For you bighorn experts, let's play the annuli game

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

Alright... Here's my thinking. And I am assuming I'm missing the year one ring, cause dang it, there's no way a lamb can put that much horn on in year one...

 

[Zach]

CO Ram

 

[mevertsen]

Alright... Here's my thinking. And I am assuming I'm missing the year one ring, cause dang it, there's no way a lamb can put that much horn on in year one...
View attachment 250105

You're 2 years advance I think. And stacking an extra at the base.

 

[mevertsen]

CO Ram

I get 8

 

[BuckRut]

CO Ram

9

 

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

You're 2 years advance I think. And stacking an extra at the base.

Can you help me out here? Which one's the extra from my list? And what do you mean by the "2 years advance"?

I'm definitely not claiming to know what I'm doing. Just trying to understand how to do this better.

 

[mevertsen]

Can you help me out here? Which one's the extra from my list? And what do you mean by the "2 years advance"?

I'm definitely not claiming to know what I'm doing. Just trying to understand how to do this better.

Your 2 is either 3 or 4. And at the base you are adding years I think.

I get 8 with the 2 being 4, I think Your 5 is 6, 6,7,8,9 break down into two rings, 10 is a false ring.

If you take out the two, combine the other 4, and advance 2 from the end you get 8.

If I put your 2 as a 3 and combine the 4 above into 2, and eliminate 10, I get 7 total.

I am not an expert either, but I have looked at a few sheep over the years.

I'll see if i can edit the pic.

Here it is with the first big one as 4, still not certain if it's 3 or 4.

 

[Nicapopolis]

CO Ram

He has got to be 7 or 8, but I also looked at him for 8 hours.....

It is very hard to judge because you get this feeling that rams of a similar age in the same group should be of a similar size and that just doesn't appear to be true. Obviously genetics play a part.

This was a ram we passed on....

 

[BradA]

#16
11.13.2022

Might have to click a couple times on the picture to blow it up for counting.

Awesome picture you took great job

 

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

Your 2 is either 3 or 4. And at the base you are adding years I think.

I get 8 with the 2 being 4, I think Your 5 is 6, 6,7,8,9 break down into two rings, 10 is a false ring.

If you take out the two, combine the other 4, and advance 2 from the end you get 8.

If I put your 2 as a 3 and combine the 4 above into 2, and eliminate 10, I get 7 total.

I am not an expert either, but I have looked at a few sheep over the years.

I'll see if i can edit the pic.

Here it is with the first big one as 4, still not certain if it's 3 or 4.

Thanks for explaining your thought process to me. I'm very confused by a couple points though. Between your 7 and 8 there is a distinctive ring that traverses the entire horn crosswise. How is that not an annuli?

Additionally, how do you decide that my 10 is a false ring? It also seems to be a deep, distinctive ring.

Regarding my 2 being a 3/4 I'm totally open to that idea.

 

[mevertsen]

Thanks for explaining your thought process to me. I'm very confused by a couple points though. Between your 7 and 8 there is a distinctive ring that traverses the entire horn crosswise. How is that not an annuli?

Additionally, how do you decide that my 10 is a false ring? It also seems to be a deep, distinctive ring.

Regarding my 2 being a 3/4 I'm totally open to that idea.

Just going off of average growth between all the years. They do slow down, but I don't see how that goes from great gaps, and then just slows that much.

In my marks, the 7 is just to the left of where my mark is, and the 8 is where it's more of a gray ring. This could also just be a false ring, as we don't know the exact environmental conditions where it was photographed. The rut for rockys should be on now, so there will be one more ring become visible in a couple months.

Also the body condition is just too good for a very old ram. But again, what I mark as a 4 could very well be 3, making him 7. My gut says 7 because of his body.

 

[mevertsen]

Thanks for explaining your thought process to me. I'm very confused by a couple points though. Between your 7 and 8 there is a distinctive ring that traverses the entire horn crosswise. How is that not an annuli?

Additionally, how do you decide that my 10 is a false ring? It also seems to be a deep, distinctive ring.

Regarding my 2 being a 3/4 I'm totally open to that idea.

Each side of my desert ram from last year. The 4 year ring is on the left/right of each photo.

After 6 it gets tricky. Not sure if he had a rut or not, drought, etc. I and the Biologist put him at 8. It could easily be counted to 10, but that would be a very, very old ram in that unit, so unlikely. But if ypu follow that pattern like was mentioned above, 8 seems the most likely.

 

[Oak]

Your 2 is either 3 or 4. And at the base you are adding years I think.

I get 8 with the 2 being 4, I think Your 5 is 6, 6,7,8,9 break down into two rings, 10 is a false ring.

If you take out the two, combine the other 4, and advance 2 from the end you get 8.

If I put your 2 as a 3 and combine the 4 above into 2, and eliminate 10, I get 7 total.

I am not an expert either, but I have looked at a few sheep over the years.

I'll see if i can edit the pic.

Here it is with the first big one as 4, still not certain if it's 3 or 4.

I think your "4" mark was made in the winter before his 3rd birthday. I think the ram was 6.5 when the photo was taken...will turn 7 next May.

 

[Bwillig]

I thought 5 but was obviously wrong!