Banded our ram lamb. Will this make him a kinder, gentler mature ram?

[rockdoveranch]

We have had sheep since 2004 but this is the first time we have banded (castrated) a ram lamb. He is half White Dorper and half Texas Barbado. Dad is the Dorper.

Up until now, we have sold our Barbado Rams to hunting ranches for their horns. This lamb will be used as a companion ram for our Dorper ram. We were told that our Barbado Rams will kill him and Dorper rams, so he will never be pastured with them.

Mature Barbado rams are wild and dangerous. We are pretty new with Dorpers.

"Newman" is growing a set of white horns. He was born 1-1-2011. We have had variegated horns on our Barbado, but never all white.

Will castrating him make him a kinder or gentler ram, or will we need to always be cautious of him after he matures?

Thanks.

 

[boothcreek]

The horn growth will slow down hugely once castrated. Since the hormones are what pushes the growth.

Dunno about Calm and gentle my mature barbados rams are all calm and gentle and they are intact. I would think that without the hormones there will be less agression, not sure about calm because that is generally the nature of the sheep and not so much the hormones.

I've kept one of my rams with a kathadin ram once and they never tried to kill one another so i dunno how true that statement is. Sure a polled breed is at a disadvantage vs a ram with horns but they usually bow out of the challenges once they got a headache.

 

[rockdoveranch]

What kind of Barbado do you have? The American type with the Mouflon/Corsican ancestors and the black bellies, or the kind we down here in Texas call Texas Barbado that may or may not have black bellies.

Most our rams over the years have not had black bellies. In fact, none of our current mature rams or babies have black bellies. The ram in my avatar has what I call that chocolate looking line along his lower belly like the Mouflon, but has produced black bellies.

Our mature rams are always charging each other. At times you can here the collisions even though the rams are so far away we cannot see them. The Old Man has knocked my husband down from behind once. I stopped going out in their pasture years ago. Our mature ram that was bottle fed in 2009 will climb up on us looking for food but his horns make him non longer safe. People out our way say never to trust him or any of our Barbado rams. A neighbor down the road is on disability because of injuries from her Barbado ram who repeatedly charged her.

We had to supplement "Newman" so he is VERY friendly. His mom was a 2009 bottle baby. Now that we are having to turn them out on the 10 acres we live on because of our drought conditions, both he and his mom hang around the back door and follow me around.

I wish we had banded him before his horns started coming in.

When I baby sit my daughter's Boston Terrier I have to be very careful walking him if the ewes are out. They will charge him and slam their front legs down at him trying to stomp him.

It is interesting to me that your rams are gentle.

Do you have a website?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

When you band a ram it becomes a wether. Wethers are nice, and he should grow up to be pretty safe. Wethers don't have the hormones to make them as rowdy as rams are.

 

[goodhors]

If he is going to be a wether, maybe you could take his horns off right now. Prevent them gettting large and "obvously" more dangerous.

Sheep by their nature, will hit things. Hitting other sheep away will determine herd status, first choice of food. My polled lambs do that. So if this wether is to be a companion, he doesn't really need any horns as all! Would make him easier to deal with, because he still might take a notion to try bunting you now and again. He can still stomp the dogs, and charge things, so not totally defensless.

Guess you really have to like your horned sheep, they do not sound like any fun to deal with on a daily basis!

 

[boothcreek]

I have purebred American Black Bellies and pure European Mouflons and neither are agressive in any ways, on really nice days the Rams have their games: running , jumping, bucking like lambs with a bit of half hearted headbanging(usually bow out last second or stop and just tap the heads together after a really wound up charge you'd think they worry they might hurt eachother). Very fun to watch, even my mother(not a sheep person at all) can see its just fun and games. Even the lil ram lambs try to join in.

I would never bottle raise a ram lamb of either variety, I have seen the damage that a bottle raised kathadin ram can do once the hormones hit. I imagen a smaller more agile ram with horns would be 100X worse.

Newman sounds sooo cute. I am doing a similar cross this year, still waiting for that result. I put a KathadinXdorper ewe with my black bellies should be due latest next month, I hope....

My sheep don't like the dogs either, but only when they have lambs under 3 weeks old. We have 3 dogs, 1 LGD, a senile bearded collie and a brainless borderXlab. The LGD is the only one allowed in a 50 yard radius when there is young lambs, the rest need to be out of sight or the herd matriarch will go beat them up.

 

[Bossroo]

When I was at UCD we had about 100 mature range rams of various breeds ( 3/4 were horned) in the same pen. There were daily head bangings. Many very serious... a polled Suffolk ram even killed a double curle horned Ramboulett ram by breaking it's nose bones and he bled to death. My accross the road neighbor has a Dorper ram and 2 huge horned Barbados rams ( like the one in your avatar) in with his Ramboulett, Suffolk,and Barbados ewes for the last 3 years. 90% of his lambs are sired by the Dorper. ( he caters to the ethnic Arab market) Being polled does not mean that they are an underdog. They can take care of themselves quite handily. For the best bang for your buck, I would invite "Newman" to a BBQ in the fall.

 

[rockdoveranch]

A lot of interesting information here.

When I was at the vet awhile back to get preventatives for the dogs a cow was making horrible HORRIBLE cries. No one was at the front office so I had to go back to the large animal area and the vet was cutting off the horns of the cow. There was blood EVERYWHERE!

So, how does one remove the horns of a 4 month old ram lamb. Can they be banded?

We are in a terrible drought now so all the ewes are together. Our plan, under normal weather conditions, is to keep the Barbado ewes separated from the Dorper ewes. We plan on having only one Dorper ram, and the plan was to keep Newman with him. Will having little horns be a problem to the safety to the Dorper ram? We were assured the Dorper ram was not bottle fed, but my gut says he was. He is VERY friendly.

It was the White Dorper breeder who told us not to allow the Barbado rams in with the Dorper ram. I have always been told to be very cautious with rams.

Pictures:

The Old Man. He is 7 years old.

Trouble. Our first ever bottle baby. Ram born 2009.

Trouble and Flash. Flash is also a 2009 ram. They will eventually go to a game ranch.

And Newman.

 

[Rvrfshr]

.
Will castrating him make him a kinder or gentler ram, or will we need to always be cautious of him after he matures?

Banding should occur in the first week of your lambs life. Banding is usually done to sheep that are destined to be slaughtered.

If you are having a behaviorial problem with your ram, it is probably because you handled him improperly when he was a lamb. A Ram's sole purpose in life is to breed as many of those cute young ewes as possible.

We made a mistake with our first dorper/khatadan cross ram. We thought it was cute when he brushed up against us, made charges at us and otherwise manifested his domination over his dominion.

When he had grown to a beautiful and prolific ram of 2 years old he knocked my wife down, charged me and nailed me in the leg. His familiarity was not so cute then. He had, with our help, become a dangerous animal. His behavior is good etiquette if he's on the range and not in contact with humans, but if he is, he is a danger.

Our 2nd ram was raised differently. We allowed no physical contact with the ram, discouraged any sort of familiarity and he is doing well. He keeps his distance, does his job with the ewes and we are happy to have learned that this hard lesson.

Wethering a lamb that has already developed agression will not tame him. He is better off being hunted or in someone's freezer.

We have to remember that these beautiful animals can be dangerous.

 

[nsanywhere]

I banded my shetland ram lamb at 2 weeks and he has been a love ever since. He's now a year old, stayed small, horns growing very slowly, no butting or trying to get on the girls. He will stand perfectly still, nose to nose with my 4 year old nephew and let him pet, kiss, handle the horns, etc.

My guy is being raised as a pet so I couldn't be happier with the banding results!