Ram lambs, Castrate or not?

TITANIUM.

We normally castrate all our Ram lambs when we're tailing them and sell as weather's. But last year I seen allot of ram lambs going through the mart so I was thinking of leaving them as rams. Id normally carry the lambs to 45/50 kgs and send them to the mart when I get a chance in the fall of the year.but maybe I could get the ram lambs away allot earlier if I left them intact.
So what do you do or recommend?
Cheers

Jack180570

TITANIUM. wrote: »

We normally castrate all our Ram lambs when we're tailing them and sell as weather's. But last year I seen allot of ram lambs going through the mart so I was thinking of leaving them as rams. Id normally carry the lambs to 45/50 kgs and send them to the mart when I get a chance in the fall of the year.but maybe I could get the ram lambs away allot earlier if I left them intact.
So what do you do or recommend?
Cheers

AFAIK ram lambs grow more quickly than weathers so you should get more liveweight gain if they are left whole.
Probably the main issue with ram lambs is that as they mature (from Aug/Sept) onward their meat will taint and by Oct will have a very strong smell from it which most consumers/buyers do not like.
If you can get them finished early (by end of Aug) im guessing you will be ok.

We do not castrate the ram lambs because we have blackface sheep and we produce the rams for Ramadan and Eid festivals which requires ram lambs. Has worked out good so far for us.

Not sure when the festivals are on this year but last year lambs for Eid had to be slaughtered before 25 Sept.

Green farmer

Don't castrate here. Butcher won't take ram lambs after August from me. Factory takes them all year around. No issues. Only thing is I've to seperate the male and female lambs, which adds to needing another paddock. On a plus side, gives you an option to retain one as breeding stock, should need arise.

sheepfarmer92

we don't castrate here either, the factory seems to always want ram lambs, it was full of hogget rams on Thursday, you can imagine the taint on them lads!

sea12

sheepfarmer92 wrote: »

we don't castrate here either, the factory seems to always want ram lambs, it was full of hogget rams on Thursday, you can imagine the taint on them lads!

Use to do it but nit doing it this year. Once you can separate them from ewe lambs from Aug on. No issues with factories and think you get a better thrive earlier in the year

Green farmer

Butchers always mention taint, but whenever the clinical research is done, the entire ram scores no difference or better then the castrated one.i think it's only after 18 months that a taste difference starts to emerge

Username John

Castrate with the rubber rings here at about 1-2 days old...

I think any gains made earlier in the year are more than offset by the additional headache and management of seperate bunches late in the year. Plus once Sept comes, any Rams left nearly lose weight as quick as put it on, with the amount of fighting and messing...

Plus - I got caught once with ram lambs breaking back into the ewes... And I had a few unexpected Christmas lambs
But ye're prob better at fencing than I am

I suppose you could do a halfway job, of castrating any multiple ram lambs, and leave the single ram lambs whole. As the singles would be gone earlier anyways...

Siamsa Sessions

Username John wrote: »

Castrate with the rubber rings here at about 1-2 days old...

Didn't realise you could do them so young. Do you dock tails with rubber rings at same time? Or would that be too much stress on them at the same time?

Username John

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Didn't realise you could do them so young. Do you dock tails with rubber rings at same time? Or would that be too much stress on them at the same time?

Same time. No problems.

Green farmer

I used to do the trails at a few days old. the lambs would be bawling and rolling around. Now do them on the spot as their born, before they stand and they don't even notice the ring.

ganmo

i wonder why nobody tried to breed short tailed sheep

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Same time. No problems.

and tag them as well here, was blaming the joint ill on it here and changed to do it at 10days ....still had the same no. of joint ill so went back to 24hrs old.

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

and tag them as well here, was blaming the joint ill on it here and changed to do it at 10days ....still had the same no. of joint ill so went back to 24hrs old.

Yeah - tag em here too at the same time. But just with management tags, not dept tags...
Just to record the dam - plus any name my daughter has bestowed on them

I know tis a bit soft, but am looking forward to having ewes called 'super-girl' and 'owlette' and all sort of other super hero names in the flock...

Farrell

Username John wrote: »

Yeah - tag em here too at the same time. But just with management tags, not dept tags...
Just to record the dam - plus any name my daughter has bestowed on them

I know tis a bit soft, but am looking forward to having ewes called 'super-girl' and 'owlette' and all sort of other super hero names in the flock...

Do you hand write the management tag?
If so what tag do you use?
Tried it here, ink came off 1 type, next type had dropped ears on lambs doe to weigh (blank mart tag), using dept tag now from 3 weeks, but spray can get faded & like though of doing as dropped

Username John

Farrell wrote: »

Do you hand write the management tag?
If so what tag do you use?
Tried it here, ink came off 1 type, next type had dropped ears on lambs doe to weigh (blank mart tag), using dept tag now from 3 weeks, but spray can get faded & like though of doing as dropped

I used these tags this year - but they are a bit big, and the ears can drop in some lambs
http://www.stockhealth.ie/pig-tags

These are prob a neater job
http://www.stockhealth.ie/sheep-management-tags-plain

The pig tags are good - as you can write on both sides of em, if you know what I mean...
Write on numbers with a pen... I haven't had a problem with the numbers coming off.

All lambs are tagged with ewe number, and then 1/2, 2/2 - so if you see a shook lamb outside you can easily tell if you should be looking for his comrade, etc...
Ram lambs get tagged on the right ear, ewe lambs on the left.
I used yellow tags this year - will use a different colour next year.
And the lamb name, goes in the back, or inside of the tag.

Ah, tis only possible with small numbers I'd say, cos tis a bit of fuss too. But it works for me...

Farrell

Username John wrote: »

I used these tags this year - but they are a bit big, and the ears can drop in some lambs
http://www.stockhealth.ie/pig-tags

These are prob a neater job
http://www.stockhealth.ie/sheep-management-tags-plain

The pig tags are good - as you can write on both sides of em, if you know what I mean...
Write on numbers with a pen... I haven't had a problem with the numbers coming off.

All lambs are tagged with ewe number, and then 1/2, 2/2 - so if you see a shook lamb outside you can easily tell if you should be looking for his comrade, etc...
Ram lambs get tagged on the right ear, ewe lambs on the left.
I used yellow tags this year - will use a different colour next year.
And the lamb name, goes in the back, or inside of the tag.

Ah, tis only possible with small numbers I'd say, cos tis a bit of fuss too. But it works for me...

Do similar here with different ears for multiple ewe lambs & single/ram lambs.
Did management till this year, I think it's a must have no matter the numbers
Good to hear others had the same issue with tagging young lambs

arctictree

Username John wrote: »

Castrate with the rubber rings here at about 1-2 days old...

I think any gains made earlier in the year are more than offset by the additional headache and management of seperate bunches late in the year. Plus once Sept comes, any Rams left nearly lose weight as quick as put it on, with the amount of fighting and messing...

Plus - I got caught once with ram lambs breaking back into the ewes... And I had a few unexpected Christmas lambs
But ye're prob better at fencing than I am

I suppose you could do a halfway job, of castrating any multiple ram lambs, and leave the single ram lambs whole. As the singles would be gone earlier anyways...

Had to do a 5 week old lamb yesterday. Couldn't get the testicles in the sack for the first week when he was in the shed. Eventually I just had to mark him and let him out with the ewe. He seems to be fine now today. The ring barely fit on yesterday.

Jack180570

arctictree wrote: »

Had to do a 5 week old lamb yesterday. Couldn't get the testicles in the sack for the first week when he was in the shed. Eventually I just had to mark him and let him out with the ewe. He seems to be fine now today. The ring barely fit on yesterday.

He is going to have a bit of pain with that!

sea12

arctictree wrote: »

Had to do a 5 week old lamb yesterday. Couldn't get the testicles in the sack for the first week when he was in the shed. Eventually I just had to mark him and let him out with the ewe. He seems to be fine now today. The ring barely fit on yesterday.

Don't think you should be doing them over a week old with the ring

rangler1

sea12 wrote: »

Don't think you should be doing them over a week old with the ring

don't think you should be writing about it...... :eek:

Siamsa Sessions

sea12 wrote: »

Don't think you should be doing them over a week old with the ring

Will I have trouble then putting rings on a few that are nearly 2 weeks old tomorrow?