Lame Rams Off spring

derferjam

I have to people sharing to completely different opinions with respect to rams that have bad feet passing on this trait to their lambs.

One man said that it is only old tails and that a ram with bad feet does not mean its off spring are going to have bad feet.

Of course as normal a farmer with one opinion is different to another farmer and another farmer said that the complete opposite and that bad feet will be passed onto the lambs

The two were arguing the toss so mush so that I began to questions who was right so anyone with an opinion that has evidence to back it up.

tomwaterford

derferjam wrote: »

I have to people sharing to completely different opinions with respect to rams that have bad feet passing on this trait to their lambs.

One man said that it is only old tails and that a ram with bad feet does not mean its off spring are going to have bad feet.

Of course as normal a farmer with one opinion is different to another farmer and another farmer said that the complete opposite and that bad feet will be passed onto the lambs

The two were arguing the toss so mush so that I began to questions who was right so anyone with an opinion that has evidence to back it up.

I will say personally....I would never ever buy a lame ram....or a sheep inclined to be lame...it is a receipe for disaster long term

*and I do footbath more regulary than most....there is little worse than walking through a field of sheep and some of them on two knees going round grazing

tealcottage

Lame sheep will definitely spread lamenes to other sheep wheather in the Genes or not.

Persistently bad sheep should be got rid of. That would get rid of gene.

Connemara Farmer

I believe a sheep, be it ewe or ram, that's persistently lame is a liability. Don't keep that animal or it's offspring.

ganmo

There are different types of lameness.
Some are infections like footrot so ya there are types of lameness that are 'on the land' you can buy in the bug that causes it.

BUT there are genetic traits that improve feet. When I get onto my laptop I'll dig up some proof.

Connemara Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

There are different types of lameness.
Some are infections like footrot so ya there are types of lameness that are 'on the land' you can buy in the bug that causes it.

BUT there are genetic traits that improve feet. When I get onto my laptop I'll dig up some proof.

Maybe so I won't argue the above. Where I am coming from is a genetic weakness in a certain animal which makes it prone to lameness, something not desirable in a flock.

razor8

For me it's a definite no no, had rams before with front of cluts far apart and off spring were prone to scald and infections at housing
Only way is culling hard for a year or two to get on top of it
As said before it also depends on type of lameness

Green farmer

I think lameness is an inherited trait. Prefer to breed from a ram that's never lame, especially if you want to keep any offspring.

Cran

There's defo a link and wouldn't keep a ram prone to lameness here. Just remember as with everything genetic there's 2 gene so more dominant comes to the fore, so even top notch ram can produce off spring more prone to lameness.

greysides

Resistance to foot rot is something that has been worked on down-under with some success.

Sheep breeder

i was at a meeting recently about lameness the lady stated than over paring was a major cause of lameness as this was giving bugs an entrance point when blood was drawn and another point was dirty handling facilities were the bugs survive. the advice was to put lame sheep in hospital batch and treat away from clean sheep and when treated stand for a hour on dry clean yard or concrete.how many of us treat or footbath and straight back to grass.

Green farmer

There was a lady on country file with Adam about two months ago that reckoned the same. It's the new way of thinking . They reckoned that paring the hoof actually takes longer to heal. You probably find the clip on YouTube.

serfspup

Green farmer wrote: »

There was a lady on country file with Adam about two months ago that reckoned the same. It's the new way of thinking . They reckoned that paring the hoof actually takes longer to heal. You probably find the clip on YouTube.

there is nothing new about this theory I was taught this 25 years ago in northumberland.

there are many causes of lameness the degree of suceptability to the causes has a genetic component.

there will always be examples of bragging 'I bought a great ram cheap cos he was lame,never gave me bother' the same lads would blacken your name forever and look for their money back if the ram didn't tip ewes......same guys want a ram with one ball for half price

Why go to the bother of buying in more trouble by possibly introducing a new strain of footrot ,scald,codd or orf.

'the sheep went against me vs I went against the sheep'

MayoAreMagic

There is a nature v nurture argument around footrot. Some times an animal could develop footrot through simply being neglected. The hoof could become deformed and then more susceptible to getting re-infected. This isn't really down to the genes of the animal. This was the case for a ram a neighbour of mine had. Every year, he would be limping. But not one of his offspring had foot problems. The ram was off a very old ewe and you can picture the scene. Good quality old ewe has very nice ram lamb, and is put into grass for a bit of kindness. Old ewe gets foot problem in grass and is left untreated, ram lamb picks up foot problem off mother and over time his hoof becomes deformed. Of course that doesn't mean that genes dont play a part on other occasions. I suppose it is just down to having the background knowledge as regards how it came about etc.

Birdnuts

Its something I've been told by my betters to take a good hard look at when buying in rams. Wet slopey land of the type I'm "blessed" with is particulary hard on the feet so I can't afford to introduce stock thats not 100% in this area