Shari’s Gone Country

Last Thursday evening we went over to Clyde’s to get the ram we’re using this year. As you may recall, we took Algernon to auction after he got too agressive and dangerous. Too bad, too, as he was a real good-looking guy. His fleece wasn’t quite what I wanted, but he sure sired some nice lambs.

Oh well, we’re saving at least a half a stack of hay by only “borrowing” a ram for breeding. There’s really no use for them beyond one month out of the year.

So begins the saga…

Clyde herded his flock into his little shelter and roped the ram, letting “his girls” go back to pasture. This was when we go our first look at him. Now, he’s supposed to be a Polypay from the neighboring farm where they run a flock of over 2000 ewes.

As the story goes, they just bought this boy.

Once roped, I held the rope (we knew that roll bar would be good for something) while Cindy and Clyde lifted the ram into the pickup. Estimated weight is about 250 lbs, nearly 100 lbs less than “Algernon”. Don’t worry, Clyde and his grandson, Kixx, rode in the back with him as we took off for our farm.

From the looks of him, he’s at least four years old and is more likely a cross of Delaine Merino and Dorset (which are two of the foundation breeds of Polypay). His feet really need trimming, but that’s not on our adjenda. As for his “cojones”, they’re adequate, but nothing to write home about.

A short ride to our place, and we turned him loose.

Now, you normally see a “whole lot of grinning” from the ram when he meets a new flock of ewes. Ours took one look at him and ran away! And, would you believe?… He merely ambled after them? We were out there for nearly 30 minutes watching the girls run, and him follow slowly after them.

Clyde was laughing at us because we insist on using a “breeding harness”. That’s that strap system on the ram with a “marking crayon”. It works like this… When the ram mounts the ewe, the crayon rubs off on her fleece. That way we can get an idea if he’s at least shown enough interest to attempt a breeding. The more (and darker) marks, the more likely a successful breeding.

So far, after a full week, he’s bred two and messed with another one. Bev has given him ’til the end of the month to get his job done. After all, this is a “working farm” and the animals are expected to keep up their end of the bargain.

You go to auction!

Yeppers, after all my ruminations on what to do, I (all by myself) came to the conclusion that ram had to go.

And that was the least of my problems for a while…

Getting him to market was quite fortuitous, as our neighbor was sending his lambs to market and we could put both the mean ram and the ewe with the rupture on his trailer. That would save us having to borrow a trailer and drive nearly 100 miles round trip, spend many hours, and come home with less money than we spent.

So… How to break the news that I wanted to send the ram to market…

I got Cindy to agree with me, as she, too, had been butted around by him. She could see that he was dangerous and really didn’t want to have to put up with him.

However, Bev was the one who’d bought him to begin with. She’d made the deal, believing he was what we needed. After all, he came from a neighbor, was only two years old, looked awesome, and would be a good fit for our little flock. At that time, we had just two ewes (or so we thought).

I crossed an invisible barrier and simply announced to her that he was going to the auction based on his attitude, and his wool type.  I didn’t seek her input… and that wasn’t good or right.

When Clyde arrived with the trailer, at first it was “No, he’s staying here!”.

On my way to the pen to get the ewe, I told Al (the ram), “He was one damned lucky boy”, believing he was staying.

By the time we’d loaded the ewe, Bev reluctantly changed her mind and agreed to send him.

So, Al… you’re off to a whole new world!