It is very stressful for any sheep to be by itself. I'm not surprised the ram figured out how to power through the fence. If it were me, I'd put a wether in with him or even a ram lamb. In my experience, it calms them down and makes them more willing to stay put. But even then, rams will be very hard on chain link fence. I have it in my ram pen because it was there when I brought the sheep in. But I'd never do it again, and pretty soon I will need to replace it. I'll be using tube fencing then, anchored to steel posts set in concrete. I have this kind of set-up on one of the ram fences and they don't seem to mess with it.
One option is to linebreed a good replacement ram and then put your mean ram in the freezer. In general, these guys don't get mean until they are about 2 to 2 1/2 years old. If you continue to linebreed a replacement every other year, then they won't be around long enough to grow up mean. About grain: When my ewes are on summer pasture during gestation, I still give them a little grain, but not much. Perhaps 1/3 lb per sheep per day. In the winter, I give them 1/3 lb as a regular supplement, and when they are gestating or lactating, I up it to about 1/2 lb. They also have free-choice alfalfa hay in the winter. In my experience, blackbelly sheep are smart about how much they need to eat. I've never given them a chance to pig-out on grain, but they are on an alfalfa/grass pasture and they know enough to not eat too much alfalfa. I've never had one bloat--nor suffer a prolapse. About newborn weights: My twin lambs average between 5.5 to 6.5 lb at birth. Occasionally one is a little slow, but I think I've often jumped in to "help" too soon. I'm getting better at resisting that urge and waiting 6-8 hours to see if things work themselves out (unless the weather puts the lamb in immediate jeopardy). I jug my ewes with their lambs for two days (more for my benefit than for theirs), which allows slower lambs a better opportunity to nurse and me a better opportunity to make sure they do. Carol At 06:22 PM 7/12/2006 -0600, you wrote: >As far as grain-- how much daily should I give the mama? >...When I grain them all together about how >much per sheep? Also, do sheep tend to over eat and prolapse like >cattle or horse? _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
