Figuring it Out

"Uh oh," my husband says when he sees the two sheep reference books in front of me.

"Just researching ram lamb management," I tell him.

In the past, we haven't castrated the ram lambs. We let them grow, separated them from the ewes at four months, cursed them at five months when they started challenging each other and me, and sent them to market at six months.

The problem was the fighting at five months -- and that sometimes we had a ram lamb that needed an extra month or two of growth before he went to market. What did I do with him while he grew? I couldn't let him near the ewes, and I couldn't put him with the ram.

"You wouldn't have the fighting if you could keep them in a pasture where they couldn't see the ewes," my vet points out.

We have six paddocks for the sheep. The ram lambs could never be in a pasture adjacent to the ewes. This made pasture management difficult.

"I think we're going to try the wether thing this year," I say. If the rams were castrated, they could live with the flock.

When raising sheep, I"ve discovered that every farmer does it differently. Some lamb only in January, some in March, some in May. Some feed grain. Some believe in pasture only. Vaccinations and deworming schedules vary greatly.

When making management decisions, I read the two sheep care reference books. One, I call, "They're all going to live," and the other is, "They're all going to die." I also chat with the vet, who, lucky for us, grew up on a sheep farm.

During the castration research, I discovered that most agreed on the castration method, banding. However, the "when" varied from three days to two months of age.

For our experimental year, we settled on seven to 21 days. Partly, that was logistics, as that was when the vet was visiting and could show us how to do the procedure.

At the end of the year, we'll re-evaluate and make decisions for next year. Eventually, we'll figure out what works best for us and our flock.