[Jacob-list] Killer Ram

[Neal and Loise Grose]

I do see bucks in the wild quite a bit, [so much so that we occasionally have to get permits to spot and kill them in our fields to prevent extensive crop damage.] My observation is that bucks and the rams here willingly form bachelor groups and separate themselves from the ewe herds during lambing. [This is seems to be the traditional model for humans as well.] I have often left the rams in with the ewes during the off season. We occasionally have a young ram that gets the wrong idea, but the senior dude straightens them out rather quickly. All of this works best when the ram group stays stabile. Animals coming into the group can really upset the apple cart.

This does NOT mean that I favor letting a mean animal stay around. Rams are, or SHOULD be cheap and plentiful. I know of beef bulls that switch personalities after 3 years of age and kill cows that are trying to freshen. I also know about a Highland bull that would consistently guard a perimeter 20 yards out, always facing out, when a cow was calving.

Neal Grose
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hobsickle at aol.com 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 6:12 AM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Killer Ram


  In a message dated 2/27/03 5:54:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, mhansson1 at triad.rr.com writes:


    One point that nobody mentioned in this discourse………. Just how many rams and bucks do you see with ewe and doe herds in the wild outside of breeding season?  Honestly, how many of us actually see rams or does in the wild period?  (Some of you out West may be able to say yes, but most of us don't have that pleasure.)  And as they don't have antlers outside of the breeding season, how many of us personally observe whether the buck are or aren't with the does?  Aren’t we making our animals something that nature did not intend when we house and keep them together year round?  What exactly did nature intend, anyway?  Aren't we doing something that nature did not intend when we house them at all?  Just a thought.  








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