[Jacob-list] Putting rams together

[Mary McCracken]

My horse's behavior certainly fluctuates with grain.  Just more calories to
burn that sensible behavior needs.  Winding the springs too tightly.  mary
-----Original Message-----
From: Jacobflock at aol.com <Jacobflock at aol.com>
To: hettick.1 at osu.edu <hettick.1 at osu.edu>; SteffArce at aol.com
<SteffArce at aol.com>; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Date: Thursday, July 13, 2000 9:08 AM
Subject: [Jacob-list] Putting rams together


>Fred Horak here.  You are on the right track by putting rams into as small
a
>place as possible with some physical impediments.
>
>We use many rams that come from several paddocks.  After the breeding
season
>we do the "put them in a stall with hay bales" thing.   I have noticed one
>other behavior that seems to reduce the amount of serious butting.  If rams
>are fed grain, there seems to be more aggression than status seeking.  Just
>this week we put three rams together that had never been together...one in
a
>run was getting a flake of "hay grazer" (sudan) hay and about a 1/3 of a
can
>of what we call "all grain" becasue he was not on pasture.  We introduced
two
>pasture only rams to his run.  After the usual smeall out the competition
and
>leg action, the three quickly settled down with very little butting.
>
>Previous experience was with two rams, both in runs, and they just didn't
>want to have anything to do with each other; butting was pretty heavy.
>Removed the grain ration and fed hay only.  The aggression seemed to be
>reduced.
>
>A robin doesn't make a Spring but there may be a "grain" basis for some
>aggressive behavior...protect and defend my feed.
>
>Fred
>
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