Carol, I don't like to band either but we don't have a lot of space so if we need to reduce the friction between the ram lambs - we sometimes do. We kept all our fall rams intact and they were getting to the point where they were starting to fight for dominance. We did have 4 ewes with them but we just sold all but 1 at a sale. I would much rather keep them " whole " if at all possible. This fall when we separated the fall lambs from their mothers, we had 2 wethers that we were planning to butcher. The lambs adjusted much better to the separation with the wethers in there.
But I do agree that we need to keep them as natural as possible when we can. Someday maybe we'll be able to purchase some more of the land around us so we can have more room to separate ( although I'm not looking forward to putting up more fence!!!!) Sue
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