The Soay Sheep Chronicles

Not quite, but we know it won’t be long, because our Soay rams are calming down and everyone’s horns — ewes and rams alike — have started growing again.

We put our breeding groups together later this year so we are just now thinking about returning the rams to the Bull Pen.  I must say it’s not a chore I look forward to because the “reunion” between the breeding rams and their celibate brethren is always unpleasant to watch, what with all the bashing and general ill humor.  But I’m hoping the overall air of tranquility out in the breeding areas, and even in the Bull Pen where the unlucky bachelors have been duking it out for two months, means that by waiting to breed later in the year, we will have less chaos when we break down the breeding groups next week.

Ordinarily, I would use the occasion to write about this chore, but not this year.  It seems Steve has taken a notion to writing his own stuff, and darned if he didn’t take my “Ram Class Reunion” post idea right out from under my nose and put it on our farm website.  You can read what he has to say about safely reuniting rams by clicking here.

Another sure sign that spring is on the way is the spurt in horn growth, a subject I managed to write about last year before you-know-who could trump me.  It almost hurts to look at new horn growth on a Soay sheep exhibiting white spotting on the head.  Because the absence of pigment extends up into the horns, the new growth is translucent and the active new red blood vessels feeding the new horn growth fairly gleam in the sun.  It’s a time of year when we are relieved to observe the winding down of aggressive behavior, what with the soft new horn growth right next to the animals’ heads.  Although a broken horn usually is merely an aesthetic nuisance rather than a genuine health issue, the Soay sheep’s graceful horns, and the fact that Soay ewes have horns, is one of the hallmarks of the breed and it always seem a shame when a horn breaks off.

One way I know spring is almost here is that Steve shuts himself in his office and goes into a frenzy of updating our websites, hoping against hope to get it all done before lambing starts.  This winter his efforts have focused, at least so far, on a series of short essays he has wanted to write for a long time, each having to do with one of the discrete aspects of lambing:  managing ewes in late gestation, assembling the right supplies to have on hand before the lambs arrive, and actually working the new lambs.  When we first started raising Soay sheep, reading other more experienced breeders’ websites and talking with them about how they manage their flocks was invaluable.  We hope our experiences also will help newcomers to Soay sheep.  Equally important, we hope putting our experiences out there for everyone else to use and/or take shots at will contribute to the ongoing robust dialogue among Soay breeders that benefits all of us, no matter how long we’ve been at it.

And finally, the annual egg update.  Last year we got our first oval harbinger of spring on January 5.  As you can imagine, I have been watching the nests in the henhouse like a hawk (oh, sorry) for the last two weeks.  And sure enough, the first little bitty egg arrived this morning.  Better two weeks later than never.  At least until I decide what to do with just one precious homegrown egg, it will occupy the place of honor in my grandmother’s egg basket.

Time to go load up the tractor with a pallet of hay for the Bull Pen and count the weeks until the boys can live on new grass.

For now …

Several readers brought me up short by chastising me for unfairly omitting the yearling ewes (gimmers) from my report on the late-winter spurt of ram horn growth.  I was tempted to ignore their criticisms, so certain was I that only rams could possibly exhibit dramatic horn growth.  But then good manners and a little nagging voice in my head prevailed, and it was back to the pastures to corner and photograph the girls.

Lo and behold – the yearling ewes also experience the burst of horn growth, albeit proportional to their overall horn size.  Here are three of our yearling ewes. starting with our British gimmer Darrowby, who you will recall is named for James Herriott’s fictional town in Yorkshire: 

I decided not to interrupt the yearling rams’ strutting and preening so that I could actually measure their horn growth against Darrowby’s, but I dare say her horns have grown every bit as much as the boys’ horns.  As with the rams, her new horn material is somewhat lumpy and gnarly-looking right now, and quite a bit larger in circumference than her first-year, “baby” horns.

Ewe lamb Leyburn, also British, shows a similarly robust pattern of growth:

Compare Leyburn’s horn growth to that of her half brother Grassington (both offspring of Jerry Lee Lewis), shown in my original — and obviously incomplete — posting about horn growth a couple of weeks ago.  If anything, Leyburn has more new horn material.  No wonder people were crabbing about the omission of the girls!

My third example of ewe horn growth is our farm website covergirl, Ellerbeck, she of the assymetrical white nose spot, which I just realized I cropped off in this picture.  Sorry about that.   

Ellerbeck’s new horn material is visually more interesting than the boys’ horns because of her partially white horn.  The portion of her new stuff that eventually will be white illustrates through its pink cast just how “alive” the new horn material really is, with blood and soft tissue at work creating what will harden into a good sturdy horn. 

With hopes that my friends from the good old days of feminist activism will forgive me . . .

When last we met to discuss signs of spring, the topic was chicken eggs.  It’s about time to re-direct attention to Soay sheep, don’t you think?

Every year along about January or early February, our previous spring’s ram lambs — what I refer to loosely as our “yearlings” – begin an impressive growth spurt which by the end of summer will take them nearly to their final adult size and shape.  In addition to their overall body size, I am thinking in terms of two male anatomies, only one of which — their horns — can I discuss in this family-oriented blog.  The Principal Scientist here at Saltmarsh Ranch tells me growth hormone is behind the overall increase in body size, but the presence of adequate levels of testosterone is required for horn elongation.  The timing intrigues us.  Just like everything else, these little guys hunkered down in the coldest, darkest days of winter in December and stopped growing.  Even though nothing else seems to be growing in January and February, now that the days are longer, brighter and warmer, something remarkable has been triggered in the yearling rams’ physiologies.

Our trusty veterinary medicine tomes and sheep husbandry books occasionally remark on the circumstance that horn growth is correlated with length of days.  And so I assume (and am trying to track this down with an outside expert), once the winter solstice has happened in late December, the combination of increased daylight, hormones, and perhaps melatonin, produces the surge in horn growth. 

It is now the third week of February and we have just finished a 2-week stint of 55-60 degree weather, sunny, very little rain, a beautiful spring teaser.  And let me tell you, our little guys’ horns are fairly popping out of their heads.  I love watching them in their pasture, so full of themselves, strutting their stuff, playing pretend-head-butting, and generally looking like a fraternity pledge class parading in front of the sorority house.  Sadly for them, the pregnant ewes in the adjacent pasture could not be less interested.

Yearling rams continue to experience horn elongation each late winter/early spring for about five or six years, but the spike in their first full spring is the most dramatic.  Let me show you a few examples. 

How to interpret the photos:  new growth occurs at the base of the horn, right next to the skull.  That is all you need to know to see what is going on.  Although we did crop these photos, all taken on February 20, 2008, we did not alter them in any other way with PhotoShop or any other software or developing “tricks.”

Here is Saltmarsh Grassington, a handsome little light phase (tan) British Soay sheep, son of Greener Pastures Jerry Lee Lewis and USA0001 Kiger, born April 10, 2007. 

See the gnarly dark stuff on his horns right next to his head?  That is his new growth.  In other respects he still looks great and I am pleased to report that he is slated to breed one of these years.  With the bright afternoon sunlight on his horns, you can really see the contrast between the old and the new.  None of the new growth was visible in early January when last we made a mental note of it.    

Next comes Saltmarsh Stillington, also a British Soay ram, son of Blue Mountain Warwick and Saltmarsh Keverne, born a full month later, on May 11, 2007. 

Stillington’s overall horn size is less than Grassington’s at this point, but the new horn growth on Stillington actually looks more substantial than Grassington’s.  It could be the angle, and I am not of a mind to disturb the young stud muffins to do precise measurements.  

Last but by no means least, Saltmarsh Eloy, an American/British ram named for a town in Arizona, same sire as Stillington (Warwick) and his mother is Saltmarsh Nutmeg.  Eloy was born about a week before Grassington, on April 5, 2007.  Look at the horns on this little fellow! 

Eloy has about the same amount of new horn growth as Grassington, but perhaps because Eloy’s horns were darker to begin with, the contrast between the “older” part of his horns and his current growth spurt is not so great.  Eloy sure looks like he will have Warwick’s wonderfully wide and stout horns, doesn’t he?

If I succeed in finding an authority who can explain the interplay of factors contributing to the unusually robust horn growth in January and February, I will share what I learn with you.  Meanwhile, what I do know is that when we see our yearling rams start to put on their first burst of horn growth, spring — and lambing — is just around the corner. 

 For now . . .