The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: TheSmilingSheep on July 16, 2014, 07:42:33 pm
-
enjoying sitting in a field, on a summer's evening, with our balwen lambs - five boys and a girl - all boys were castrated (with rings) so that they can enjoy a couple of summers with us - but noting that a couple of the lads have some pretty good horns. indeed one lamb has a beautiful set, and he just head butted me.... proper ram fashion.... does this mean that we failed to castrate properly? is there a way of telling the difference between playful butting and 'I'm a ram' butting - short of unexpected births.... They all run in a small flock with their mums and half sisters / cousins.....
also.... one of the boy lambs, with no real horn growth, still has the ring and testacles visibly hanging, though castrated in April - does this also mean things have gone wrong?
all help appreciated hugely, as ever...
-
is the bawbag dry and shrivelled? if so theres no need to worry.
ref retained testicles - did you feel both prior to castration? were both inside the banded bawbag? can you feel any balls between his legs?
i was going to say - wethers horns are more female in appearance. a tups horns are much thicker and quite obvious from a distance in a horned breed.
but the 2 balwen ewes i had were polled....
-
My Soay wether has beautiful curved horns, still much smaller compared to my tup but just as curved.
Though I have been wondering about the efficiency of his castration (he came to me as a wether) as he does show some interest in the girls (but gets summarily beaten up and kept at a distance by the tup during the critical time - they are best of chums the rest of the time)
-
I have BWM, so similar to Balwen.
Castrated => no horns, or just little stubs (size depending on the age at castration)
Not castrated => horns.
Half castrated/one testicle => horns.
Short-scrotum castration (ringing the sac but leaving testes in body cavity) => horns.
Hope that helps :).
It would be worth looking at the one that you can see still has the ring and testicles visible, they should have dropped off long ago.