The rams are back in their pasture
Each year in the fall the rams (boy sheep) get moved in with ewes (girls)...it's breeding time! Since my background isn't in livestock or farming I am inclined to blush at the sites and thoughts of all the goings on around here. I have an even greater imagination when it comes to the romancing I'm convinced takes place.
We have different pastures with different rams in each pasture. We decide which ram goes with which ewes based on blood lines. We just want to be sure there's no inbreeding. Not too long ago I had someone jokingly say, "picking their beau's are you?" Believe me, I did not laugh that off. For a day or so I had to wrestle with the possibility that I might be involved in arranged marriages of sorts. Making the final decision for these girls, really!
My justification rested in the fact that every ram on this farm is handsome and therefore these gals wouldn't mind. I mean they don't have to rely on them for anything other then pretty babies and I hope a romantic evening, of sorts.
So, the day approaches sometime in October each year. We watch the calender. For the sheep, the rams especially, they know. This year Mi Sueno, our #1 ram, stood in the corner of his pasture for some 30 days before it was time. Longingly staring at the ewes in the adjoining pastures. They say the moon, stars and earths influences tell them it's that time of year again.
The other rams didn't show much interest but they haven't been around the block as many times as Mi Sueno so they're not quite as tuned in. With very specific direction we send each ram strategically to they're perspective harem. It is such a change in dynamics on the farm I stick around and feed my imagination. I know when she bats those eyelashes...I saw it! As I describe to anyone who wants to listen, each of our rams has a very different style. Mi Sueno, magnificent as he is, has one thing on his mind. It is a job. It's not work he'd trade for anything but that's all it is, his job. He joins the gals one day, does his job, and regardless of the number of days past on the calender, he tells us when he is ready to get leave the mixed company! Each year we know, when Mi Sueno starts getting rough with girls, he's had enough of whatever they were offering...he has forgotten again for another 12 months.
White Lightening is a handsome young ram with great promise just not enough years to build a reputation. I know he is just discovering who he is but I still contend they each have their own style. He hasn't shown a single sign that he bred or was interested in such. We won't really know until it's lambing time but I've seen his type before, he's just the private type. He nibbles on their ears and asks them if they'd like to dance. I've actually heard cooing before.
Yesterday we moved the rams back to their pasture. As we open the gate for them to join their fellow rams, they look back toward the ewes, as if to say, "am I sure about this" then forward they move to the other rams calling, "come and get us".
Each ram being different in character, one looks back at the ewes again and then at me saying please can I stay with the girls while another doesn't give it a second thought, off he goes ramming rams! Once together they butt heads jump on each other and bully about. They are boys, happy to be back together.
So you see some might say they're just animals and that I have too vivid an imagination but I say, nope, not too far from our own stories of romance...sans the music and candlelight!