newton's the goats journal

[newton the goat]

Right now my dad is currently debating on keeping Ramsey or not.... In my opinion I adore his lambs.

He has one of the sweetest personalities, and is extremely easy to work with (he stands still and let's me check him over and lift his feet) I couldn't wish for a better first ram. All of our ewes were bred which is great! (Sara has a small little udder finally growing!!!!! ) and honestly as long as we control which ewes he breeds in the future and keep the Rams separated instead of having one with the ewes 24/7, my father just wants to invest in a higher quality ram to make sure as the herd grows we get the best quality lambs we can afford to make. But still my father is constantly running over the pros and cons we've been talking.... And though I don't like it I've been trying to throw both pros and cons too
In my opinion Ramsey has good parysite resistance and a nice straight back but his shoulders could have more muscle and he could be a bit bigger and heavier but both of those may come with maturity as well... Who knows we may have to wait and see. Really in the end it all comes down to the health and future of our herd and so far he has given us unusually large healthy lambs so if we keep him I need to keep track of who can handle said larger lambs and who can't.

In other news since this topic is making me sad, anyone for some lamb yoga?

 

[Baymule]

How many ewes do you have and do you have enough space and pens for 2 rams? You could continue to breed Ramsey to your ewes, and ram #2 to Ramsey's daughters.

 

[newton the goat]

How many ewes do you have and do you have enough space and pens for 2 rams? You could continue to breed Ramsey to your ewes, and ram #2 to Ramsey's daughters.

Including the new ewe and the lambs we will be up to ten (hopefully more by the end of lambing season) and we have three habitable fields and but the end of spring we will have set up and fenced two more so we will have five with lots of space for the herd. So as long as we put a shelter in he field next to their current habitat we can have the Rams there with no issues. And that's what my idea was as well but as my dad says he seriously wants to look into getting a better quality ram

 

[Baymule]

I have a shelter on skids that I originally built for hogs. The floor is a sheet of plywood, so not very big, but big enough for several sheep. We have dragged it around as needed. It has sheltered hogs, weaning lambs and the whole flock. You can also build a hoop shelter from cow panels.

 

[Latestarter]

I know you like Ramsey, but I have to side with your dad on this issue... the Ram is more than 1/2 of your herd. the most important 1/2. Every lamb produced is 1/2 his genetics. You really need the best ram you can afford once you get serious about breeding for quality. If you're breeding for market lambs, for example, parasite resistance isn't really a major issue as the animals will be terminal and you won't be worming them anyway. You want the thriftiest animals that put on the most weight, fastest, with the lowest bone to meat percentage, and the lowest feed requirements. Just saying. In addition, the new ram would immediately be ready to breed all females without line breeding concerns. Then again, line breeding is also not an issue with terminal animals.

 

[rachels.haven]

Hello from just outside Detroit, Newton!

I've only been following along for a little while, but it looks like you're doing beautiful work with your sheep. Love that red color. I only breed birds and rabbits, so line breeding is less of a concern, but if you really really want to keep Ramsey and you can shoulder having him around you could always split the herd and give him your original ewes and the new ram Ramsey's daughters. But then your flock could potentially wind up being twice as big with two sheep houses needed and all that that entails-twice the work! But you'd have twice the ram to love on as well.
This is the case with one of my muscovy drakes. His genetics aren't great, but he's more of a pet and not going anywhere, but needs girls or they get difficult to deal with as they get frustrated. So we're building our beef duck herd around keeping him, which might be silly, but hey, I love my dog-duck and would never process or send him to someone who would. I haven't split our flock yet (grumble, grumble, grumble... frozen ground), but I should. Maybe you can convince your dad that you need 2 flocks of sheep?

If that doesn't work you can use the "heir and a spare" theory. One male does the breeding, the other male stands by in case something happens to male 1 or his fertility so you never have to run out and get another ram or risk having open females for undetermined time. Not so fun for the spare sometimes, but you can always spoil him while he's not servicing ewes.

I'm not sure how you could go about finding out, but it might be useful to know how many generations sheep can go without suffering a loss of vigor. Then it might be useful to know if your sheep are already closely related. That's why pedigrees are awesome. Wish they made them for cross bred animals too...

Whatever you do, at the moment you've got beautiful sheep!

 

[Bruce]

Ive let the breeder know ill be heading down there sometime in february as soon as i have a cover for the back of my truck or a livestock box i may possibly be able to borrow.

Have @Latestarter check the integrity of whatever you use


I kinda fail to see the value of replacing 1 ram with another if there is a concern related to line breeding. Wouldn't you have to replace new ram in a couple of years anyway? If there is space it does seem like multiple rams would be the way to go. Or get friendly with several other sheep owners with quality rams so you can all "share" them through time.

 

[Mike CHS]

We are swapping our ram in a couple of months. Similar pedigree and same age so it's a wash for both of us.

 

[newton the goat]

We are swapping our ram in a couple of months. Similar pedigree and same age so it's a wash for both of us.

I wish there were people in our are willing to do that (or even people with hair sheep for that matter)

 

[Latestarter]

Well, you know, there's lots of land down here where it's warm most of the year vice cold most of the year. And lots of folks around these parts have hair sheep. Oh, and there are also some pretty good BYH folks in these here parts as well. Just let us know when you're on your way and we'll help out as much as we can