Snip ops are tops for rams

A JOB I’m sometimes asked to do before autumn sets in is vasectomies on male sheep and I have just performed them on two reluctant rams.

This may seem crazy. Why would sheep need help with family planning and birth control? Once these boys have had the snip they can mate to their heart’s content without causing unwanted pregnancies.

Afterwards these two rams shuffled uncomfortably in their pen but they were actually the luckiest animals on the farm.

Arousal

Instead of being sent to the butchers they will enjoy many years of carefree mating. The procedure was to let them mix with female sheep at the start of the mating season – to spur the ewes into a heightened state of arousal.

It makes the mating period more compact and the lambing season, five-and-a-bit months later, much more manageable. The real tups would be added next to do the deed when all the ewes should be ready and waiting. Yet neither reluctant ram, like many humans, would have looked forward to the op.