Earlier this week Steve and I were working a pair of newborns from our light phase ewe, Dora. Usually we focus on just one lamb, or we try to compare lambs from two different sets of parents born on different days or photographs taken under varying light conditions. But this time we took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate all variables except the phenotype itself: the twins obviously are from the same parents, born at the same time, and photographed simultaneously. We hope this set of photos will help those of you who are trying to decipher the phenotypes of your own lambs.

The twins are both ewes. Both have lightly frosted fleece, white splotches on their heads, and cute little dark noses (about those noses, see the mea culpa at the end of this post). One lamb’s legs are slightly darker, at least to my eye. I took this first photo in the working area of the Maternity Ward in mid-afternoon in natural sunlight.

Dora's twin ewe lambs age 2 days

The next picture, taken from a different angle, begins to reveal subtle differences in the colors of the twins’ noses, legs, and so forth, but still not much clue about a possible light phase lamb or two, is there?

Soay twins exploring with mom

When we began working these lambs, we were struck by how much they looked alike. It was not until we paused the working ritual to run through the list of clues for light phase that we knew we had one light phase lamb. As you may recall if you’re a student of Soay phenotypes, sometimes but not always the light phase sheep have pale skin under their tails. That didn’t help in this case. Usually, but not always, light phase lambs have somewhat paler skin around their lips and light noses, and we saw some variation between the two lambs, but not enough to rely on. Two characteristics, however, are always reliable indicators and they worked just as predicted on the twins: eye margins and fleece roots. To illustrate these two telltale signs, we put together three pairs of photos taken the day they were born – first showing each lamb’s eye margins, next showing their eye margins up real close, and last showing their fleece roots. These photos were taken in a jug with a roof, so we needed to use shop lights, but no flash.

First up, eye margins:

Dora's tan ewe lamb

Dora's dark phase lamb

Even though the lambs’ eyes look the same in the more-distant photos at the beginning of this post, up closer and placed side by side, the difference is obvious, isn’t it?

Now let’s look zero in to be sure there is enough difference to rely on.

Light phase Soay lamb

Dark phase Soay lamb

Here’s the trick about eye margins. You really have to pick up the lamb and get a good close look to be sure.

Not to worry. There is another equally reliable, and I think easier, way to tell light from dark phase – the roots of the fleece. Even a frosty, light-fleeced lamb will have black or near-black fleece roots if it is dark phase, and a light phase lamb will always have fleece roots no darker than medium brown, never black. Here are Dora’s twins with their fleece roots exposed. [Author's note: please disregard the scaggy looking fingernails and cuticles of the photographer's assistant. She's deep into lambing duty with no time for manicures].

Light phase lamb's fleece roots

Dark phase lamb's black fleece roots

A note about those dark noses. Just a few days ago I told another breeder who sent us a photo asking for help that her lamb is not light phase because in the picture it had what looks like a dark nose, not the lighter nose and lips that are typical in light phase lambs. Looking at our twins up close, the light phase lamb’s nose and lips are somewhat lighter, but by golly, when you look at these lambs from a distance, they sure look like dark noses to me. My apologies to the other breeder (you know who you are!) for questioning the phenotype of her lamb based solely on the appearance of its nose from a distance.

Enough of genetic analysis. How’s this for a sweet picture of a Soay mother and her babies? Enjoy the photo, and have fun with your phenotypic detective work!

Resting after big adventure

For now …

Steve will vouch for my finely-honed dithering skills during lambing. A few days ago during one such moment, I decided to photograph some of our ewes from a less-than-flattering position to provide fodder for this year’s trivia quiz, devoted to the subject of twinning predictions.

For each ewe pictured below, I’ve provided you with clues – the ewe’s age (year of birth) and how many times she has twinned in the past. Let’s start with an easy one, Libretto. If she has only one lamb, it will be interesting to see what else comes along with the lamb!

Libretto, b. 2005, 3 sets of twins so far

Believe it or not, I took this picture 11 days ago and Libretto still hasn’t lambed, 189 days after she went in with her ram, Thorington. But we know he got the job done, don’t we?

Here’s another easy one, I think.

Yarmouth, b.2010, 1st lambing

Can we all agree that Yarmouth will have just one lamb? It’s only been 168 days since she went in with her ram, but I cannot imagine she has two lambs in there.

Okay, are you ready? Eyes calibrated for twins/singles? No more commentary, just the entries.

Findlater, b.2006, 3 sets of twins so far

Clara, b. 2009, one set of twins

Yalo, b. 2005, no twins yet

Keverne, b. 2006, 1 set of twins, 1 set of AI triplets

Tatum, b. 2005, 3 sets of twins

Forra Ness, b. 2006, one set of twins so far

Xanthoria (L), b. 2005, no twins so far, Debenham (R), b. 2010, 1st lambing

Emily, 2009, one set of twins so far

Borrowby, b. 2007, no twins so far

And finally, what I call my “Tan Tanks” picture. Libretto and Clara kindly lined up for me on April 4th for this picture. It is now April 15th and neither of them has lambed yet. Good grief.

Clara and Libretto, Soay double-wides about to lamb

I haven’t decided what the prizes will be for the winners of this contest, but I’m trying to think of something in the “twin” or “double” or “twosome” category. Any suggestions?

For now, have fun submitting your entries in a comment or email and let’s see how it all plays out!

Soay lamb resting with its mother

For now …

I gave Renwick about a half hour with her lamb, plenty of time to get him up and nursing, before I gently picked him up and jugged the two of them with fresh straw, hay, and water, quietly closed the latch on the jug, and silently returned to our house in the moonlight. There will be ample time to crank up the data on this newest lamb – his tag number, his weight, whether or not he will be a breeder in a few years. But for now, I will go to sleep, at last, with the vision of that little gangly lamb in the moonlight with his mother, performing the ancient rituals of birth.

Night, night.

Jim and Kathy arrived just as we were about to start the ritual of working the twins. But no sooner had Steve gotten set up to take the first lamb’s temperature (step 1) than we noticed another ewe, Buttermere, right in front of us going into labor. Talk about entertainment on demand! Here’s the email Jim wrote to their four young granddaughters describing the visit to our farm and what they saw:

Hi kids,

Today Grandma and I visited Priscilla and Steve Weaver and got to see a lamb being born! I am including a few pictures from the visit. I wish you could have seen the little guy trying to stand up. The first picture is when he took his first steps about five minutes after being born. He just stood up for the first time. His mom was licking him off and he was looking for something to drink. Love, Grandpa

Newborn Soay lamb gets cleaned off

Soay lamb stands up, looks around for its first meal

Thank goodness their camera also had a video option; Jim was able to capture Buttermere’s lamb finding its legs and heading back through its mom’s legs for that all-important first meal of colostrum. You can hear both enthusiastic cheerleading for the wobbly little guy and the mostly silly chatter that seems to be characteristic of humans impatient for the lambs to get on with it:

A few notes on what you just heard. Can you tell from Jim’s comments that he’s an engineer? Lilly J’s twins, the lambs you see nursing in the following picture, had a slightly rocky start or, more precisely, the ram lamb had a rocky start when another ewe, Galice, decided to adopt him. Fortunately, we got it straightened out in time for the ram lamb to get back to Lilly J. Although Galice obviously thought she had lambed, she still hasn’t, 8 days later. And in answer to Jim’s question about the video lamb’s weight, it came in at 5 pounds 6 ounces – nice guess!

Once Buttermere’s lamb was feeding contentedly, nothing would do but that Kathy hold Lilly J’s soft, all-dried-off twin ewe lamb that had undergone the same journey less than 24 hours earlier. Here’s the one-day-old with her twin and mom Lilly J in the jug.

One-day-old Soay lamb enjoying his meal

As you can see, the twin brother was busy eating. You can just barely see the little ewe lamb’s legs behind Lilly J before Steve picked her up and handed her to Kathy. Can you say “smitten”?

Making friends with a Soay lamb

What's not to love about a Soay lamb?

There are enough cold rainy nights, broken hay bales, and occasional hiccups in a shepherd’s life to keep us humble, but by golly when lambing starts, our world turns rather magical, especially when friends come to join in the excitement. Thanks for sharing the fun!

For now …

Readers are invited to suggest additions to this post.

For now …

HOW TO ANALYZE A SOAY RAM’S HORNS

Edward and McKee have been on our watch list since they were young lambs. Their horns are sufficiently tight that we need to be sure during and after each year’s horn growth that they still clear the jaw. These pictures were taken last summer (July 2011).

3-year old Edward

The diameter of Edward’s horn spiral is small and the anterior face of the spiral is slightly to the rear of the point of emergence from his head. Steve’s finger is on the corner of the jawbone.

Edward's horn still clears his head

Steve’s fingers are under the tip, confirming that it still clears. Because we did not need to cut the horn, we left it alone. When Steve checked it again seven months later while it was growing (February 2012), it still cleared, although not by much.  Edward stays on the watch list.

2-year old McKee

First off, look at how much more horn growth McKee had at 2 years than Edward had at 3 years of age, something we had not focused on until now. Hmm.

In this picture, Steve’s finger is on the corner of McKee’s jaw. Although his spiral comes a little farther forward on his head than does Edward’s, McKee’s horn still is not touching his jaw.

McKee's horn is not touching his jaw or neck

Just to be sure, Steve fits the fat part of his fingers in the space between McKee’s horn and jawbone father back. So far so good.

McKee's horns clear

This last picture shows McKee’s horns straight on.  See the space between the horn and the furry corner of his jaw? As is usually the case, once the spiral has cleared at its lowest point, it either curls back up on the same plane as the main part of the spiral, or begins to form an outward corkscrew, as is the case here with McKee. But we’ll keep watching.

HOW TO CUT A SOAY RAM’s HORN

Occasionally we have no choice but to cut a horn growing into the neck or impinging on the jaw, and we close this pictorial analysis with a demonstration of how we do it. The ram is Darmsden, a 2010 ram whose horns had to be cut in July 2011 when he was a yearling.

Darmsden 1

Darmsden 2

Darmsden 3

1. Darmsden has very nicely shaped horns – medium diameter spiral, medium angle off his head – but the left horn aims right for his neck.

2. This picture shows how far back on his head the horn was turning in, with Steve’s finger on the corner of jaw.  Most other rams’ horns start curving up much farther forward on the head.

3. Look at the lack of clearance.  Steve cannot get his fingers between the tip and the neck. On Darmsden, it was not a question of impinging on the jaw; the horn came straight into his neck.

Darmsden 4

Darmsden 5

Darmsden 6

4. What about the other horn? Although Darmsden’s right horn had lots of clearance at the time we cut his left horn, we do not know where the right horn would have ended up because we decided to cut both horns for symmetry, an esthetic choice.

5. We don’t like to take off more than we need to, so Shawn put a pencil mark confirming where the cut would be made.  We can always take more off later if the horn gets too close again.

6. Shawn places the saw wire at the pencil mark.

Darmsden 7

Darmsden 8

Darmsden 9

7. It only takes a few strokes (with fresh sharp wire) to get the horn off and it does not hurt the ram at all.

8. First cut is complete.

9. After both cuts, the horns are again symmetrical.

It is high time we hit the “publish” button on this post and turn our attention to lambing.  By all means, give us a call or email us if you have questions about trimming ram horns. We will be pleased to walk you through it and, if we can, help you decide whether you need to trim a horn.

For now …

Thick, small diameter spiral

Large diameter, open spiral

Medium diameter spiral lying on a flat plane but aiming for the neck

Large diameter spiral, wide angle, mostly flat plane at end

Small diameter spiral, narrow angle coming out of head, tight to jaw

Large open spiral, no end curl so far

Although we tend to think of horns as something unique to rams, one of the conveniences of raising Soay sheep is that unlike other varieties of sheep, the girls have them, too.  The ewes exhibit their own array of horn conformation.

Large diameter, wide angle off head

Short, no spiral, narrow angle off head

Short curved (L) and high swept back (R)

Small "Mickey Mouse" spiral at right angle to head

Wide and flared, no spiral

Swept-back coming low off head, no spiral

But the ewes’ horns never need cutting so they are not the focus of this post.

From time to time, generally in the first several years of a ram’s life, the developing horn set may cause problems, either because the horns grow directly into the neck or they approach the neck or jaw so closely that they interfere with head movement or eating.  On the St. Kilda islands, such an animal faces a grim future. In a domesticated flock and with the assistance of an observant shepherd, the ram can survive and perhaps reproduce.

Note:  This account considers the full (”British”) Soay rams only.  In this population, both here and in Canada and the U.K., tight horns are not rare.  Not surprisingly, the composite American Soay display some different horn shapes deriving from the portion of their heritage that is not Soay.

THE ANATOMY OF CYCLICAL HORN GROWTH

During autumn rut (breeding season), the keratinous horn sheath (keratin is the same material as fingernails) is tightly bound to the horn’s bony core, enabling the ram to compete in breeding by bashing his competitors.  The whole horn structure is very sturdy, and for good reason.  Little or no growth occurs during this time.

In late December, once the days begin to lengthen after the winter solstice and continuing through early spring (~March), the tissue layer between the sheath and core softens.  Blood circulation increases dramatically, and the horn starts to grow.  New sheath material is laid down at the base of the horn, next to the head.  Meanwhile, inside the horn the bony core is also growing, gradually increasing in diameter and extending at the tip.  In between these two growing layers is supporting tissue – blood vessels, nerves, etc. The sheath, which is elongating to accommodate the new growth, “slides” along the bony core, away from the head, in much the same way a fingernail “slides” off the end of a finger as the nail grows. The shape of the bony core – its angle and curvature – determines how the horn set will develop.  The core serves as a mandrel, molding the keratinous sheath as it slides along, imparting curvature and twist.

Later in the spring and during the summer, all of this growth slowly comes to a stop. The tissue layer hardens, blood circulation decreases, and the sheath tightens up in preparation for the onset of rut, when the cycle repeats.

THE RARE OCCASION WHEN YEARLING RAM HORNS GROW INTO THE NECK

Despite the different kinds of horn growth activity and inactivity over a ram’s lifetime, there is only one critical time period for making sure the ram’s horns are not growing right into the ram’s neck.  Yearling rams (lambs experiencing their first year’s horn growth) should be checked for horns that grow straight back rather than curving outward and then down.  This happens very rarely, but when it does, the horn must be cut before it grows into the ram’s neck.  Note: you are unlikely to encounter “tight” horn problems later with these guys because you will have cut off the offending tips.

WATCHING ADULT RAMS FOR TIGHT HORNS

Ram horns usually grow outwards from the head at varying angles (not straight back) and then either grow more or less straight down or curve back in alongside the jaw.  Most of the time there will be adequate clearance, but to be on the safe side, all adult rams should be checked once a year for sideways curving growth that starts rubbing the ram’s neck or jaw.  Any cases with tight horns should be on your watch list to be checked more than once a year.

Look for places along the ram’s jaws where wool has been rubbed off.  That’s where the horn may be so tight as to need cutting.  Grab the ram by the horns and check for finger clearance.  If you can get a finger in between the horn and the animal’s jaw or head, do not cut.  But if there is less than a finger’s clearance, or if there is a raw spot, it is time to think about cutting the horn.  We have a set of pictures showing this analysis for tight horns in detail on two of our rams. I will put this evaluation in a second post forthwith.

We usually wait until the annual summer working time to cut horns unless they are creating a serious problem (e.g., the ram cannot turn his head or there is a sore, not just rubbed off fleece).

WHY NOT JUST ROUTINELY CUT HORNS THAT ARE CLOSE?

With periodic maintenance – checking all rams at least once a year and checking those on the “watch list” every three months or so – we can put off having to cut a ram’s horns.  We prefer to leave well enough alone, and usually the horns do clear and turn back out.  Only when a horn set interferes with the ram’s ability to eat or turn his head do we take action.

So why take a chance, why not cut the horns as soon as they get sort of close to the jaw or neck?  There are at least two good reasons not to cut too soon.  Close horns that do not interfere with a ram’s ability to eat do no harm, and cutting too soon will deprive you of a ram with a terrific set of spiraling horns.  From a health standpoint, the tight horns may even be an advantage, either because the full horn is stronger, or because with a tight horn the ram is less likely to become entangled in some other ram’s horns or a diagonal fence bracing wire or other dangerous entanglement. Truth is, as far as we know there has been no systematic study of why natural selection on St. Kilda seems to have favored (or at least not discriminated against) tight horns. Perhaps there is a tight-horn breeding advantage we haven’t thought of yet, or the horn gene is linked to some other gene that benefits another aspect of the animal’s physiology.

I happened to be out in the ram pen one day just as two adult rams became entangled when the wide-horned ram’s horn tip slipped into the opening created by the other ram’s horn spiral.

Interlocked ram horns

I stayed out in the field for about 20 minutes to see if the boys could unhook themselves and they did. Over the years, we have had to wade in every so often and unhook two rams, typically during rut, of course, when they are good and smelly.

EVALUATING HORNS DURING THE ANNUAL “PHYSICAL”

My advice is to pick a warm dry day in June or July for your annual ram checkups.  We do three things to each ram during this yearly ritual:  vaccination, hoof trim, and horn evaluation.  From these observations, we update our watch list for tight horns, and we cut any horns that simply cannot be left intact.

Last July, I took a whole bunch of pictures of our rams while Steve and Shawn were working them and discussing what the various angles and widths meant in terms of whether a cut was necessary.  We hope these pictures and commentary will help you make the same assessment of your rams’ horns.  Here we go:

Thick horns with large diameter spiral, medium angle off head, and corkscrew tips

Brampton had wide horns as a yearling, so we knew we would not have to make an early horn cut. By the age of 4 years shown here, his spiral had turned back out in a corkscrew without threatening his neck or jaw at all.  He never was on our watch list because his horns never got too close to his head. I know I’m not supposed to favor one kind of horn over another because of genetic diversity, but by golly I wish I could order up a horn set out of this mold for all our rams!

Thick horns with wide-angle spiral remaining in a mostly flat plane at tips

When Hesket’s horns descended to form the bottom of his spiral, they never turned either in or out, but instead went straight down vertically, plenty wide.  Once they reached the bottom they curved out just a little.  He also was never on the watch list.

Very thick horns with unusually large diameter, unusually wide angle out of the head, and flat-plane tips

Is it any wonder Astro is our logo ram?  He is 8 years old now, and he always had unusually large diameter horns and an unusually open spiral tilted toward his head, but there never has been any question about whether his horns would clear.  His spiral was way forward on his face when it finally turned back up.  Here’s another view of Astro’s horns, this time from the side.

Blue Mountain Astro

Small diameter (tight) horns with flat-plane tips and narrow angle off head

Dean has tight horns, but they clear as shown by Steve’s fingers. They probably will not grow any closer but we will continue to check. Note one tip was broken in a fight or some other natural occurrence. These horns should not be trimmed but we will watch them.

Medium diameter spiral

Melvin has very tight horns just like his sire, Norris. As you can see, Melvin’s spiral sits pretty far back on his head, so the front of the spiral is behind the beginning of the horn where it comes out of his head, and that means that this horn is not up forward threatening his jaw.  It is coming out and clearing the corner of his jaw. The bottom of his horn is the point of closest approach.  Farther out on the horn it is curving away.  Now compare Melvin’s horn in the next picture.

Tight horn clearing face

Do you see how far the tip has corkscrewed out?  Because we can still pass a finger behind the tight part, this horn is okay for now and it probably will remain acceptable for Melvin’s lifetime.  But his horns are pretty tight, so we will keep him on the watch list. (Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, wish I had a better one).

The next set of pictures show a horn that grows basically straight down from the initial spiral and then corkscrews outwards.  It is no problem, plenty of clearance.

Spiral came straight down clear of the head and then corkscrewed out

This is Buckley, sired by Mustard, class of 2009.  His horns could have been problematic.  The front of the spiral

Large diameter spiral, tips turned outwards

is ahead of the point of emergence on Buckley’s head (unlike Melvin), so if the horn had turned in instead of out, it might well have created an issue with his jaw (where Steve’s finger is pointing).  One more note about Buckley’s horns.  You can  see the yearly growth breaks, one at the bottom of the curve, one underneath Steve’s thumb joint, and one above Steve’s thumb.  In the second copy of the picture, we have marked each year’s growth to show the progression.

Buckley's yearly horn growth

My next post will walk you through our analysis of two rams’ horns in more detail, as well as pictures and instructions for cutting a ram’s horn.

DON’T CUT TOO SOON!

Medium angle, medium diameter, no tilt inward, tips in a flat plane

Our working notes for summer 2010 indicate we thought we might have to cut this ram’s horns, but a year later, both horns were okay even though the right one had not turned outward yet.  It looks like it will clear, and our 2011 notes read, “glad we did not cut last year.” How I wish I had a picture of this ram from the 2010 working for comparison purposes. This ram, Thorington, is the son of Trenear and grandson of Chestnut, both of whom have really thick horns at wide angles and with large diameter spirals. Trenear is the fourth ram pictured at the top of the page, the one with the wide “M” horns, a characteristic white beard shared by all of Chestnut’s male descendants, and a battle-scarred left eye.

HOW OFTEN IS IT NECESSARY TO CUT A SOAY RAM’S HORN?

What, you thought I could write a post without any data in it? Wrong.

We have had 69 yearling or adult British Soay rams born here or pass through our farm for whom we have good information about the status of their horns.  Of those rams, 7 have needed horn cuts, about 10%.  Two of the seven were yearlings (or so) with horns growing straight towards their necks.  Four of them were adults with significant horn growth still occurring, but with spirals that were close enough to impinge on the jaw.  We also had one middle-aged fellow, Haines, whose horns cleared for years and then all of a sudden one winter, his horn growth took a slightly different angle and we had to cut his horns when he was 6 years old. All the rest of our adult rams have had horns more than adequate to the task without cutting, as you can see from all the pictures in this post!

Now I’m off to put together the post demonstrating a more detailed horn analysis and how to cut a horn that’s either growing straight back into the neck or that eventually gets too close to the jaw.

Stay tuned …

The gimmers – yearling ewes who we have not yet bred – don’t do this.  They are off in their own pasture minding their own business and enjoying the gradually warming rays of sunshine. You would think they’d be the nutsy ones since they are basically teenagers.  But no, it’s our supposedly “mature” ewes out there making fools of themselves.  We cannot figure it out.  Maybe they are starting to feel their lamb fetuses moving?  Or somehow the lengthening days trigger a goofy response?  Whatever it is, we see it each year.  Back when we were doing AI for the first time and fretting up a storm about coddling our “special” AI ewes during pregnancy, they did the same thing, and a couple of them were carrying hormonally-induced triplets.  Scary stuff, especially when they bash each other from the side.  Fortunately, none of the ewes got up enough of a head of steam to harm their in utero lambs and none of them hurt themselves or their sisters.

I don’t even know how to look for whatever lore exists on this issue.  Imagine the Google search:  “crazy pregnant ewes” or “ditzy sheep”?  Hasn’t worked so far.  If anyone reading this post has a clue what is going on, I’d be grateful for your insights.  Otherwise, we’ll just wait it out, knowing the lambs will be here before long.

For now …

As luck would have it, we were able to quickly give her average weights for 33 lambs weaned at 12 weeks who we happened to weigh after they had been acclimated to grass-only meals for about a month and were physically ready to leave our farm.  Here’s a quick summary of the weight data, which we hope will be useful to other breeders and potential buyers who also are considering air freight or just plain wondering at what rate Soay lambs grow.

These 33 British Soay lambs were born between April 3 and April 12, 2011, and all were weighed on August 5, 2011, when they were within a few days either way of 4 months old.  The data includes lots of twins, whose weights not surprisingly tend to be somewhat lower than single lambs, although not universally so.  The data also includes Peanut, our ram born at 1 pound 15 ounces.  If we had excluded him from the data, the average ram weight would go up about a pound.

The 13 ewe lambs ranged from 22 to 34 pounds, with a mean weight of 26.5 pounds, median weight 26 pounds.

The 14 ram lambs ranged from 20 to 40 pounds, with a mean weight of 32.4 pounds and a median weight of 33.5 pounds (the Peanut effect)

The 6 wether lambs ranged from 22 to 34 pounds, with both mean and median weights of 28 pounds.

For now …