Testicle Dissection

At the time of harvest, five pairs of testicles were obtained from intact rams and five were obtained from short-scrotum rams. The testicles were sent to Virginia State University for dissection by Dr. Stephan Wildeus and Dr. Dahlia O'Brien.

The short-scrotum lambs had significantly smaller testes than the ram lambs: 108.9 vs. 291.2 g. The epididmymal weight was also smaller (17.7 vs. 53.8 g) in the short-scrotum lambs, as were the ratios of parenchyma: tunica and testis: epididymis).

Organ weights

Sex	No.	Total testes, g	Epididymal wt, g	Parenchyma: tunica ratio	Testis: epididymis ratio
Ram	5	291.2	53.8	9.79	5.50
Short scrotum	5	108.9	17.7	7.76	6.32
Probability	5	<0.0012	<0.0027	0.1204	0.2594

The testicles from the intact ram lambs were smaller than last year by about 100 g. This may have accounted for the lower ejaculate quality of the intact rams. One of the short-scrotum rams had one testicle that was significantly larger than the other. Its testicle was also considerably larger than the other short scrotum rams (by over 50 g).