# How many ewes per ram?



## ONG2

We breed our ABB year round as the ewes are judged recovered, by my wife, from their previous lambing. The ram was introduced to our group of 7 "maids in waiting" (just turned a year old) last Saturday. After they are bred we'll put him in with the older ewes that are ready for breeding. 

The question is how many ewes can the ram service without wearing him down or lowering his sperm count too far? I realize that this is a moving number based on the weather temps & feed quality among other things, but is there a ball park number that you use? 

I know this subject has been discussed before but my searchfoo is weak today.


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## KSALguy

depends on if you want all your lambs to come at one time or if you dont mind them spread out, a ram will keep breeding as the occasion arrises but if there are too many ewes then the lambs will just be spread out as he has a chance to get to each one, probably about 20 or so if you want them all bred at one time, much more than that and the lambing will be alot more spread out,


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## thequeensblessing

Our year old ram settled 14 ewes in a month's time in the hottest part of the summer. He ended losing a lot of condition, something we're not going to let happen this time. We'll present him with fewer gals at any given time as the summer heat ramps up.


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## LibertyWool

Unless you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, 1 adult ram can service 30-50 ewes over a 34 day period. If you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, then you may want to use 1:5 or 1:10 ewes.


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## Ross

LibertyWool said:


> Unless you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, 1 adult ram can service 30-50 ewes over a 34 day period. If you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, then you may want to use 1:5 or 1:10 ewes.


Agree but just to add by adult that would be a healthy score 3+ ram 2 years old plus but usually under 5 years old
. Rams may go off their feed during breeding and lose condition fast so you want your stud with a bit of chunk on him to start.


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## Bearfootfarm

My one Ram always did fine with up to 30, and probably could have done a lot more


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## ONG2

Ross said:


> Agree but just to add by adult that would be a healthy score 3+ ram 2 years old plus but usually under 5 years old
> . Rams may go off their feed during breeding and lose condition fast so you want your stud with a bit of chunk on him to start.





LibertyWool said:


> Unless you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, 1 adult ram can service 30-50 ewes over a 34 day period. If you are doing synchronized estrus cycles, then you may want to use 1:5 or 1:10 ewes.



Well our guy should be fine then. We are looking at 40-50 in a year.


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## ONG2

Thanks for the help folks, now one last question. If you have multiple adult rams on the farm do you keep them in separate fields to keep them from braining each other? If you were concerned about blood lines you would have to keep them separate but how do the boys get along if that is not a concern?


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## Ross

We used to keep all the rams together. They sorted themselves out but it was much like any group of males. Then we'd make up breeding groups and use a particular ram with a particular group then at the end drop in in a clean up ram with the reunited flock.


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## Somerhill

When you put them back together, pen them in really tight so they just have enough room to move around if everyone cooperates. (provide water and hay) It needs to be close enough they just have room to stand or lie down, but not enough to step back and butt. After a couple days, let them out into a larger pen with some food and watch them. If they have settled down, you can let them out into a paddock to graze. Our rams live in harmony the rest of the year. We keep them in a different area than the ewe flock where it is quiet, they don't get handled or disturbed, and they just lay around in the shade and gain condition for breeding season. 
Lisa
Somerhill Farm


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## greengrow

I think that it depends entirely on the rams. My Suffolk's used to be fine. The Blue faced Lester's would fight over the one ewe when they had 60 each. 

When they were pulled from the ewes some time during or just post lambing they would be very happy put in a field with rams from different groups and no fighting. But then that was away from all the ewes, and out of season.


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## sheepish

If your ewes are cycling, the weather is not hot and your ram is fertile, he should be able to handle upwards of 30 ewes.

2 years ago, in October, we used an 8 month old Rideau ram on 45 ewes. He got 39 pregnant in just over a month. The only ones who didn't get pregnant were 6 ewe lambs who needed more time to mature themselves. 

It isn't our normal practice to commit such a large number of ewes to a young ram, but to avoid inbreeding we did it. We most often divide the flock into approximately 30 ewe breeding groups, with young rams used on only a dozen or so. This has as much to do with our facilities and breeding evaluation issues. We keep 3-4 rams and prefer to commit proven rams to more of the flock than we allow untried fathers to be.


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## sheepish

ONG2 said:


> Thanks for the help folks, now one last question. If you have multiple adult rams on the farm do you keep them in separate fields to keep them from braining each other? If you were concerned about blood lines you would have to keep them separate but how do the boys get along if that is not a concern?


An old farmer we knew said that if you are breeding with multiple rams, you needed to have them in 3's: 2 to fight each other and the other to engage the ladies while they were busy.

Our rams are together in a ram flock or with the entire flock when they are not working. They seem to work out the pecking order and then leave each other alone. We put young rams in with them when they are being held for sale (3-8 months of age). This may not work for all rams.


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