meat plus carrotts stock etc and topped with potato and covered with belly pork .
Sending any animal to market is stressful and not my preferred option
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On a slightly different tack.... I am puzzled by the too small tag. We eat fish chicken rabbit..... quail? Yet a deadweight carcass of around 11kgs is deemed to small?
I think its too small to be worth the hassle and expense for any commercial buyer.
If the ram has a d/w of 11kg then I assume l/w is 22kg, at £1.60 a kg he'd be worth roughly £35 if sold through a market, (assuming commercial sheep prices). Then the cost of slaughter and butchery another £30, so after that he'd of cost £6.81 a kg before you made any profit!
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Someone will buy him- big abattoir buyers will buy out of spec sheep, old cull rams, old ewes. Might not get much for him but better than paying the knackerman.
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Someone will buy him- big abattoir buyers will buy out of spec sheep, old cull rams, old ewes. Might not get much for him but better than paying the knackerman.
We sent a scrawny old tup to the mart once, on the same basis. He fetched £3, and we didn’t have to pay the fallen stock £20.
Left a foul taste in my mouth and an ache in my belly I’ve never quite overcome.
And I was always uncomfortably aware that the person who paid £3 for him did it out of kindness, so he woiuld have only one more journey. And that the whole mart knew who had sent such a sorry animal in.
Some things are worth more than pounds and pence.
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Ouessant is fine grained lean sweet tasting meat. No comparison to the supermarket lamb. Horses for courses