Polled is a term given to sheep without
horns, the animals with horns are said to be non-polled. The poll
being the highest point on the animals head, roughly between the
ears.
Some sheep breeds have no horns in the
rams (males) or ewes (females), while others have only the rams with
horns, a few have horns on the ewes too. Some breeds can have sheep
that are both polled, or non-polled. Scurred is a term given when an
animal has small, poorly formed, horns, and these are more common in
ewes.
When people consider what breed of
sheep they wish to have, horns, or lack of horns, should be a
consideration, as for some people horns are an advantage, and for
others they are a disadvantage.
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| Six month old ram lamb. |
Advantages of Horns on Sheep
Horns make great handles. When a sheep
is caught there really isn't much to hold on to, especially with the
wool sheep, a rope around the neck, or a halter, can be used, but
horns are far easier to hold onto and offer excellent control of the
head.
Horns can add value, as a mature ram with a good set of horns will often sell higher, and in some areas are very sought after by hunters (certain breeds of sheep in particular).
Disadvantages of Horns on Sheep
Large horns prevent sheep from getting
their heads into the feeders.
Horns can get stuck in the wire fences.
This is more of a concern in lambs whose horns are small enough to
fit through a fence along with their head, but will catch when the
lamb pulls its head back.
When the lamb is still nursing, and its
horns are growing, they can hurt the ewes udder, and underside.
Although sheep do not fight
aggressively as some animals they do head butt each other, in play,
and at feeding times. When sheep have horns such action can be more
of a concern, while they don't intentionally hurt each other with
their horns, they may lock and as such when rams are penned together
they should be checked regularly.
When damaged (which occurs more often
in young, and scurred sheep) damaged horns from can result in
bleeding which can be a problem, or lead to infection.
When sheep are not using to being
handled, the horns can be dangerous to the human handler, or can be
dangerous if a ram is aggressive to humans.
If not curved correctly they can go
into the animals head, or eye, a serious problem, and should be
removed if this is a concern.
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| One of my ewes, featuring 5 horns (two smaller). |
What are Horns?
Horns start growing from a horn bud
which can usually be seen when the lamb is born. In rams the horns
grow faster than in ewes, and often become larger. Horns stay on the
animal for its lifetime (unlike antlers which shed seasonally). In
sheep that do grow horns, they grow the most in the first two years.
Horns grow from the skull and are a
boney structure, make of keratin. The center of a living horn has
blood flowing through it will will result in bleeding if broken.
Sheep Horn Genetics
Horn presence is controlled by three
genes, P (dominant for Polling), p (sex linked for non-polled) and p'
(produces horns in ewes as well as rams). Each sheep has 2 genes and
depending which ones they pass this will determine if their offspring
are to be born with, or without, horns. Note that of course some breeds are always polled so all animals of that breed would be PP and could never pass on a gene for horns.
As an example two sheep who are both
polled (no horns) might have the genes Pp. Each would have a 50/50 chance of
passing on the P gene for Polling, or the p gene for non-polling.
For every 4 lambs the chances are that 1 would be PP, 2 would be Pp,
and 1 would be pp, as such only one in four lambs would have horns,
and only if it was a ram as this gene is sex linked. The other three
lambs would be polled and there would be no physical way of
determining which was PP and which was Pp.
