Ram Effect

[Casey17]

I am extremely new to sheep so please excuse me for the silly questions. I won't be putting this in place until next year, but I like to make notes to have a clear plan.

I currently have 3 different "pastures" for my sheep. One of them is actually just a small fenced area off of the bigger pasture. There is plenty of room and shelter, but only 1 ram or 1 ewe plus babies could live off it for an extended period.

Here are my thoughts on using the ram effect next year. Please let me know if this makes any sense and/or will work. I will keep my ewes on the biggest pasture, and put my ram in the middle sized pasture. The middle sized one is across the road. It is within manageable distance for me, but they will definitely not see each other, and I doubt they will smell each other.

I am thinking that when I start the ewes on grain for flushing I can move the ram into the small fenced area beside the big pasture. At this location that can definitely smell each other, and see each other, but will not be able to do the deed. Will this be enough for start their first cycle?

Please let me know if any of this makes sense. My husband doesn't work as much in the winter, and I would like to give him my fencing plan before then.

 

[SheepGirl]

We've never separated the rams from our ewes. They've always been penned or pastured right next to the them. My understanding is that the ram effect gets ewes to come into heat relatively all at once. However, if you haven't started breeding yet, and it's mid September, your ewes are probably already in heat and they are already cycling regularly.

We always aim for early or mid March babies. When we had a larger flock, ewes would be lambing every day or every other day. With my ewes this year, my mature ewes were bred within a week of each other and then two months later one of my ewe lambs was bred. This year I expect all of my mature ewes, yearling ewes, and ewe lambs to be bred within the month. I think my mature ewes have already had their first heat this year, but I'm not sure about my yearling ewes or my ewe lambs. They start getting flushed in four days. That will get them ovulating lots of eggs so I can have lots of babies born next year

Anyway, lol, back to your OP... What you have sounds fine if you want to take advantage of the ram effect.

 

[Casey17]

Thanks! I was hoping you would reply, since I have read MANY of your posts! I will be breeding some of them very soon, I am putting my ram in on September 26th. I also want to buy a few more ewes next year, and breed them out of season. I won't be able to wait an entire year from now to start!