2013 Ram Lambs

We have 11 ram lambs, but only 4 or 5 will be good enough to register. I have to be very picky about who I keep as breeding rams. Some were very slow to mature and they really should have done better. One had pneumonia as a lamb and it seems to have ruined his lungs. Another little guy looks good, but his mother had some traits I didn't like. I kept her daughter, but won't keep her ram lamb. Her daughter is on trial.

When we are using  these rams to produce replacement ewe lambs, we have to look closely at the maternal traits of their dams and their growth characteristics. I have a large enough flock of ewes now that I can afford to be diligent about keeping good ewe records and culling ram lambs where needed.

Again, I have not done the registrations on the ram lambs and so, no one has names yet.

We did semen testing a couple of weeks back and all of the guys I decided to keep tested well. One had a fever, so we decided not to stress him. Since then, his fever cleared up and if I have a sale for him, I'll take him in and get him tested. If not, he'll wait until next season and be tested as a yearling.

I have the rams with what's left of our feeder lambs. The five I had in the group of keepers, pretty much stick together. So when I went out to take pictures this morning, they were all in a convenient group.

One little guy in the front clearly does not belong in this picture,
but he certainly thinks he should be included.

This is my favorite ram lamb this year. He grew really well, even
though he had a rough start. His dam only has one side and I decided to
keep his brother on her. He was bottle fed. His brother died of pneumonia  at about
2 weeks of age. I put him back on his mother and she took him back without asking
too many questions. She's a great mother.