Ram breed totals falling

After the smoke from the fireworks has cleared from Kenan Stadium and the crowd has left the seats, the blue-horned Rameses makes his four-mile return trip home to Hogan’s Magnolia View Farm.

The beloved UNC mascot has been held at the farm since the ram first became the school’s mascot in 1924. The current Rameses spends most of his time there with his wife, Tulip.

“The rams are pretty much like your pets, like cats and dogs,” said Rob Hogan, owner of Hogan’s Magnolia View Farm and the fourth generation family ram keeper.

But Rameses, a horned dorset sheep and well-known representative of UNC, is now one of about 170 barn animals on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s animal watch list — a list of breeds whose numbers are falling.

In 1949, N.C. State University researchers discovered a gene mutation in the dorset to make them hornless, which allows farmers to breed for hornless rams.

Horned rams can injure other animals or get caught in fences, Hogan said. Because of this, farmers try not to breed for horned dorsets like Rameses.

“After the introduction of the (hornless) dorset in the late ‘40s, the number of horned dorsets has dwindled,” said Jennifer Kendall, the marketing and communications manager for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

But while his breed may be becoming more rare, Rameses is still going strong for every football game.

In the 1920s, Carolina had a powerful running back Jack Merritt, known as the “Battering Ram.” Rameses was suggested as a new mascot because of the sports figure.

The first horned dorset was then sent from Texas to Chapel Hill to live on Hogan’s Magnolia View Farm.

Hogan preps Rameses by soaking his wool coat and then drying him to create a bright white coat. Then, Hogan applies a first coat of light blue paint to his horns.

Hogan puts on the second coat of paint and puts on Rameses’ blanket before heading off to UNC more than two hours before the start of the game.

From there, Rameses visits with fans at the General Alumni Association booth before journeying down to the field 20 minutes prior to kickoff.

The conservancy is working at spreading awareness of the animals through research, providing seminars on the animals and working closely with various breeding associations.

The game day trips used to be a huge shock to Rameses, but the ram has adjusted to the game-day atmosphere.

“The fireworks initially startled Rameses at first, but he got used to them during the Citadel game,” Hogan said. “Sixty-five-thousand screaming fans, the fireworks and the marching band is a big switch each Saturday from life on the farm.”


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