Housing & sheepfold

The most common mistake is housing a Ladoum like an ordinary sheep. With adults over a metre at the withers and past 150 kg, everything must be sized accordingly: barrier height (1.20 m minimum), passage width, strength of ties and feeders.

Allow at least 4–5 m² per adult in individual pens, more for lambing boxes. The floor must stay permanently dry: straw or groundnut-shell bedding renewed regularly, a slight slope for drainage, and indispensable shade under the Sahelian climate. Natural ventilation is vital — heat and ammonia are a sheepfold's two silent enemies.

Plan three distinct areas: breeding rams (separated — an adult ram is powerful and territorial), ewes with young, and a quarantine zone for any incoming or sick animal. Water must be permanent and clean: an adult drinks 5–10 litres a day, much more in hot season.

Finally, security is no detail when each animal is worth millions of FCFA: solid fencing, locked gates at night, and ideally a keeper or CCTV for elite animals.

Ladoum husbandry guides

• Feeding — Building growth and stature without wrecking digestive health.
• Health & prevention — Prevention before cure: the health calendar of a serious farm.
• Breeding & selection — Choosing matings, managing inbreeding, succeeding at lambing.

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