[Sr142012]

Evening all,

I am looking to buy a ram at some point this year to put with my ewes end of the year. There will only be a few going to the ram as the others will still be young so I am looking to keep him separate until putting him in ( will take out the ewe lambs when I do) I have two pet soay wethers who live with my horses in a separate field down the road. Is it likely he would fight with them if I kept him there? The Soays are coming up for 2 years.

Obviously I know I can’t keep the poor fella on his own but equally don’t want to end up making a bad decision.

Has anyone done this?

Thanks 😊😊

[Fleecewife]

All our male sheep are together in one field, adult tups, tup lambs, tup hoggs and wethers.  There is normally no fighting at all.  After tupping time, when they all come back together there is a bit of jostling and shoving, and the occasional clash of horns, but they have an established 'pecking order' which returns to normal pretty quickly.  When new lambs, or older bought-in tups join the group then there may be a little bit of chasing and head butting for a while, but the top tup will put a stop to it. If not, then sheep do 'take a telling' ie clap your hands and shout at them to grow up and they will stop and wander off in opposite directions
You don't say what breed your tup is, but knowing Soays well, I would say that any aggression or squabbling will come from the soays not the tup.


There are ways you can reduce the chance of initial head butting, such as penning them all up together very tightly for a few hours, then feed them on release, then just let them get on with it.


I have just noticed that this will be going on with horses in the field.  I have no knowledge of that situation.

[SallyintNorth]

Our tup lives with 3 wethers for company and I often put the 4 of them with the ponies.  The tup and 2 of the wethers are polled, the senior wether has small horns but is a gent and no problem. 

Putting an unhorned tup with a horned tup would be a recipe for needing fallen stock to take away the carcase.  I would not expect your Soay wethers to be aggressive towards a tup but I have no experience of the breed, so, given @Fleecewife's comment that any aggression would be more likely to come from the Soays, there may be a need for caution.  Usually wethers have only rudimentary horns, but if they were castrated late they can have fairly hefty headgear. 

What breed of tup are you thinking of getting?  Will he be horned?  How big are the Soays' horns?