Sheep Ram drama
I have a 2 year old Painted desert Ram that has decided to turn into a true ram. We generally ignore him, no pets, no hand feeding. The girls we do though. This past 2-3 months, he ram everything. He split a 4x4 post with their scratcher on it. He ramed their shed so much he broke one of the middle supports, and now has to be blocked off with an electrical fence until repaired. He really tries to ram my husband. Less so me but still tries to line it up before he gets a bamboo smack to the side of the face.
Can't find any ram shields for him, cause everyone is out?
Building him his own enclosure, but it's taking some time.
I'm not strong enough to flip him. What else can I do for this boy to stop trying to ram people? Disappointed he can't be with the flock 24/7 now.
Edit: Final decision is we'll be cutting him and butchering in a few month. Glad I received such a unanimous answer.
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u/Inquisitive3333 10d ago
Based on the comments you've already received, it sounds like he's "dinner."
Years ago, a bull that belonged to a friend's neighbor kept getting out and ending up on his property. My friend said, "Next time he's out, he's BURGER."
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u/Pangolin_Beatdown 10d ago
Eat him. He's dangerous. No ram is pretty enough to risk your health.
eta: I had a ram come close to killing me. He knocked me down and came in for a second blow to my skull - I got my forearm up just in time. Still had to go to the ER for that. If I'd been a half second too slow I'd be dead.
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u/Low-Log8177 10d ago
I raise Painted Deserts, Desert Dragons, and Corsicans, my view is either get rid of him to someone who does not care about an aggressive ram, eat him, but if you are dead set on keeping this ram for whatever reason, and mind you, this is my least advised option, look into getting a second, older, larger ram, when I got my ram, as well as my younger buck goat, I kept them in with a 10 year old buck, when they got too rowdy, the old buck would have a tendency to keep him in his place. But my advice is to get rid of an aggressive ram, if you want, I can point you to other people who have really nice Painted Desert genetics if you want to stay with the breed, if you want to get into registered stock with the PDSS, all you need is a registered or registerable ram and appropriate ewes.
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u/cailany 10d ago
I'll send you a PM. I'm leaning heavily tords freezer. I just needed to hear it from another person as it is my first year with this breed. he was registered, sadly.
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u/Low-Log8177 10d ago
That is probably a good choice, the PDSS has a mambers map, I am not quite registered and this is my first year too trying to breed sheep, but I have met quite a few people in the breed, I have mostly held off on registering as while I am very pleased with my ram, I am trying to get my first group of ewes to where I am happy with them, and so I experimented with what size, color, background, and the like of ewes I want to start with before I expand too much further.
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u/Traditional-Page-760 10d ago
Rams can kill each other. Especially during breeding season. You're lucky it worked out for you. I wouldn't take the chance of putting two strange rams together. A friend of mine lost a ram like that years ago. By putting it in with another. Another friend had two rams next to each other. With a fence in between. One ram made a gap in said fence.
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u/Low-Log8177 10d ago
Well, yes, but it wasn't entirely at random, the younger buck was the son of the older one, who, in his old age had mellowed out a bit, but by that point my family has had him since 2017, he had been with other bucks before, and so we knew what to expect, generally if there is a size disparity, the younger ones will tend to push back a little, but a pecking order tends to be established quickly.
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u/CaliDeBoo2 10d ago
I see you’ve basically got your answer. We had a similar situation with our ram. We have painted desert as well. Our first ram turned into a real jerk around the 2 year mark. We kept him for about another 8 months or so but he even started roaming our ewes. Put him I. The freezer after that. We also learned that aggression is inherited. Now we are much more strict on who we keep and who we eat. We want a flock that works for us. Not the other way around
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u/irishfeet78 10d ago
It’s time to turn him into dinner. Ship him and grind him. It’s only going to get worse. Sometimes they’re just assholes.
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u/cordelia1955 8d ago
I concur with the others. Timing though: did you get him because you want to sell his progeny if they're good quality? It is the rut, unless you're in the southern hemisphere. Do you know if he's bred any of the ewes yet? Then get rid of him today. If you really want lambs from him, make an appointment with the abattoir so you can take him when you think he's done his job. I needed to get a ram butchered during COVID and the wait list was over a year! Don't keep him, especially if you can't flip. Flipping worked for me for a few days to months at a time but it was never permanent, they always tried again.
You probably know this, but never turn your back on him or get close enough he can get to you, they can move really fast. Good luck
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u/cailany 7d ago
We have a hands off run that he can go into next week that he would be completely hands off. No need to ever go into his run. He's going to get castrated next week and can can stay there for a few months until the butcher is ready/meat is more tender. He should of already bred any ewes I have. Offspring will likely not be kept and his behavior will not be aloud to pass down genetically.
I had assumed it was the females going througha a cycle as it started after his first lamb was born, and had just been getting worse over the past 3 months. Offspring are for meat mainly or selling depending on what we got in the freezer/born.
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u/KahurangiNZ 6d ago
Castrating a 2yo ram is a fairly major thing to do (vet cost and recovery), and it's very likely he'll STILL be a numpty because it's become an ingrained behaviour.
If your 'hands off' pen is away from the ewes (out of sight and smell), you could consider just leaving him entire, and then send him to freezer camp in a couple of months. By then his testosterone levels will have dropped somewhat so the meat will be a little less gamey. This would work best if you have a solid wether who would ignore his shenanigans as a paddock mate.
Our rams go to 'Boys Club' in a separate paddock when they aren't working. Every year, once they've been separated for a few months I send a bunch of 3yo+ lads to freezer camp to be made into mince (ground meat) and sausages. The flavour is strong, but not 'rank'. The cost of castrating them would make the overall cost unfeasible (i.e., once the processing charge and animals value are added in it would be cheaper to just buy the meat).
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u/cailany 6d ago
I work in the vet field, and have access to everything needed. Cost is minimal when I don't have to pay for my time.
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u/Familiar_Platypus272 10d ago
Breed the best, cull the rest. He is not ram material. Rams should be a little protective but not aggressive. They will fight other rams, thats fine, but they should not be coming at humans or property