And Then There Were Five
September 23rd, 2013 · 2 Comments · Posted in farming
The day finally arrived yesterday when our neighbor pulled onto the property with his truck and trailer to haul his sheep away. They had performed admirably over the past couple of months, helping our small flock mow down acres of overgrown grass and weeds. The question was, how were we to separate his sheep from ours now that they’d become one flock? It turned into a bit of a circus.
This was one case where having a trained herding dog on hand would have been a definite plus. Picture three humans–myself, the neighbor and my wife–chasing 19 sheep around in circles, trying to steer them onto the trailer while diverting our five sheep into a separate paddock. We tried any number of tactics. Most involved moving the temporary electric fencing into tighter and tighter circles. But at one point the herd just busted through the fence and we had to start all over.
I had hoped to be able to show you video of the event, but my spouse was glad there was no one free to handle the camera. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t want anyone to see this. This is too embarrassing.”
Finally we decided just to push all of the sheep onto the trailer, then use rope leads to pick off our sheep one-by-one, since there were so many fewer of them. That worked up to a point. We got all of the neighbor’s sheep except two, and they weren’t cooperating at all. We found ourselves chasing sheep in circles all over again, just a smaller number of them.
That’s when we brought out the bucket of grain. Sheep are crazy for grain and our sheep recognize the bucket only too well. Pretty soon we were able to entice the sheep into a small circle where they were all competing to jam their heads into the bucket. They got close enough that we were able to tackle the two outlier sheep and get them on the trailer as well. The neighbor, making a flying tackle of the older of the two, twisted his ankle. “It’s still moving, so it must be alright,” he averred.
So what started in the spring as a herd of eight Friesians has been whittled to five. The two oldest ewes–Ginger and “Old Mama”–11 and 14 years old respectively–both succumbed to hard labor in the fields. So did a yearling–Erica–who we thought we’d cured of a bad case of hoof scald, but then suddenly died as well for no apparent reason.
That’s a pretty high mortality rate. But we are left with the hardiest stock. The remaining sheep look tremendously fit and no worse for wear. From here on out, they’ll be grazing clean pasture. But with winter approaching, who knows what further adventures lie in store.
Stay tuned….
I love your wife’s comments about not taking pictures. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with livestock for 40 years, it’s this: If you’re working with livestock, expect to be embarrassed now and then. 😉
Joanne, I don’t embarrass very easily anymore. I’ve also learned that chasing sheep is a loser’s game.