[Jacob-list] when to pull out the ram?

[Meg Steensland]

I have one ram that pushes the girls around too much when he is done with them but he has a small area and may be telling me that he needs more room - we are going to fence off a bigger area.

In my so called road pasture, I have kept an adullt ram and his flock including 3 or more lamas with no such problem- so I think it is a space thing.  The first big ram, I was able to tie to the gate when I entered the pasture to feed or work.  With the next big ram, I had one of the girls teach him to get into the barn to eat - fed him there and closed the door, so I could work safely.  He just left as he was refusing to get in the barn - so, now I have to start all over with a new ram lamb.  I can only keep my adult rams so long before I have to move on - it is a matter of when they get bigger than me (130#) and start challenging.  I can rotate one at a time to an associate nearby (12 miles) as he can handle a bigger ram and has help with feeding from a 2nd person.

Tom and Judy Riddolls <grey_wethers_farm at hotmail.com> wrote: so i picked up another ram and now have 2 in with 5 girls, the first ram has 
to go... but the second fellow is getting very rough with the ewes, i had 
hoped to keep them in together all the time but i have heard of 
miscarriages, he really bashes them about, so i'm beefing up the unused ram 
pen to get him out. the girls are 4 months pregnant right now.

is this the norm? do most shepherds out there pull out the ram? for most of 
the year?

tom

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