The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Declan on October 13, 2010, 01:40:44 am
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Why is a shearling ram more expensive than a ram lamb if they do the same job for you? do they do the same job? i am looking at buying a lleyn ram to put with my ewes. do you recommend a ram lamb (february born) or a shearling ram.
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A shearling will be able to serve more ewes. Also, it is easier to see the quality of a shearling than a ram lamb. I divide my ewes into small groups anyway, each with it's own ram, so I frequently use lambs, often to 'prove' them ie see that they are fertile, and the type of lambs they throw - if they are good, then I might sell them on as proven shearling rams the following year. If you are just breeding up to 10 or 15 ewes for meat lambs, a ram lamb would be fine, and easier to handle.
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..............ram lamb (february born) or a shearling ram.
What does shearling mean (in it's 2nd year?) ?
Why can a shearling ram serve more ewes ?
:sheep: :dunce:
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its been sheared hence second year. its bigger and has more shall we say love in him. ram lambs can be a little shy.
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...........has more shall we say love in him. ram lambs can be a little shy.
ah, I see! ;) thanks shetlandpaul - very nicely put! :D
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Slightly off topic but i heard a funny story yesterday. A man with 8 different rare breeds of sheep, each with its own ram and each in its own paddock. At lambing time all the ewes produced black lambs and he only had 1 black breed of sheep. They concluded that the ram had been jumping pen each night and yet was never seen out of his own paddock, seems like a clever boy to me and very prolific, quite amazing that he beat all the other rams to their ewes.
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I strapped a raddle harness on my Ram Lamb, Hercules, born Dec 28 last year, just to see if he was up to much. Let's just say he has been doing the business, hasn't been at all shy about it either, although I do only have 9 ewes...
Let's hope he isn't a Jaffa!
:love:
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Leo has got a scent of the ewes. He's been patrolling the boundary fence of his field onto the paddock between him and the girls. They've been bleating to him. Hopefully, they'll all be tanked up two weeks tomorrow when he goes in ;D
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Going back to the original question, another reason shearlings are more expensive than lambs is that the breeder had had to feed and dose them for an extra year.