rams ramming

leaves falling,
frost, freezing
ewes jumping,
rams ramming.
Yup, it all sound like fall to me. Ever noticed those shy skittish girls who suddenly become your long-lost firends about now?
Enjoy it, the next time they come up to you they will want a belly-rub before they lamb.
To breed or not to breed....................?
Ever patted a girl and felt two bones...they are not ready to breed again.
And take a good look at your ewe lamb...........how tall is she? Can you visualize a lamb falling out? Would a normal size lamb dwarf your new breeding ewe lamb? Think about why you need to breed her, now. Before you have to question yourself in the spring while trying to pull her lamb out.
I have a list of little girls I want to breed....then I go out and look at them again....maybe they are too small?
I have several girls who are yearlings and were not exposed last year....but, they seem like total idiots next to my mom-yearlings.
I'm not even thinking about putting those little girls and little boys together for a month or two....the rams aren't ready, the ewes don't need to be ready. There is no reason a ewe lamb can't cycle once or twice before she is bred. As long as your fences are secure. Girls are brazen. Kind of like teens. Panda was twelve and still she labored over to the rams pen to push her tail end up to the fence.
The first year we were here with thrown up fencing, I had a ram break out to breed everyone. He got three ewe lambs pregnant that same morning...he also butted one out of the way, she later died. That was his first and last breeding frenzy.
Keep your unbreedables out of sight. Rams during breeding season can break wood posts and pulverize woven wire. They have been seen wrapping electric fencing around their horns and breaking it as it zapped.
If you have walked near your ram fencing lately....have you noticed a pass, or maybe a bump?
Caution visitors and children to stay far enough away from the fence that the ram can't hurt them just by hitting the fencing.
It's a normal thing this time of year. The rams set up their status in the pen. I keep my two olde
st boys in a pen all year with one younger ram. Every year the number two boy has holes in his head after hours of sparring for first place. The rams actually believe that if they win they get AAALLLLL those girls. They do....ask them.
I keep confusing the other pen of rams by adding ram lambs....so there is a chorus of wild kingdom horns banging every afternoon. They will get it right in a week or so, and I will confuse them again by taking bigger ones to market.
Oh the life of a ram.....short but happy.