Margali's Griffin Wood Ranch

Margali

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Baby is doing good. He was not interested in cuddles or getting his picture taken.
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Panda on the other hand... loves his cuddles.
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Margali

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The baby's name is Spot by a 3 to 1 vote.:idunnoSpot is doing good. He weighed 17.02lbs today. That's 1.13lb/day gain.

The boys are being extreme but heads. A good 2/3rds of the time PANDA starts it. I thought wethers were supposed to be mellow?
 

Ridgetop

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A lot of rams (and wethers) butting is just jockeying for dominant position. Since these 2 are the same age and size they will continue to push each other around for a while. Our rams live together and get along fine most of the time. They do fight when a ram that has been in the breeding pen returns to the Celibate Boys Club from the Field of Ecstasy. I haven't decided if they are reestablishing dominance or just taking out their frustrations on the one bragging in the locker room.
 

Legamin

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Ive hade three different kinds of ram now and have had three separate experiences with rams! My first ram was a craigslist ’free to good home’ special that I bought to fatten for the freezer. Before long he had a full rack of horns and was stubbornly keeping myself and my workers out of the entire paddock! I had him in with other rams and some ’castrati’ goats and he felt the need to constantly reassure himself that he was king. I finished him with grain and freed the paddock of a nuisance. My second was/is ‘Briar’ a Leicester Longwool ram, polled and 340+lbs. he is gentle and sweet and runs up to me to get his pets and cheek scratches. If I ignore him too long he walks up and gently leans his shoulder into my leg until I start rubbing his neck and cheek…during mating season this all changes.. our third national 3rd place Best of Breed BFL is gentle, polled and stubborn. He takes pets and love but on his own terms. These two came back into their own paddock after breeding with separate flocks and the game was on. It quickly became too dangerous to be in the pen with them. They knocked heads until the blood flowed and four hours of first aid and antibiotics was needed. The lesson was simple and it came from the breeder who supplied the Leicester Longwool ewes..after breeding separate them from the flock and bring each one into his own stall for a week to cool off. They need to be at least a hundred yards from the ewe flock because they will smash through solid welded steel fencing to get back to the ewes…and they will be successful and they will be badly injured..or so I learned. I know it sounds like torture to isolate a flock animal but they are simply not in their right minds after breeding for a month. If they are left in with the ewes after lambing they will get rough with the little ones and it is not injuries you have but dead lambs.
The Leicester Longwool is the gentlest breed you can imagine. They walk up and demand love and pets..11 months out of the year you are the only voice that they will follow and gather around and they will follow you off a cliff if you call them…but that one month….it takes special handling and separation until their hormone levels get back to normal. It’s the kindest thing to isolate them and let them come to their senses before rejoining the rams together and keeping the ewes to themselves.
 

Baymule

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I haven't used one of these, but I've read of others using them with great success. Ram face shields, then can't see straight ahead, so can't charge each other.

 

Legamin

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I haven't used one of these, but I've read of others using them with great success. Ram face shields, then can't see straight ahead, so can't charge each other.

Thanks for the idea. I will be curious to see if they work. Being kind of handy with leather and a sewing machine I will probably order one and make the other three for next year. I like PremierOne products and have an abundance of them. Good quality product when you can’t find it locally or the local price is just too dear.
I’ve included a pic of Briar on a Fall day as he ran up to me for ear-scratches while I was trying to just get a picture….but how do you tell a ram twice your own size that you’re not offering ear-scratches today? (I’m just not THAT brave!)
 

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Ridgetop

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Our 4 White Dorper rams are polled. One of them grew large matching scurs that just looked like huge bony skull lumps. He broke them off one after the other, fighting with other rams. Some mess to clean off but not too bad since they were not true horns. Styptic power to clot and Alumishield to protect from flies. We don't have the luxury of enough flat property to keep the rams penned individually or a field away from the ewes. They seem to do ok after a day or two of muscling around. Maybe because there are 4 in the pen.
 

Legamin

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Our 4 White Dorper rams are polled. One of them grew large matching scurs that just looked like huge bony skull lumps. He broke them off one after the other, fighting with other rams. Some mess to clean off but not too bad since they were not true horns. Styptic power to clot and Alumishield to protect from flies. We don't have the luxury of enough flat property to keep the rams penned individually or a field away from the ewes. They seem to do ok after a day or two of muscling around. Maybe because there are 4 in the pen.
I do understand that. The property we bought had a lot of empty barns, shelters and buildings as a dairy farm that had fallen into severe disrepair. So we have spent five years building up, shoring up and fencing in. We do not actually expect to make a profit for at least another two years. We are finishing the new sheep barn and will have an organized Winter layout for treatment, Summer shearing, lambing etc with about 36,000 sq. Feet of open indoor concrete floor area to separate into ram pens, ewe pens and lambing pens as well as open living area. It will be a great expansion from the two partial barns we are using now. We will open up a remote barn that has sat empty for years and use it exclusively as our Winter ram barn. It is a couple thousand feet away from the new barn so they will not charge the fences etc. to get to the ewes. The layout is better than I might have done myself as it was a professional dairy operation once (1920’s-1960’s) and it has just been a lot of lumber, nails and screws with elbow grease to bring it up to a usable functioning sheep farm. 10 acres isn’t much but when used effectively it should be able to support a 60-100 sheep operation. sounds like you have the ram situation under control. I just found it a real shock at how aggressive an awful it was to watch 350lb rams slam into each other at full trot. The sound was sickening and the blood made it worse for me. They were stunned but none the worse by the next day! Live and learn!
 

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