Pre-joining ram and bull checks and nutrition
Article printed February 14, 2025. For the latest version, please go to: https://www.feedinglivestock.vic.gov.au/2021/09/23/pre-joining-ram-and-bull-checks-and-nutrition/

Pre-joining ram checks
Attention to the nutrition and health of the ram team is critical well before joining. Three useful resources provide some key actions to ensure your rams are in the best health and condition before and during the joining period.
The Lambing Planner under sheep tools & calculators allows you to alter joining or lambing dates to see the impacts on other critical times in the reproductive year. It also includes valuable and easy to follow pre-joining nutrition information for rams. https://www.feedinglivestock.vic.gov.au/tools-calculators/sheep-tools-and-calculators/
Breeding soundness checks of your rams that you can undertake are in the given article
Managing your bull team
Just like rams, the nutrition and health of the bull team is important to maximum calf production. The following resource outlines how to manage your bull team to maximise herd fertility.
Feed budgeting tools on the Feeding livestock website will help producers optimise bull nutrition.
https://www.feedinglivestock.vic.gov.au/tools-calculators/beef-tools-and-calculators/