A regular job on the farm in Mid July is getting the sheep ready for lambing in about a months time. The ladies were penned up over night to keep them dry and then crutched (bottoms and bellies shorn) the next day.
This helps the lambs find the milk when they are born and keeps them clean too. The shearer came and went in the morning while I was at work and when I got home they were back in the paddock filling their tummies.
Now they eat and wait until lambing starts. Some of them are already pretty large and I need to do daily checks to make sure none are stuck on their backs and can't get up - not a very elegant position for a lady sheep to be in. If they get to a point where they can't roll back on to their feet they can end up dying in the paddock. My son spotted a stuck one the other day and rescued it. I am sure she appreciated it - looks like twins in that tummy.
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| Off to greener pastures - my daughter gets the credit for this photo |
That seems so against natural selection, that sheep can fall over and not be able to get up. Is it because of domestication? Loving your blog, by the way.
ReplyDeleteI am all for natural selection with my sheep and have eliminated the need for chemical input by breeding the healthy ones and selling the others. Sometimes this just happens - twins inside, wet wool and a slight dip in the ground and they can occasionally get stuck. I remember feeling a bit like a beached whale at the end too and I only had 1 at a time.
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