Meet the Rams

Cotton was one of our 3 original sheep. She was the first one to lamb on May 6th, 2024. The day before, I suspected that she might be getting ready to have her lambs because she wasn't eating and was staying off by herself more than usual. When I went outside the next morning to feed everyone, I was surprised and delighted to see the 2 adorable little white lambs. She had already cleaned them up and was stomping her foot at me to stay away! I was a little worried that the lambs wouldn't be able to get to her milk because she had so much wool but it wasn't a problem. We kept the other sheep away for the morning so that she could have some privacy and time to bond with her new babies. I also gave her a bowl of grain and alfalfa pellets which she very greedily ate, once I left the pen.

We knew that we only wanted to keep one ram but we wanted to be sure that we picked the right one. Everything I had read said that you should castrate them by day two, and you shouldn't wait more than a week. We did manage to catch them both on day 2 and examine them. We docked the tail of the one we wanted to keep in tact but my husband didn't really feel comfortable castrating the other lamb on day because it was so small. We waited until day 7 and checked again and he still felt very unsure because they were still so small. It was very different from castrating a goat at 8 weeks. Eventually decided to keep them both in tact.

As they grew older, their horns started coming in. The one we were planning on using as our breeding ram had two horns and the other had four horns. (Navajo-Churros can have up to 6 horns.) One of the four horns was kind of chalky, flakey, and brittle. Eventually, it broke off and he was left looking rather lopsided. We started calling them 3 Horn and 2 Horn to distinguish between them.

Multiple horns can be a desirable trait in Navajo-Churros, but it definitely wasn't something that I desired. If I was feeding the rams and 3 Horn lifted his head up quickly, I had a very large pointy horn coming straight at me. It wasn't like he was trying to attack me, but he didn't seem to have the spatial awareness that should come with that type of equipment! He also managed to get it caught in the metal hay feeder and dragged it several feet before managing to free himself.

Because of this, he had to go when we downsized the flock. There was some talk about using him as a breeder so I am glad that he was left in tact. To me, he looked wonky and lopsided. Two horns are plenty! Which is why his brother 2 Horn is our breeding ram. He has two evenly placed horns that are growing away from his face. He is quite solid and really had a beautiful coat of wool before it was sheared it off.

We also decided to let Cotton go when we downsized. She was 5 years old when we got her and she was very skittish. When we would enter the pen to feed everyone, she would hang back and wait until we left before she would come over to eat. She would panic at the slightest thing. Everything would be going along fine, and then Cotton would startle and go running off. This would cause all the other sheep to go running off in a panic as well. With Cotton gone, our ram isn't related to any of the females that are remaining and honestly things are much calmer without her constant panic.