Ram Mating Management
To optimise lambing rates, ensure rams are in good health and body condition, use multiple rams, and maintain proper ram-to-ewe ratios, James Doran, Teagasc Drystock Advisor, tells us more.
As many sheep farmers will join their rams to their ewes and ewe lambs to facilitate January - March lambing, here are 10 top tips for rams during the mating season to help achieve the best possible scanning rates next December and January.
Ensure the ram is in good body condition prior to mating (BCS 4.0) as they will lose a lot of weight and eat very little during mating.
Sperm production takes 6-7 weeks. A ram mating a ewe on October 1st will have started producing that sperm in the middle of August.
A temperature rise of as little as 0.5ᵒc above normal temperature for any reason within that period may be sufficient to render the ram infertile for a period of 6-7 weeks. (normal body temperature for sheep is 38.3 – 39.9ᵒc or 100.9 -103.8ᵒf).
Therefore you should be extremely vigilant of any ram health problems (i.e. pneumonia/lameness etc.) and act fast to correct this prior to mating.
Antibiotics do NOT affect the fertility of rams.
For the reasons stated above, using 1 ram alone is high risk.
Two rams can still result in barren ewes due to the potential of an infertile ram being a ‘blocker ram’ that prevents a fertile ram from mating ewes. Three or more rams is ideal.
You should have spare rams in case rams get injured, sick or die during the breeding season. Rotating rams is also a good idea for smaller flocks where running three or more rams is not possible.
It is absolutely essential to raddle the rams so that you can keep an eye on how mating is proceeding and identify potential infertility. Start with lighter colours (yellow → orange → green → red → blue → black) and change the colour every 14 days. If a lot of ewes start repeating, suspect that there is a problem with the rams.
Finally, ram to ewe ratios of 1:40 for mature rams and 1:25 for ram lambs work best.