At what age do rams get aggressive?
A ram lamb at five months can usually settle a few ewes, but he will be a much more aggressive breeder at seven months. A January-born lamb is ready for breeding in August; therefore as the breeding season progresses, February and March-born lambs come of age for September to November breeding.
Regardless of an individual ram's behavior, it is important to remember that all rams are aggressive or have the potential to be aggressive, even if they appear “friendly”.
Some producers cut the “dead” tail off before it falls off. Docking by banding is painful to the lamb. Lambs should be at least 24 hours old before bands are applied, and bands should only be applied during the lamb's first week of life.
You can walk toward a ram that begins to back up, stand your ground and dodge an attack, or wrestle it to the ground. Some ways to avoid an attack include keeping your eyes on the ram, avoiding petting a ram, and keeping your head up.
You can walk toward a ram that begins to back up, stand your ground and dodge an attack, or wrestle it to the ground. Some ways to avoid an attack include keeping your eyes on the ram, avoiding petting a ram, and keeping your head up.
My advice is to leave the ram with the ewes after the official breeding season has ended, at least up to lambing. He will graze with them and in the winter, he will eat hay with them. No need to add extra work to house a ram separately at that time.
Goats must be between 4 weeks to 4 months of age with 8 to 12 weeks being ideal.
Puberty is the age at which the ram's reproductive organs become functional, his secondary sex characteristics develop, and he is ready to successfully mate ewes. Most ram lambs reach puberty between 5 and 7 months of age at approximately 50 to 60 percent of their mature weight.
Banding goats when they are younger seems to cause them less discomfort; however, banding them too early can lead to problems with urinary calculi (see Goat Wethers & Urinary Calculi). This can be very serious and even fatal.
Using an elastrator band might be a possibility with your six month old billy goat, but it probably will be quite traumatic for him at his age and size and the likelihood of causing some internal damage will be fairly high.
What age do you band ram lambs?
Castration with rubber bands should be done when lambs/kids are between 1 and 7 days of age. Older lambs/kids (1-6 weeks of age) can be castrated with an emasculator (clamp).
The FAWC also concluded that tail docking of lambs up to 7 days old is best done with a rubber ring; that lambs between the ages of 1 and 8 weeks old should be docked with a docking iron (hot blade) or a clamp; and that acute pain of tail docking can be alleviated using locally applied anesthetics.
