The Soay Sheep Chronicles

Absent a big win in the gender lottery, we end lambing season with more ram lambs than we need or can sell.  When the lambs are about 8-14 weeks old, we convert some rams to wethers, i.e., we castrate them.
 
Why castrate at all, rather than leave things be?

I can think of at least four reasons, all tied in to marketing Soay sheep: 
 
1.  Wethers make flexible, good-natured companions.  No sheep likes to be alone, even an independent, no-commitments ram.  Worse, keeping a ram in solitary invites his bad behavior, especially bashing structures and fences.  In a one-ram breeding flock, providing a companion wether avoids some of these problems.   When the ram moves in with the breeding ewes, the wether can toddle right along and not have to be alone for several weeks.  Similarly, in a two-ram situation, the wether stays behind with the reserve ram while the lucky one visits the ewes. Wethers can live with their intact ram buddies or with the ewes, wherever makes most sense for pasture or personality management.  We also use our senior wether, Troon, as a 24/7 attendant when we have an injured ewe or ram in recovery isolation.

2.  All-wether flocks provide a low-cost alternative when you have customers who want to avoid sex (in their Soay) — so they can test whether they really want to have sheep at all without the added management issues in lambing, or when an all-ram flock is a poor choice, e.g., because they have small children.  Customers focusing on fleece often keep wethers for their simplicity – the only characteristic the owner cares about is the quality of the wool.  For example, here are two of our teenage rams, both self-colored dark (”black”) born in May 2007, pictured in February 2008 at age 9 months.  

Ventana (L) is intact.  Reddington (R) was wethered at about 8 weeks.  Reddington’s thick black fleece suffered not a bit for his having been castrated.

3.  Butchering flexibility.  Unlike rams, wethers can be butchered year-round.  To avoid the strong taste of ram meat during rut, which our occasional meat customers generally do not like, we must butcher our yearling rams no later than June or early July, before they start accumulating hormones and related chemicals in their muscles.  Wether meat has excellent mild flavor that does not change with the seasons.    

The timing constraints for ram butchering create a related problem.  Soay need to grow for at least a year, and preferably 18 months, in order to yield 20-25 pounds of cut and wrapped meat.  Any less time and the revenue/cost balance goes south.  Remember free grass vs. expensive hay?  We want as many of those 18 months as possible to be on grass, both for economics and for flavor.  We cannot avoid one winter’s worth of hay for our male lambs, be they rams or wethers, but we sure do not want to add the cost of a second winter to the butchering balance sheet. 

Here’s the catch:  if we butcher our intact ram yearlings in June, they will be barely past one year old; they will miss the whole long summer of growth on free grass; and they won’t yield much meat.  The only way to keep growing them until they are 18 months old is to feed them a second winter’s worth of hay and butcher them the next April after rut ends and the “rut” taste wears off.  By constrast, we can leave the yearling wethers on grass until October, when they are about 19-20 months old, and then butcher them just before the grass runs out. 

4.  More and better meat.  We believe, based on unscientific observation, that wethers put on more weight than rams of equal age, probably because while the rams are running around jousting, the wethers just sit, ruminate, and grow.   Here are Amado and Calabasas, born on March 25 and April 3, 2007, respectively, photographed in late  February 2008 at the age of about 11 months.

Intact tan Amado over on the left is noticeably smaller than his wethered buddy Calabasas, who pretty clearly was lounging around while Amado wasted a lot of energy showing off for the pregnant ewes next door.

So why not wether all the excess ram lambs and be done with it?

There are at least two reasons not to castrate, one economic and one aesthetic.  Rams generally sell for more than wethers, and animals on the hoof sell for more than the net revenue after butchering, even if you do it yourself.  So we consult tea leaves about how many rams we might be able to peddle over the winter, and wether the rest.  The other disadvantage is that the wethers’ horn growth slows to a relative snail’s pace for the rest of their lives, so they will no longer have the signature Soay ram look – big handsome curled horns.

The wethers’ horn growth varies a lot from animal to animal, as you can see in the pictures, and some will end up with okay horns, but never even close to their intact friends.  Intact Eloy (L) and wethered Douglas, born one day apart in April 2007 and shown here in February 2008, make the point.  After less than a year, Eloy is distinctly smaller, but his horn growth far outpaces Douglas’ horns.

This is the first time we have looked carefully at the differences in our yearling rams and yearling wethers.  We were so struck with the size and horn differences in less than one year that we decided to see whether the disparities persist over time.

Two years ago, our “herbs and spices” year, we had several sets of twins and, as usual, extra rams.  Our friend Angela Percival up near Portland wanted an “estate” flock — no breeding ewes — and she bought our wethers Lemon (twin of our tan ewe Lime) and Curry (twin of our intact ram Cumin).  Let’s take a look at Cumin and Curry to see how the intact ram compares to his wethered twin after almost two years.  Here they are as baby rams at about 8 weeks, before we neutered Curry.   

Curry is the darker lamb in front with a small white spot on top of his head.  Cumin, much lighter, had a large white spot and a fetching little white button on his nose from day one.  They were about as endearing a pair of lambs as we’ve ever had.

Now let’s see how they and their horns have grown since then.  We do not have the luxury of putting them side by side any more since we live several hours away from Angela, but we sure can compare their horns.  Here is Cumin, still an intact ram, pictured in February 2008 at the age of 22 months:

Not only does he have an excellent rack for his age, his expression still is rather whimiscal with that little white spot on his nose, his white head, and his partially white horns.

Curry, the wethered twin, also has remained a very handsome Soay sheep, with his coat still darker and much deeper mahogany than Cumin’s, and the tell-tale shorter horns of a wether.  This picture was taken in May 2007 when he was 13 months old.  Notice how nicely proportioned Curry is; his horns do not look “funny” or “odd.”  They actually match his body size quite nicely, don’t you think?

To us, Curry is a walking advertisement for the benefits of having some mellow wethers as part of your flock.

What wethering methods work on Soay rams? 

The elastrator.  Rubber bands made especially for castrating small livestock are readily available at your local farm store.  They are not your basic bundle-the-pencils bands, so do not try to economize with a home remedy here.  Banding is nearly free (100 bands for about two dollars) once you acquire the ten-dollar applicator.  Doing the dastardly deed is straightforward:  stretch the band on the applicator and slip it over the lamb’s testicles.  The band cuts off the blood supply. 

One drawback:  banding only works during a narrow window when the lamb is about 8-14 weeks old, after the testicles descend, and before they get too big for the band to slip over, i.e., when they are not much bigger than a grape.     

Health concerns:  It is important that the ram lamb have a sufficient level of tetanus antibodies at the time he is castrated.  Other than that, when we band our little guys, they appear confused and uncomfortable at first, but within a hour they are up playing with their buddies as though nothing had happened.  In a few days you can check your work – you should feel two hard little peas in the scrotum; after a month or so the scrotum will fall off and you may find it in the pasture.  The wethers continue to grow and thrive over the rest of the summer and winter and we can continue to offer them for sale on the hoof, or schedule the trip to the butcher any time of year.

As you probably can tell, banding is our method of choice. 

The burdizzo allows you to wait until the ram lambs get more horn growth, or until you have a better estimate on how many intact rams you can sell.   Let me state right upfront that we have no experience with this method so I am relying on published descriptions and anecdotes from fellow shepherds.  The burdizzo basically crushes the spermatic cords and the testicles atrophy.  But you need a lot of precision, placing the tool accurately and squeezing hard enough to crush the cords without severing the skin and creating an open wound.  The burdizzo tool sells for about $35 and up.   The same caution about tetanus applies.  Breeders who are comfortable performing the procedure prefer it because they can let their ram lambs develop for a longer period of time before making the irrevocable decision to wether them.  

The knife.  Although cutting off the testicles allows complete flexibility in timing and avoids the precision required for the burdizzo, you will either have to remove them yourself, creating an open wound, or have your veterinarian perform full-blown surgery.  Vet-performed surgery may be your only choice other than euthanasia if an adult ram is injured to the point that the other rams turn on him.

Which ram lambs to wether?

Here again, it depends on the owner’s goals.  We designate our American/British lambs for ramhood vs. wetherdom based on their soundness and conformation, fleece color and probable final horn shape, and requests from customers for particular characteristics.  We select which British ram lambs to keep intact based strictly on the needs of our conservation breeding program and which ram lambs will be the best genetic match for the ewes selected for our customers’ starter flocks. 

End note:  I must say this has not been my favorite topic.  If only we would get that elusive lopsided gender split so we would have just the right number of ram lambs to sell.  As the Cubs fans would say, wait until next year.

For now . . . 

Actually, it’s not an ounce, rather 2 cc’s, but “cc” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well, does it?

If by any chance you do not vaccinate your Soay against clostridial diseases, you should start now. This is one of the few areas where I cannot help nagging. The sight of an animal in the throes of tetanus is truly ugly and heart-wrenching, and easily preventable.

You can read about chilling vaccine, shaking it often, the nitty gritty of the actual vaccine on more technical sites. What you will not find on the pharmaceutical pages is how to make the process shepherd-friendly. Read on.

Scheduling. We follow conventional wisdom from other breeders and aim to vaccinate about 30 days in advance of lambing. On this schedule, the ewes’ immunity level is freshly boosted and their colostrum at the maximum level of antibodies for the newborn lambs. Plus, having a set calendar allows us to pretend our lives are in order, the same sort of harmless illusion of control we get by changing batteries on the smoke alarms each year when Daylight Savings Time kicks in.

Catching. Use your trusty grain bucket, the Soay shepherd’s best friend (well, maybe second-best after blue gloves), to get the ewes off the pasture and into catchpens. In case you doubt the effectiveness of a strategically-placed bucket of grain, have a look at Steve last Sunday doing his imitation of the Pied Piper.

Confinement. Tranquility is the goal here. The last thing you want is for general panic to set in; therein lies both madness and broken horns. Aim for the smallest possible enclosure.  We used to put all our girls into our 8 x 12-foot shelters and even they were too spacious. This time around we processed 5-7 ewes at a time in an enclosure no bigger than 5 x 4 feet made from our trusty Shaul panels, just room for the person giving the vaccinations. Since I was the paperwork processor and Steve was the hands-on guy, I will let him describe what he did.

“Once I get the ewes in a small space, I stand still among them, then calmly reach out and touch one of them, on her horn if possible, or around her neck. If they can’t go anywhere, they will accept my touch without undue alarm. What I want to avoid is anything that will start a chase. If they cannot run, they accept their fate.”

Seating the ewe. Working one standing ewe is enough to convince any sane shepherd that converting the ewe from a four-footed animal to a sitting duck is the only way to go when vaccinating. As the observer, it seems to me the key is to keep the ewe from lurching her head and arching her back, triggering flailing behavior. Once again, I will let Steve describe how it works for the person on the front line:

“The easiest way to get access to the vaccination site on the ewe’s chest area, right behind her foreleg, is to get her sitting on her butt or, better yet, slightly off to one side on her left ‘cheek.’  I have watched shearers do this and of course they make it look easy, especially that no-good rascal in Thornbirds. Unlike the big clumsy Suffolks, Soay are quick and adept at remaining upright.  But I have the advantage, their small size.  I just lift the ewe up until her back legs are dangling, then quickly drop her while moving slightly backwards so her hooves will point forward and she’ll land on her bum. For me it is most comfortable to let her left side rest against the inside of my left leg.”

Author’s note: where is the video camera when I need it?  Does anyone know how to post videos on a blog? Hrmph.

Injection-site lumps. Some sheep, perhaps one in ten, seem prone to develop marble-sized abscesses at the injection site. This is nothing to worry about except they look icky and you will fret about them no matter what I say.  It seems to help avoid the lumps if you are adept enough at giving injections that the needle lies almost flat between the skin and the body wall. Try not to go straight in like a “puncture.” Once you have given the shot, immediately rub the injection site for a couple of seconds, shmooshing the vaccine away from the hole.

Marking the finished ewes. By all means mark your ewes as you work them. It is the simplest way to be sure you have not missed anybody. We use the “All-Weather Paintstik Livestock Marker” made by LA-CO Industries, should be available at your local farm supplies store. One marker will last way beyond your Soay-raising lifetime if you do not leave it in your pocket and run it through the washing machine - yuk.  The slash of color on the ewes’ noses gives them a whimsical look right out of the circus clown tent, but it wears off in a few days, and who cares if they look like pregnant Bozos, anyway? Here is our fetching little tan ewe, Lime, with her pink forehead right after her vaccination last Sunday.

Extra credits. In the non-essential but useful category, we always bring along a ewe list to make sure everyone is present and accounted for. Almost without fail, we see something to make a note about, an issue needing attention or presenting a “new development” worthy of discussion over adult beverages after chores. Just this morning, in fact, I was downloading pictures to the OFP Gallery (see link over there on the right) and needed to confirm whether Millie is polled or scurred. Sure enough, there in the folder of old vaccination and worming lists was a grubby note I scratched next to Millie’s name the first time we worked her in late 2004: “tiny buttons.”

A closing note on dosages. We use Covexin-8. Its label calls for an initial dose of 5cc, with boosters thereafter at 2cc. On the advice of our veterinarian, we use 2cc right from the beginning on our lambs. Five ccs seems just way too much for a 10-week old Soay lamb.

Oh yes, did you remember to set your clocks ahead last night?

For now …