Training rams to court and mate female goats

• Rams can induce out-of season ovulation in female goats.
• They should recognize female goats as sexual partners.
• Training rams can be done by pairing with estrous ewes or does.
• Trained rams effectively display courtship and mating behavior toward anestrous goats.

As Saint-Croix rams (sheep) exhibit low seasonal reproductive changes, they could be effective in inducing a reproductive response during the non-breeding season in anestrous does (goats) of breeds whose bucks show low reproductive activity. Three management practices for training rams to court and mate anestrous does were compared. Yearling rams were: (1) housed with pregnant goats (PrG); (2) kept as a unisexual group, and exposed individually to a restrained non-receptive female goat four times a week (GoG); and (3) kept as a unisexual group, and during the first two sexual tests (week 1), a non-receptive ewe was used as stimulus immediately before being replaced by the non-receptive goat (EwG). Each ram was individually exposed to a non-receptive doe two times/week on weeks 0 (pre-treatment response), 1 and 4, and the rams’ sexual behavior was recorded during 30 min. On Week 0, no ram displayed any sexual behavior. EwG and GoG rams displayed more sniffs than PrG (P = 0.025 and P = 0.002 respectively). The number of flehmens displayed by EwG and GoG rams was greater than the number displayed by PrG rams (EwG vs PrG: P = 0.006 and GoG vs PrG: P = 0.028). Rams prestimulated with goats (GoG) licked more than those housed with pregnant goats (PrG) (P = 0.009); those stimulated with ewes (EwG) tended to lick more than PrG rams (P = 0.09). Rams prestimulated with goats (GoG) kicked more times than those housed with pregnant goats (PrG) (P = 0.007), without differences between EwG and PrG rams. Rams housed with pregnant goats did not display any mounting behavior (attempt to mount, mounts, or ejaculations) in any test. The number of mounting behaviors did not differ between groups in the first two tests. EwG rams performed more (P = 0.006) and GoG rams tended to engage in more (P = 0.058) attempted mounting than PrG rams. GoG rams mounted more times than EwG (P = 0.048) and PrG (P = 0.017) rams. Rams prestimulated with ewes (EwG) ejaculated more times than GoG and PrG (P < 0.0001 for both) rams. Similarly, EwG rams had a significantly greater ratio of ejaculations/(mounts + ejaculations) throughout the tests than GoG (P = 0.0034) and PrG (P = 0.0007) rams. It was concluded that rams can be trained to court and mount female goats. Pre-stimulation with does or ewes before having them join the goats stimulated the display of sexual behavior. However, while in general prestimulation with goats resulted in more courtship behaviors, prestimulating with ewes seemed to be the best strategy to obtain the best results in mating behavior and serving capacity.