[SallyN]

I am thinking of keeping some ram lambs for growing on a bit longer next year. Current routine is that I separate them off on weaning and kill out at about 5-6 months, but they are still quite small at this stage (they're Dorset Downs) and I am thinking I would get more meat if I left them longer.

I don't like to castrate - in fact so far I've never had to. People tell me though that if you keep an entire ram to maturity the meat is tainted. Is this true? Has anyone actually tasted tainted meat? When you say tainted, do you mean there's a bit of a funny aftertaste or that the whole thing is rendered inedible?

My friend who keeps pigs says she's kept boars longer than you're supposed to and has never noticed any taint to the meat. But it might be different with sheep of course.

Any advice from experience (rather than old wives' tales/rumours!) very much welcomed! Thank you 

[Fleecewife]

The only tainted sheep meat I have tasted was from a 7yo tup, and that was pretty vile. It was very oily, with a strong taste, hard to disguise even with loads of curry spices.
We routinely send our entire Hebridean males off at 16 months, from summer grass, and they are as sweet as can be.  I have wondered about Shetlands though as they can smell quite 'rammy' as they get older, so perhaps that might continue on into the meat.  Has anyone else noticed if a smelly, rammy lamb goes on to be smelly, 'rammy' meat?

[bj_cardiff]

I don't castrate either, I sell all of my sheep to a commercial buyer. I've heard about Ram Taint but I reason that if there was a possibility of Ram Lambs being tainted then they'd sell for less, so everyone would castrate.

I think the Ram Taint is strong in older rams, I assume it hormonal and would smell something like the Ram does in the Autumn months. I've sent off several yearling rams to slaughter for myself during their second summer and they've been delicious.

[Buttermilk]

I dislike eating lamb because it has too strong a sheep flavour.  I think that I must have been fed rams in my childhood.  For a really strong flavour try uncastrated male goat, they taste exactly how they smell.

[chrismahon]

We slaughtered an uncastrated Texel ram at 9 months and the meat was heavily tainted to the extent that, even in a hot curry, you could taste it. We did eat it all but always covered it in strong sauces.

[Marches Farmer]

I think it can very between individuals, too.  We've kept rams from both our breeds that you could smell as soon as you stepped through the gate at tupping time and others with no discernible smell at all.  We don't castrate our rams but only keep the best for breeding and sell the rest as stores.

[SallyintNorth]

I have wondered about Shetlands though as they can smell quite 'rammy' as they get older, so perhaps that might continue on into the meat.  Has anyone else noticed if a smelly, rammy lamb goes on to be smelly, 'rammy' meat?

Chad, my Shetland tup, worked three seasons, including as a lamb.  After his final tupping, I’d been going to keep him on for a while to get past the hormonal stage and also to give him a chance to regain some condition after tupping.  However, he wouldn’t settle with his wether companions, even though one was an old friend who’d been with him throughout.  So we sent him off anyway, had it all minced, and figured we could curry it or feed it to the dogs (we had ten dogs here at the time) if it was tainted.  He was quite a smelly boy as we loaded him.  We didn’t have it hung, he was slaughtered Monday, butchered Wednesday and back with us Thursday.  We cooked a pack of the mince that evening and it was no different to good hogget.  The weight was surprisingly good, too.

So on my experience of a single Shetland tup, sending him off only a couple of weeks after working, at around 32 months old, even though he was quite a smelly boy, there was no taint in the meat at all.

[Nelson International]

No experience with sheep, but my experience with pigs is that there’s a lot of mythology about boar taint - people are so concerned about it that they seem to err very heavily on the side of caution and worry about it much earlier than is realistic I think.

I’m interested because I have two Welsh mountain ram lambs who are going to be going as hogget & obviously is like them to be as tasty as possible. I’ve not noticed any rammy smell on them yet - what’s it like?

[Twotwo]

I’ve only had a couple of seasons experience but I have sent Dorset Down rams lambs to slaughter, they come back with no taint and they seem to be leaner than the ewe lambs. I sent them at 5 months weighing between 39 and 35. Everyone who has had the meats says is wonderful

[daveh]

We have sent off Castlemilk Moorit rams after they have done their duty with no tainted meat. Tastes just the same as the other hoggets. Perhaps the secret is to let them settle down for two or three months after they have performed their duties so as to give the raging hormones a chance to subside.

Regards, Dave

[shep53]

Seems to vary between males  , some of the nicest mutton iv eaten came from a 7yr old ram killed in oct and while I  very rarely  say the meat is strong in taste my wife notices it alot

[Tim W]

We finish 500/600 entire ram lambs every year with no worries, eat a few myself and almost all the direct sold lamb i sell is from entire males ---everyone loves it. The last get killed at about 10 months old usually

Entire males have better growth rates but will carry less fat

[waterbuffalofarmer]

we twend to send oyur rams lambs off at about 5-6 months of age, just as they are starting to work, never had any problems. To avoid ram taint I would advise to keep away from site/smell of any ewes/ewe lambs. But unless they start to really smell I don't think it matters too much tbh. Ask your abbatoir or vet and they should be able to advise