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By Lisa Roskopf We used 6 rams in our breeding program this year. We had the rams in with the ewes in individual breeding pens for 8 weeks. We had heard a number of horror stories from other breeders about the physical damage the rams can do to each other once you "re-introduce" them in the ram pasture. Some people had actually lost a ram as a result of the quest for dominance they go through during this re-acquaintance. We used a stepped process to reduce their ability to cause harm to one another while at the same time reducing the time it takes to adjust. It worked well enough that we'd like to share it with others. I'd be interested in the methods others have developed to deal with this issue. We took all the rams out of the breeding pens at one time and turned the ewes out in the pasture together with an unrelated "clean up" ram. We put all the rams together in a very small pen just large enough for them to all fit in. They had just enough space to lay down. The rams had all the desire and frustration that leads to battle, but none of the space that affords them the leverage to do damage. We left them in this pen for 2 days. By the end of 2 days, they did not find each other attractive at all and all the aggression they displayed was gone. We then opened up the pen to twice the size and watched their behavior for a couple of more days. Things went well and all but one ram were turned out into the pasture without any of the butting heads from a running start that can be dangerous. We held that one ram out to take care of an abscess on his face from a hay seed. We repeated the process again of putting all of the rams
together in a small space when we were ready to put the "clean up" ram back into
the ram pasture. One of the things I noticed is that the "clean up" ram was the
target for all the other rams desire and aggression. At first I believed it was the result
of him not being familiar to the other rams. However, I have a theory that there might be
another factor that came into play. We also put the ram that we had held out for medical
attention in with all the rams at the same time we put in the clean up ram. Everyone
concentrated their attention on the clean up ram and none on the other ram. I think the
reason for this was the ram with the abscess did not have the scent of the ewes on him and
therefore was less interesting to the others. The cramped area that the rams are put in
serves the purpose of causing a lot more physical contact. That contact replaces the scent
of the ewes with that of the other rams in the pen. I think this may reduce the time it
takes for the rams to think of each other as just one of the boys.
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