Should You Get a Ram for Your Sheep Flock?
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Sheep can be an important part of a sustainable small farm, but adding a ram can be tricky.
Rams are important for breeding and maintaining a healthy sheep flock, but they can also be dangerous. They're known for their headbutting behavior, which can cause serious injury to people and animals.
Watch this video to learn more about the benefits and risks of keeping a ram on your small farm or homestead. I'll share our experience with our ram, and how we manage him without putting our family or livestock in danger.
You might have heard the saying that you shouldn't get a ram unless you absolutely have to. And if you want to keep dairy sheep or milking sheep, then chances are you will have to have a ram to handle the annual breeding.
Find out how we breed our sheep here: • When is the BEST time ...
#SheepRams #SheepFarming #MilkingSheep
🐏Once you have a ram, it's important to know when to put him in with your ewes for the breeding season. Here's how we do it: ua-cam.com/video/mtHCeFP4vHU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=WaykeeperFarmandNerdery
🥛🐑And if you're curious about dairy sheep, find out what the best milking sheep breeds are: ua-cam.com/video/OW-W9DrjbHw/v-deo.html
We had three rams . We just let one go because he was way too aggressive. The other two boys are so sweet. Raising sheep is the best
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm glad your other two are so sweet, and that you've let the aggressive one go.
I think there are plenty of nice rams to go around, so we don't need to keep the not-so-good ones. ;)
The moment you said "Magneto" I started cracking up
Hehe I'm glad you enjoyed the name of our ram ;) It's definitely part of the fun!
I’ve had sheep for 20 years and have had many rams and I can say for sure that the least dangerous rams are the ones that are slightly skittish and want to get away from you and friendly rams and by friendly I mean rams that don’t mind you walking up to them or even petting them and especially young friendly rams are far more likely to develop aggression issues as they get older
I completely agree with you! The ones that aren't interested in us humans are the best, and the super friendly ones aren't afraid of us and can be more "rammy". Thanks for sharing your experience!
I really appreciate that you let your children learn their lesson and then avoid the situation instead of removing the situation completely
Thank you! I figure it's safer to do it this way, and they won't ever be tempted to bring their friends to see the sheep for fun without us around.
Would you thought that if the child was seriously injured?
While we have never had sheep, and therefore a ram, we raise cattle and the same philosophy applies to all animals, especially male animals. Their job is to keep their girls safe. As humans I think we tend to project human thought processes and feelings onto animals, but they don't think the way we do. To keep ourselves safe we must always remember that they are animals and we should be aware of where they are at all times when we are in their space. Thanks for the safety lesson.
Yes, thank you for sharing your experience with animals and especially male animals on a farm or homestead.
I totally agree that we tend to project our thoughts/feelings onto animals... especially because we're not mind readers, so we're probably not getting it right! ;)
wow a ram😍we did want some sheep they are so fluffy❤️👍🏾
Yes, they really are so fluffy! And they have great personalities - when they warm up to you ;)
Greattt video. Do you clean the machine after milking each sheep?
Thank you! We only clean the milking machine after we're done milking all of our sheep for the session/day. We do clean the udder/teat of each sheep before we milk them though. :)
Ram, nature , don't like to play , very serious, most of time. You have to watch them, their think their so beautiful, and the prize. Train is the 🗝️. I agree.
Yes!
We type of electric net fence are those (they don’t look like premier 1)
This is from Gallagher fencing - I think the Premier 1 fences are good too, but Gallagher is what we have access to here in Canada. :)
One ram is enough for me I won’t go in with my ram it’s my first time with one I am to scared so I get my dad to do it I did put the ram to bed the one night but tonight I couldn’t we have 2 little rams and they were all fighting we have 3 rams all together and 3 ewes
Oh man - having multiple rams together can cause quite the stir. I hope you've got help handling them all! :)
I only have one question. Why would anyone castrate their male ram? For what reason?
Great question! There are a few reasons:
1. If they want to keep the ram for wool production and not breeding, castrating makes it easier to keep all the sheep together - and it also usually produces more wool.
2. If they plan to have the ram be for meat, some people prefer to castrate because the taste is less "strong" or full of testosterone... personally we don't bother castrating if we plan to eat the rams. It's possible we're just not as picky about the taste?
3. As a companion whether - this is the reason we have one castrated male... so we have a friend for our non-castrated male, and they won't fight. We also are able to use him with our younger females who aren't ready to be bred, as a companion as well. Sheep need to be with others, they can't be left alone - especially not a ram. If you have several same-aged rams together then fighting might not be as much of an issue.
We're just a small farm so we only keep one intact ram.
So those are a few reasons :)
@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery the companion reason seems a bit like having a new baby to provide your older sick child with transplantation materials most likely to be a match. Lol it's a bit morbid but that's what popped into my head
What type of sheep gives milk for the most months ?I know there is a type of buffalo in india which gives milk 11 months out of 12 months.... 28 litres per day.
I was seriously considering getting yaks, but it was harder to come by in our region. I have another video with the best milking sheep breeds here that helps with that: ua-cam.com/video/OW-W9DrjbHw/v-deo.html&ab_channel=WaykeeperFarmandNerdery
@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery but yaks lactation length is 5- 6 months. No ?
Do you keep castrated males with the ewes durring grazing season?
You absolutely can! We only have one castrated male so he stays with the ram when the ram is not with the ewes, but otherwise they would be all together - or if we have any young females not ready to breed yet, he would stay with them.
Thanks for the advice. :)
Our ram is quite freindly but I dont know how he will do with the young casterated boys if they are all grouped together.
Are wethers OK to play with or they could be as dangerous as rams?
That's a great question! We've found ours to be the friendliest of all of our sheep and the most "stable" in terms of temperament.
Our ewes tend to be more skittish and run away, but he will come up to get petted and we've never had him ram or even try to ram anyone or any other sheep, either.
@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery Is there some time limit when you should weather them or anytime is fine? If, for example, a ram was already a bit aggressive will he become docile after wethering? Thank you.
@@naturewatcher7596 Sorry I don't have any experience with what would happen later in life... from the Canadian sheep code website it says (www.nfacc.ca/sheep-code#section5):
"There are advantages to castrating lambs at a young age. Practice shows that young lambs heal faster and demonstrate less disruption in growth.
Castration of rams beyond 10 weeks of age must be done by a veterinarian using anesthesia and perioperative analgesia."
Can you have rams with goats?? We’re having them in the same pen. Also can rams and goats eat the same food?
I don't have any experience keeping goats and sheep together, but I would recommend this channel for more info on the two:
ua-cam.com/users/linessafarmsllc
So what do you do with the male brands that are born of the Sheep
We keep the young ram lambs until they grow up to a decent size and then we eat them, usually before winter sets in. This year we had 3 ram lambs and our freezer is full and we've been eating plenty of lamb chops. :)
🤔 I've always heard that saying " There's only 1ram in the flock" Im totally out of my element here but I'm guessing that's nonsense
I've visited larger farms that have several rams. They were kept together away from the females until it was mating season, and then I imagine they were split into smaller groups with one ram per sub-group.
With swap a ram you have to worry about transporting illnesses around.
Yes, that's a definite downside to watch out for!
Does the ram respect the shepherd?😮
Good question ;) I think it depends on the ram, most likely!
Have you ever got headbutted by a ram or sheep
Yes our ram has head butted us - we always keep an eye on them, so we saw it coming and can intervene in time.
If you say a good fence for a ram is it the same as goats, because goats need a good fence. Or is there a big diferrence in fencing?
If you say a good fence for a ram is it the same as goats, because goats need a good fence. Or is there a big diferrence in fencing?