
05/10/2025
Ram Fertility
With an estimated 20% of rams showing subfertility, now is a good time to assess your rams.
As well as semen analysis using the microscope, assessment of teeth, lameness and testicular lumps and bumps are also important.
Thankfully infertility is very rare, but sub fertile rams can be problematic, getting ewes slowly pregnant, resulting in poor scanning percentages and dragged out lambing periods seen.
Full semen assessments can be carried out for sale purposes including detailed reports. Some farmers however,opt for quick assessments (Quick Fire Exams) where a semen sample is checked for density and movement to identify the poorest rams in a group. This can be helpful to let you know which rams shouldn't be relied on to work on their own! These quick assessments can be done as an hourly rate job and the work can also be supported through farming connect for eligible farms.
It is also worth remembering that 24 hours of having a fever can knock fertility for 6 weeks, so any ram that has had a history of pneumonia, or a bad lameness, might warrant a check to see that semen quality is up to standard.
It is also important to consider raddling to assess work rate. Some rams can have good semen quality, yet have low s*x drives when turned with ewes, this can lead to overworking of other rams (poor things!)
Get in touch to book a visit or to bring a trailer to the yard.