Ram Marking Harnesses

I’ve been really pleased with using marking harnesses with the rams this year, it’s reassuring to verify that everyone is getting bred on schedule, and that there were no accidents earlier in August that I didn’t know about! Here are two girls with nice clear blue marks on them, indicating that in five months, they should have some of Hershey’s lambs.

But, here is one that didn’t go as planned:

Oops! That’s both blue and green! That’s ‘cuz Hershey busted through the hotwire separating the groups on a couple of occasions. So, oh well, I’ll have a few lambs with a mystery sire. If they are great and I’m dying to keep them, I can DNA test them so they can be registered; otherwise they’ll just go on the locker list. And this is probably where the marking harness provides most of its value, is when somebody gets where they shouldn’t. Without them, I’d have no idea what went on in the few hours Hershey was in the wrong pen, where this way, at least I can quantify the damage!