Boys-Leave 'em alone or castrate them?

[Heather]

We had twin ram lambs born this morning and I wanted to know everyone's thoughts on castration or leaving them intact. Normally I castrate our bull calves the day they are born with a knife unless they are registered. I know the lambs would grow better left alone but I don't need several rams running around. We are going to be raising one for butcher and the other will most likely be sold. If you do castrate them how do you do it? Banding? crushing? knife? Thank you all!

 

[purplequeenvt]

We use bands. We also only castrate rams that are being purchased as pets. The rest get to keep their nuts. This works for us because we have the space to separate ram lambs out from everyone else.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

My meat costumers prefer them intact and I have room to keep rams and ewes separate so I don't bother castrating unless they're going to be a fiber pet. I use a burdizzo to castrate but everyone has their own preferred method.

 

[BrownSheep]

We prefer ours wethered. We generally keep our lambs until they are almost a year and it is just easier for us even though we do have a separate area for rams.

If you do band we have found they tend to reach better if they are done with in the first 3 weeks. It is also a two man job!

 

[bonbean01]

Ours are banded and we don't have enough land to separate them. If we wait longer than 10 days old, it can be a problem as those things grow quickly. At a week both have descended well. Wethered lambs are here until late fall, and we can enjoy them without worry.

Agree...it is a two person job, and I give a dose of liquid children's ibuprofen 15 minutes before banding them for pain. Vet says that is safe and to take their weight and double the amount for a human baby for the right dose. Liquid Tylenol is not safe for lambs. Most people don't bother with that, but well...they are babies.

 

[Womwotai]

Good info for me too. If I could add on to the OP's question by asking at what age ram lambs start to be a "problem" if the herd is all kept together? I.e., if I am growing them out to butcher in the fall, are they going to cause problems for the ewes during their lambhood?

 

[bonbean01]

Yes Wom....they can breed pretty early and you don't want them breeding their mother or sisters...actually pretty early breeders if they are hair sheep. Not sure about wool sheep though?

 

[BrownSheep]

Well depends on the breed. If you have seasonal breeders you probably would be safe at least until August. Even then I've noticed it takes our ram lambs generally until October/November to really get performing.

 

[SheepGirl]

For me it depends. Lambs that I know have no chance of being herdsire quality, are castrated by 3 wks of age with a band. Usually it is done at the time of docking (1 day to 1 wk old). Lambs that could be a herdsire (born triplet, out of a great ewe, etc) are kept intact. Even if their weaning weights say they shouldn't be bred, they are kept intact but are just taken to auction. For my ram lambs I think have potential, I will be keeping until they are yearlings to see how they grow out and will sell as breeding stock or just take them to auction.

 

[Heather]

Thank you all for the responses! One other question, has anyone ever used ralgro on their ram lambs. We use it on our slaughter steers but NEVER on our heifers because it can mess with breeding later in life.