[ladyK]

As it turns out, what was sold to me as a Soay wether must be a rigg, as he has decided to challenge my main breeding ram. Gasp... 
(This is my second season with both, but I only realised the issue now - it wasn't a problem last year, as the wether was still young, and didn't dare to challenge).

The ram was separate with the breeding ewes until now, but I need to rest my second paddock now until May as this is my lambing field, so today I reunited the flock, and they started fighting again straight away. There was a lot of posturing going on, but some serious head banging too, and I got too worried to leave them to it and work it out - separated them again after 20 minutes.
The ram is now on his own in a separate small fenced area at the bottom of the main field - it's down a dip so he can't really see the others unless they graze at the bottom which is not often.

My original plan was to sell the ram as a breeding animal rather than slaughter him - he is registered and very handsome, a truly impressive animal with rare markings for a Soay. However he is now 4 years old - maybe that is that too old for a Soay tup to sell easily and it would be better to send him off?
The wether was going to go to slaughter with two of last year's wether lambs after the summer - the lambs are still far too small now, and I have no other sheep to go off with him if he was to go now.

I am aware that I can't keep him in that tiny paddock for too long, even less so on his own, but I'm really not sure how to best resolve this in the short term.
- give him some female company (but not sure who to 'sacrifice' to the additional stress of being separated from the rest)
- put the wether in with him, and in the absence of any females they will calm down soon (but the ewes won't be far)
- leave them to fight it out (but I have not enough experience to gauge how far they would go... but  maybe I did separate them too quickly today?)
- take them both to slaughter now (but maybe  too early for the 'taint' to dissipate?)

Help please!

[Fleecewife]

It doesn't mean your wether is a rigg (you would know by the size of his horns - a wether's horns will be the size of a ewe's, a rigg's horns will be closer in size to a tup's of the same age).  Soay wethers can be just as pushy as Soay tups.  We just leave ours to tough it out.  A tup v a wether is going to be a bit of a one-sided fight so the wether should soon realise he has no chance of being top dog.   The old way of putting the two together in a very small pen, with no room to manoeuver and leaving them overnight often works.  They will still have head to heads, but tups heads are extremely strong and can take the most amazing clashes.  The worst that can happen is that the tup will break the wether's neck - in all the years I have kept sheep I have never seen that happen, although I did once have a young tup which died of a brain injury from fighting.
Another option is to put other wethers or tups in with them, which dilutes the aggression.
Were it me, I would just let them get on with it and go out for an hour so you can't see what's going on.

If your Soay tup is good, four years old is not too old to sell him on.  You will get less for him, but a big advantage is that he is proven.  If you have a progeny record for him, that will be useful to future purchasers.  On the other hand, there are always more tups available than are needed, so he may not sell, especially at this time of year.  The best time is in the Autumn when shepherds are planning the breeding of their flocks.

[Gunnermark]

After a few clashes the wether will realise who is boss.

[ladyK]

The thing is, now that I know I should look at his horns, I'm even more convinced the wether is a rigg - he's got nice curled horns, certainly more like a tup than anything else. He's had curled horns when he came to me as a shearling, so the breeder should have known really... but not something that occurred to me as a possibility as a sheep novice. I shall know better now...

So I'm not so sure the wether is at such an obvious disadvantage... should I still let them fight it out?

Shutting them in a hurdle pen is not an option really as they both have been known to jump over hurdles, practically from standing... maybe I can shut them in the straw store... fully enclosed but just as cramped?

[ladyK]

Well, the 'close confinement' method seems to have worked, even though it was for a very short while!
After the ram spent the night in a separate area, this morning I shut them both in a triangular hurdle pen, they were practically sandwiched between the hurdles and could not move much at all. Thought that would prevent both fighting and jumping out.
I was planning to leave them there for an hour while I was doing other chores around the field, but by the time I had mucked out the donkey shed the 'wether' had managed to get out of the pen!    he somehow managed to climb up the hurdle bars!... So I let the ram out too, expecting the fighting to start again immediately and kind of resolved to walk away and leave them to it, but it seems the 'wether' had made up his mind to concede. There was more posturing than banging, and the wether would turn away most of the time, so I'm hoping order is restored, for now at least.

So it seems I overreacted yesterday  - thanks for helping me see that more clearly. Now I know there is a problem so I have to make sure I stick to the original plan to get them both away one way or another by autumn the latest.

[Fleecewife]

Oh that's good - I'm glad it's all worked out.  You should probably mention to the person you bought him from that he is a rigg, as it means they need to try harder with the castration ring.

I've found the best time to send off entire males is in July or August, before the bare bits on their bellies have started to blush up.  That means they aren't even thinking about breeding, so there should be no taint.

[hafod]

I'm glad it seems to have worked too - well done! It feels so wrong to put two animals who seem intent on fighting till the death in close quarters but it does seem to do the trick!
We recently sold our North Ronaldsay ram (who will be 6 this year) on. I think we had him advertised for about 6 weeks before anyone showed any interest and I even rang round all the RBST farm parks with Ronnies to see if they would take him on (as he would happily stand to be fussed all day). He has now found a home with another small holder wanting to start breeding. Fingers crossed it all works out for you.

If it makes you feel any better we had a whether that was most probably a rigg too - beautiful curly horns! Why I didn't consider this odd at the time I don't know. He went in the freezer in November at 18 months old and the meat didn't have a noticeable taint (phew!) I think we were lucky!