[Jacob-list] ram lambs

[Mary Hansson]

Neal---
 
What is the maximum a ram could handle in a given 2 week period?  I would say that there are very few flocks represented on this list that would be anywhere NEAR the middle or high end of whatever that number would be----which should leave all of us with an excess of ewe lambs over ram lambs in all years.  
 
How many people are using rams that are even 5 years old???  Very few rams seem to reach the age of 7-8 years, and the ones older than that are extremely rare.  I have been blessed to have had 3 of them here.
 
There is another theory that as a ram ages, he will produce more ram lambs in an effort to re-stock the population with something that will reproduce lots of his genetics (ie--a good ram).  
 
I can't saw we saw that with the lambs born in the MD group to those > 10 year old rams.  Noble was about even last year in his 9 or 10 lambs he produced with something like 5 ram lambs out of the group.  Since he was pictured as an adult in a spring 1991 picture, he had to have been at least 13 last spring when he died if not 14.....
 
Pan produced 3 ram lambs and 0 ewe lambs the year I used him here----and he was about 8 at that time???
 
Sir Hugh was 10 and produced ewes in the ewes owned by other breeders and produced rams in the ewes that I had kept.....which goes to prove Murphy's law and nothing more.
 
I can't remember how old Sir James is, but he isn't THAT old.  It will be interesting to see what he produces in the 2-3 ewes he wound up with here.
 
Mary Ellen

Neal and Louise Grose <nlgrose at yadtel.net> wrote:
Somewhere I recall a theory (but don't remember where) that nature tended to favor higher proportion of ewe lambs where the flock is small, and more ram lambs as the flock increases in size. That would be valid in our flock in years past, and makes some sense in an evolutionary way. There is some difference in the 'male' and 'female' sperm in relative vitality in certain situations. (Like frequency of "use".)
 
Neal Grose
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Betty Berlenbach 
To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:09 AM
Subject: [Jacob-list] ram lambs


Nope!  I've never had a year with more ram lambs than ewe lambs.  I think it's due to the acidity of the soil, though some experts laugh at me.  LEt 'em laugh!  Once, I had equal numbers, but generally, my ewe lambs far outnumber ram lambs. I have noticed that with different rams, there are consistently more daughters than sons, so maybe I just lucked out in rams a few times!  (Watch, this year, for the first time in 9 years, I'll have all ram lambs.  Knock on wood, no!) Betty in Vermont.


Mary Ellen Hansson, MEd, RD, LDN
ISeeSpots Farm
Jacob Sheep:  Lambs, adults, wool
www.iseespots.com
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