Running a ram with ewes, NEW dumb questions!

[Cornish Heritage]

Will do. The last I heard was they were waiting for an ultrasound & they were contacting the local university.

Liz

 

[NachoFarm]

LOL, no hate for GEEPS! I'm just overwhelmed by having three pregnant ewes because after reading up on it it sounds like there is so much management involved, and so many things that can go wrong. We've only been "farmers" for a year now and I can't even grow vegetables properly let alone a GEEP!

 

[BrownSheep]

Haha you'll be fine! Bet you walk out there one morning a BOOM there's a baby. It's how my girls like to do it.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Ha! That has happened to me, too, Brownsheep, but a lot of other things too involving human interaction have happened, too!

Don't worry nacho, you will be SOOOO hooked once your first lambs come you'll be sleeping in the barn. lol

 

[bonbean01]

Oh that is so true Bridge!!!! Most exhausting, sleep deprived, worry wart time, but also my favourite time of year!!!! Once hooked, there is no cure by the way...you are going to love it and you'll do fine...read lots, be prepared and enjoy!

 

[Bridgemoof]

And bring your laptop into the barn while you're watching those lambies so you can talk to us and send us pics, too, We want to see what a GEEP looks like anyways

 

[bonbean01]

 

[NachoFarm]

I just spoke to the people that we're getting the ram from this weekend and she gave me some conflicting advice to what we had already heard. I know everyone's practices are personal and all the advice on here is subjective but I just wanted to run down what she said and get opinions because she basically tells me NOT to do everything that we were planning to do.

So here's her email in a nutshell~
That we cannot breed the ram to our one ewe because he is her father. This contradicts what I've read about line breeding and certain breeds. Although the whole topic of line breeding makes my brain leak.
That since the ram has been housed with another ram for the last two years that they will "miss each other".
She says, "You don't want the ram left in with the ewes especially when they are pregnant. The rams will push the ewes around and hog the food. Ewe's need extra nutrition when pregnant and nursing especially if they are still growing." We planned on running them all together all winter and then removing him in March before lambing happens.
That the ram will be aggressive with people if kept with the ewes.

I know that all of this can be true and technically untrue at the same time but we really only have one pasture right now and no way of separating him from the ewes right now. We also don't have anywhere to put him initially for any sort of "quarantine period". We're basically going to bring him home and let him loose. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[SheepGirl]

My old ram has bred his mother. I have 3 inbred lambs that turned out fine (Paulie I sold at auction though but I still have my two ewe lambs). Go ahead and breed him to his daughter. It's not going to hurt any unless negative recessive genes pop up.

My old ram, Billy, had been housed with another ram for 1-2 yrs. The day his buddy was sold he was lonely (because he was the only sheep left in his pasture) and he stayed lonely for the rest of that week (but he could still see the ewes when they were out in the field so he wasn't completely segregated from them). He was then moved up to my house and he was a complete angel being penned next to my ewes for the first month or so, but he just started to get mean & aggressive every single time I went into his pen. I'm not sure what caused his aggression because he had been used to being penned up overnight (here he was given 5x more space than what he's used to for being penned up overnight), but then again it wasn't for a couple months straight. But he got dangerous so I shipped him. I don't need a 184 lb ram (3/4 Babydoll Southdown 1/4 Montadale) breaking my leg or my hip or my knee or something. He had already given me a couple bruises. SO I guess my point is is that your ram may miss his buddy but he will get over it when he gets to your place and sees a bunch of girls. The other ram, I'm not so sure about since I don't know the breeder's housing/pen set-up.

My new ram, Hank, does get aggressive with his food. I have since weaned him off his feed and I have taught him to stay away with the sound of a halter hitting the ground. He has bashed into my ewes (who should be a week or two pregnant) and cause them to limp for a couple days. However, I'm keeping my ram in with my ewes until December-January so he can catch my ewe lamb's first heat. But then he's going back into his pen, even if it is 2-3 months before lambs are due. It is much easier to feed everybody their proper ration when they're separated.

My new ram is very well behaved and he's being better behaved a lot longer than my old ram (knock on wood)! He is not aggressive with me (he had been by himself for ~30 days and he's been in with the ewes since 10/5) but I still watch out for him & I do not let him get behind me when I'm walking in the field (that said he can still ram you if he's in front of you--that's how my old ram Billy would get me). The only reason why a ram would get more aggressive with ewes is that he's trying to protect them so he has all the breeding rights. But I think that would only be when a ewe is in heat, but even when my ewes are in heat my Hank isn't aggressive. Not sure how your ram would be, though.

 

[earthdance]

It sounds like you are having a similar situation as us with needing so many different pens and pastures. I keep our Nubian goats and shetland sheep separate but have dreams of maybe one day letting just females of each run together in a large enough pasture. We currently are also using several electronets for the goats and just now training the sheep to them. I finally got the bright idea to make a paddock to designate as goat 'homebase' (a permanent pen we made with cattle panels with shelter, hay, and water) and just partition the pasture out with the electronet, instead of continually moving the electronet every 4-6 days and the shelter, and the hayfeeder, and lugging water out into the field! The sheep are kept on the other side of the property because that is just where we built their permanent sheep 'homebase' (not cattle panels). So far from my observations of my two standard size tunis ewes with medium wool getting quite satisfactorily shocked on the butt and side, through the wool (over 5,000 volts). The only bad thing is that if they are not trained to electric they may spook through the fence and need to have an exit until they are acclimated. It sounds like your sheep are already trained but be aware that the ram may not be. Maybe you could invest in some cattle panels (my goat base is 3 long and one wide) to make him a paddock. However, rams really do seem to need companionship of another ram (ewes just aren't the same-maybe you could make one of his future sons a wether for that purpose.). My rams are like frat boys, they enjoy being physical. Before I got them they were kept apart and they are SO much happier now. I think it is in the individual nature of a ram as to if he will be more aggressive around ewes or towards young. Mine are not aggressive towards me but I still won't trust them. I have one shetland ewe that I think is pregnant and when she starts to show signs that she is closer I'll likely isolate her for a good long time until I can separate the ewes and rams.
I wouldn't worry about line breeding as long as one of the animals (ram or ewe) is of good quality and you keep in mind the goal of 'up-breeding' (don't hold back anything the ewe throws that is less quality than the better parent).

Good luck! There is so much you will learn, don't be afraid, both good and not so good (even horrible) experiences bring much teaching.