[Feet]

Hey Please can I have some advise...

If you butcher an intact ram lamb is it like with boars do you get a taint to the meat or is there no difference at all?

I have a ram lamb who I kept entire and I am unsure whether to sell him or butcher him.  He is lovely purebred but not registered coloured ryeland.  Does anyone know if these lambs sell well or what price he could fetch?

Thanks
Hannah

[Fleecewife]

'Taint' is a personal thing - some people can detect it, others can't, some people like it, others don't.  It's unlikely that a ram lamb would have taint unless he has been close to ewes - this is the breeding season so the most likely time to develop taint, but really I would think he would be fine. It's more of a problem with older tups.
 
Sorry - I don't know anything about the sale value of an unregistered Ryeland tup but I'm sure someone else will 

[Anke]

Eat him... would be my choice. If he is unregistered he probably will not sell for that much and if your freezer is empty....

[Rosemary]

I agree with Anke. He's worth more to you in teh freezer than what you'll get for breeding if he's unregistered. We don't castrate our Ryelands and send the yups off late October and we've never had any taint problem.

[Canadian Sheepfarmer]

I agree, I find that taint only gets 'tasteable' if they have been around ewes later in the year. It is pretty horrible, we have one in the freezer right now, but we only serve it as curry which is the best use for it and for which it is fine.
 
A cowboy neighbour of mine bought a pack of sheep because the prices were good a coupla years ago, knowing nothing about sheep. He didn't ring the boys properly and consequently the ram lambs were breeding the ewes: their mothers.
Frustrated at trying to catch them he eventually resorted to shooting them from the saddle of his horse every time he spotted one hard at it. He cut them up and ate them. He told me that he couldn't believe how bad lamb tasted and was amazed that anyone would buy it when they could buy beef or shoot deer!
He sold the lot shortly after...

[Feet]

Well he has been seperated but he wont go for kill until end of next summer and I always leave mine over a year.  From what you guys are saying he may have some taint by then.  Is that a correct assumption?

[Rosemary]

I think taint will only be a problem if he's around in- season ewes close to slaughter.

I'd be interested to hear what the carcase is like when he is slaughtered. I find it difficult to keep the condition off the Ryelands at six / seven months old.

[kaz]

Unregistered Ryeland rams will sell. Some people love to use them to cross with other purebreed sheep to produce good meat lambs or even those who have unregistered Ryeland flocks. I have sold unregistered rams in the past quite easily.
Try selling him if you want to. Even someone on this forum might be interested if you test the waters. There is always a buyer somewhere, you just won't get as much money as if he was registered but you will get money if he is a good ram.

[Moleskins]

Well I'd say eat him, I've had to sell all my sheep and some of them you could hardly give away. Everyone's offloading stock due to expected high feed costs this Winter. Mine went due to loss of grazing not lack of quality and the Ryelands were registered ones.

[Feet]

Unregistered Ryeland rams will sell. Some people love to use them to cross with other purebreed sheep to produce good meat lambs or even those who have unregistered Ryeland flocks. I have sold unregistered rams in the past quite easily.
Try selling him if you want to. Even someone on this forum might be interested if you test the waters. There is always a buyer somewhere, you just won't get as much money as if he was registered but you will get money if he is a good ram.

Obviously you can't say because you havn't seen him but what would be a reasonable price to ask for him as I would prefer to sell him and he is a lovely lad and he would love to spend his days with the ladies and he is friendly and halter trained.

[Moleskins]

Unregistered Ryeland rams will sell. Some people love to use them to cross with other purebreed sheep to produce good meat lambs or even those who have unregistered Ryeland flocks. I have sold unregistered rams in the past quite easily.
Try selling him if you want to. Even someone on this forum might be interested if you test the waters. There is always a buyer somewhere, you just won't get as much money as if he was registered but you will get money if he is a good ram.

Obviously you can't say because you havn't seen him but what would be a reasonable price to ask for him as I would prefer to sell him and he is a lovely lad and he would love to spend his days with the ladies and he is friendly and halter trained.

This comes up on here a lot, they're all lovely lads and everyone wants them to have a lovely time with the 'ladies' I wouldn't expect to pay more than the meat value for an unproven ram lamb.

[colliewoman]

I'm with Moleskins on this one. I'm sure he is lovely, and I'm sure he means an awful lot to you but....
If he isn't proven and isn't registered you can't really ask more than meat lamb prices.
Is there no way you could register him? Registered would be a whole different ball game.


Sometimes you have to make harsh decisions, which you may need to if you can't sell him.
I have 2 lovely boys here at the moment, both wethers both lovely fleeces. I could come up with a hundred reasons why I should keep them. But if I keep them it will be 2 more mouths to feed over winter for 2 fleeces per year. I have had interest in them as pets but, and I may be alone here, I will not sell wethers as pets. I don't believe that they are a wise buy for Joe Public and have seen too many cases of pet sheep neglected and forgotten once the novelty has worn off.
See if you can't get him registered, he would be much easier to sell then

[SallyintNorth]

I don't know where you are but someone with a crossbred spinner's flock just may have been interested in him - but I would think they'll all have made their tupping choices for the year by now.

If you did find a 'working home' for him, then I agree, fat price.  Someone would work him now, keep him until the taint had passed, and probably sell him before he gets his adult teeth for a good price (more than they pay you now) in the new year, or put him in their own freezer.

I'd happily do that with a Southdown (and may well do so if I can source a suitable Southdown then the time comes) when my little fleece flock are all old enough to take a non-primitive tup.   My girls will always be a bit small for a Ryeland, or I'd know where I could arrange such a thing with a Ryeland tup lamb...   I haven't enough fleece sheep to warrant keeping a tup all year, but I could do the buy-work-fitten-sell thing,  no bother.  Just gotta find a Southdown tup lamb in Scotland... 

[Feet]

Is peoples general experiance that late summer ie before mating season he should have very little to no taint even if he is a year old by then?

[SallyintNorth]

As long as the hormones haven't started flowing in the vicinity, there shouldn't be any taint.