If you
want lambs you need a ram.
Some options worth considering
if you don't want to keep a ram all year are:
Borrowing
or hiring a ram - probably
the easiest option if you can persuade someone to
lend or hire you one. However not many owners are
willing to do this and you are often looking to use a
ram when everyone else is using theirs. It is
possible that you might find someone who wants to
prove a promising ram lamb's fertility without using
it on their own stock. However after Foot and Mouth
it is likely that very few people will want to hire
out rams and then have them back on their own land.
New Animal Movement
restrictions make this an even less appealing option
to potential providers of rams.
Buying a Ram then selling it
after use. A good option but the problem is
that very few people want to buy a ram after the
tupping season is over and you could be stuck with
until the next Autumn.
Using a ram lamb and
then slaughtering it for the freezer. This
can be a good option but of course you do have the
problems as pointed out above, in that you do not
really know all the characteristics that he is
passing on. The advantage is that at tupping time,
there are many ram lambs available which were born
earlier in the year. These would be more than
suitable for the task and are probably destined for
the freezer anyway. However this is probably not a
route to go down if you want to improve your stock.
Why is he destined for the freezer? Has he faults you
might not want to pass on to your lambs?
Using one of your own
ram lambs. This can work as long as you are
careful about inbreeding. The animal is already on
the holding, it is free and you probably quite like
it anyway. HOWEVER if you really want to improve
your stock, take a very good look at it. Just because
you bred it, does not mean it is a good ram. It is
very hard to be really critical when it is your pride
and joy and we have fallen into this trap several
times ourselves in the past . Be honest, if you had
to pay money for it would you use it? If its horn are
that little bit tight, it throws a leg across when it
walks or its fleece is too open, is it worth the risk
of passing on those faults to all your next
generation of lambs? Really good rams are rare, even
good ones are not so easy to find, but they are out
there.
It is easy to introduce faults
into your flock but very hard to get rid of them.
Don't forget,
whether you buy or borrow a ram lamb, it must be
registered. If it is not, you will be unable to
register your lambs even if your ewe is registered
All
rams, whatever the
breed, can be dangerous. The
horns on a Portland make no difference, they simply
add weight in a head to head with another ram. As
long as you treat them with the respect due to all
rams and do not make pets of them, they are perfectly
okay. We normally keep at least three adult rams and
others of various ages. Any problems are normally
associated with the rams sorting out among themselves
who is the boss. Be warned however, rams are
destructive, sides of buildings, hurdles, fence
posts, in fact anything that presents a challenge is
fair game when they are not sparring with each other.
They get bored easily and there is nothing like a few
happy hours trying to destroy something.Most problems
occurr when two equal size rams are together. Great
intelligence is not one of the major attributes of
Portland Rams, they have to decide who is boss and
can do great damage before one or the other decides
he has lost. The best combination is an adult ram and
a ram lamb or lambs or a wether ram. Rams do not like
being on their own. They will quickly become
aggressive and or destructive with no company.
Right: A
shearling Portland ram - Bramble Benjamin. Our main
stock ram for the 2002 lambing season.
