RAMbo

The ram has been looking pretty spiffy these last few weeks. Compliments of his severe flystrike illness, RAMbo had to have a serious shearing. We had to cut away a lot of his wool to get at the maggots. He now is the proud possessor of a poodle cut. Yes, folks, possibly the only poodle cut ram in the North Island, perhaps even all of New Zealand.

And isn’t he proud of himself! He prances around our paddocks with all his old vim and vigor. Part of it is due to having Snowball, the young ram, in another paddock and part is he is no longer sick, but the majority is that he is now seeing himself as the Don Juan of sheep.

This has translated into, how shall I put this?, increased vitality. He is absolutely certain that he is irresistible to ewes. The ewes? Not so much. Yesterday, RAMbo was making an absolute pest of himself to the rest of the flock. He was everywhere, sniffing butts and making advances. I could almost hear him saying, “where’ve you been all my life, cutie.”  

The ewes were pretty forbearing, all things considered. They just continued grazing. Occasionally they moved a few steps out of the path of the damp nose but were fairly tolerant. Up to a point. That point was reached (pun intended) when the ram got down to business.

At first I couldn’t understand why they weren’t more enthusiastic but I soon saw why. First of all motherhood is not an unmixed blessing if you would be giving birth in a wet paddock in the middle of winter. Second, a girl likes a bit more individual attention than just being the fourth butt sniffed in the last four minutes.

But the third reason was the most compelling of all. RAMbo was definitely a ‘wham bam thank you mam’ ram. Three very rapid thrusts and its over and out. The ewe never even stopped eating. I doubt she had time to swallow. I am beginning to have serious doubts about the viability of this ram increasing our flock to any significant degree. He may have the desire, but his follow through is lousy.

Next time, a recap of what’s happening here on the farm now that Fall has arrived.