Managing Flock Sires
It's a fact; if you want lambs in the spring, you need a ram. Some people find the idea of owning a ram an unpleasant prospect, but if you are armed with information, common sense and some self-restraint, owning a ram will not be a hardship, but a pleasure!
The first thing to know about Soay rams and
Cascade Farmstead rams, like most primitive
breeds of sheep, is that they can breed in their
first year, as ram lambs. Novice shepherds find
that ram lambs are more manageable and less
intimidating in the beginning, but their cuteness
makes them irresistible to many new flock
owners and even experienced flock owners.
Don't succumb to this! No matter what breed
you keep or buy, you will have a better mannered
ram if you do not pet him or hand feed him, and
he will be less likely to become a problem later
in his life.
It is important to keep your ram shy of you. We
never pet our rams, and handle them as little as
possible, with the exception of hoof trimming
time. Ram lambs often love to be petted, more
so than ewe lambs it seems. Because of this,
lamb owners will often lavish attention on their
little boys. This is not a problem when they are
cute little lambs, but it does become a problem
when the ram lamb grows up and develops the
strength and horns that can do some serious
damage. Even a polled ram can be dangerous. Never turn your back on a ram, and don't succumb to the stories from other shepherds about the rams they have kept as pets without incident. They either had a truly one in a million ram, or more likely they just have not kept the ram long enough for him to develop his adult personality yet. If you really need to keep a sweet little ram lamb as a pet and farm ambassador, have him wethered (sheep terminology for neutering a ram) when he is young, well before those hormones start kicking in, or take the extra time and effort to make friends with your ewes.
Once a ram has lost his fear of you, he is more dangerous during breeding season than a ram who hasn't been petted or coddled or handfed. We have occasionally heard of an adult ram that had the temperament of a puppy dog, and loved to be petted, without hurting anyone... yet. This can happen, but rams like this are very few and far between. And having purchased a ram like this once myself, who happened to be a Shetland, I still never trusted him during breeding season. Never turn your back on a ram; especially during breeding season! Try to spend as little time in the breeding pen or breeding paddock as possible. If an angry ram charges you, you have 2 options. The immediate option is to step aside, because he is looking down while he charges. If the ram is small and horned like a Soay ram or Cascade Farmstead ram, you can grab his horns as he goes by, and drag him to the gate and hold him there until you can get out safely. The other option requires a little advance preparation. Keep a super soaker (a water pistol with a good distance range) filled with vinegar with you when you need to enter the ram pen during breeding season; if he charges you, let him have it in the face. It won't hurt him, but he sure won't like it, and after one or more treatments of this, he should give you your space when you enter the breeding pen. This is a last resort in my opinion, and preventative measures are always preferable; keep the ram shy from the beginning!
It is imperative to keep at least 2 fences, with a minimum of 6 feet between the fences, between each breeding group. Rams are known to jump over or even knock down fences in their determination to get to ewes in estrus. Aside from the immediate problems of dealing with 2 breeding rams in the same pen, your problems are compounded by not knowing who will be the sire of your lambs! This can be avoided altogether by keeping a minimum of 2 fences between each group during breeding season.
A 5 week old ram lamb. He was never petted or coddled and grew up into a shy ram, which is the best type of ram to own!
After the breeding season is over and you want to return your rams to the bachelor flock, care must be taken to accomplish this without injury to your rams. It is an unfortunate fact that many ram lambs have been killed by an older ram because the proper care was not taken during or after breeding season, due to inexperience on the part of the breeder. Because it is crucial that a ram is never, EVER kept alone, some people with small flocks and many pens are able to avoid the issue altogether by keeping their ram with a wether (a neutered ram) for company. This works fine if you have few rams and enough pens and wethers to accomplish this.
A group of Soay rams after breeding season.
Rams with just one companion often become bored and will bash your barn walls and fences in frustration. Rams with no companion at all will do this on a much grander scale! It is cruel to keep a ram alone. Sheep are flock animals and require the company of other sheep.
Most shepherds prefer to keep their
rams in a bachelor flock, just as nature
does in the wild. Scuffling between the
rams is a natural course of events as
they determine who is #1 and #2, and
even who is #11 and #12. The
scuffling is unavoidable, and once the
rams have determined their pecking
order, they are happy and their paddock
will be fairly peaceful. But the
reintroduction period can be fraught
with peril if you don't manage it properly;
a favorite ram lamb will likely be killed
if he is just thrown into a pen with an
adult ram. There are several methods for reintroducing rams to each other. One method is to cram the rams into a "standing room only" pen for several days, so that they cannot back up to ram each other and, in the close confines, eventually all smell alike. "Raising Respectful Rams," an article which follows, describes this method in further detail. The other is to put the rams into a large paddock of fresh grass, with no access to a barn or other structure where the larger rams can corner the small rams to pummel them. The fresh grass is distracting, and no access to a barn means the younger rams can run from the bigger boys. If there is more than one ram lamb in the group, the littler guys will fare better. There are a number of photos below showing the reintroduction process after breeding season.
It is a pleasure to watch our rams interact with each other. They stick together in a close-knit group, maintaining plenty of physical contact and camaraderie. There is an occasional scuffle, but for the most part they are good buddies. Our rams are enthusiastic when put with unbred ewes, but once the girls are successfully bred, the ram then becomes bored and unhappy and wants to be back with his buddies. After a successful reintroduction period our farm is back to normal again, with a flock of magnificent rams in our front paddocks and contented ewes in the back.
Articles:by Letty Klein, Pine Lane FarmFeb 2001 issue of The Shepherd by Dr Steve Schmidt, PhDCollege of Agriculture, Auburn 
Our American Soay rams and four "butcher boy crossbreds" about 2 hours after being reintroduced after the breeding season. Left foreground; Greener Pastures Gwaihir and Rimridge Jake. Left background, various ram lambs, including a few crossbreds. Right background; Peony Creek Chinook, Greener Pastures Eomer and Ewe Pals Edsel deciding who will be "number one" and who will be number two and number three in the pecking order. They were so happy to be back together; many of them were "pronging" across the pasture with excitement. You can't see it in this photo, but Edsel spent breeding season in the next paddock to the right, and he wore a path down along each fenceline, so great was his desire to be back with his buddies once his ewes were each bred.
Above: Our rams about 5 minutes after being
reintroduced. It was raining, they were being
good, we had gone through this process many
times before without mishap, and we had much
to do yet on this day, so I left them to themselves.
Above right: Two hours later I was able to check on their progress; the three rams who are vying for the number one position continue to do so, while the other rams graze peacefully.
Below: This tranquil scene looks more like a typical day, rather than just hours after a ram reintroduction! We took advantage of this fresh pasture, which had not been occupied by any ram during breeding season. The fresh grass was distracting, and the large number of rams and ram lambs didn't put any pressure on any ram or lamb in particular, which had something to do with the fact that there were no serious fights. The only competition at all was mentioned above.
This page was last updated on April 23, 2011
© 2000 - 2011. Website design, text and photos are copyright by Ronda Jemtegaard unless otherwise noted.
Reproduction by any means, electronic or mechanical, is forbidden unless written request
is submitted to and approved by Ronda Jemtegaard of Greener Pastures Farm.
In this age where it's now easy to clone and delete parts of photographs,
and some farmers and webmasters are doing this to published photos of their livestock,
please note that all photos on this website are unaltered in any way!
Colors, conformation, etc are exactly as depicted.
Above: Greener Pastures Indigo is the darker of these two ram lambs.
Below: He is the nearly 3 year old ram on the left. Cascade Farmstead sheep are our breed of preference.
