At last the Sheep are penned up. This evening two Sheppard’s, something I am definitely not, came with their dog to round the Sheep up, and pen them in for shearing. The Sheep were in some other farmers field, with the wood in between.
We needed to drive around the road to get to the field that they were in. When we got there the field gate had been left open. Some one had left the gate open deliberately. Not a very nice thing to do, as if the Sheep had of wandered into the road they could have been hit by vehicle. Even worse, those in the vehicle could have been seriously hurt. When we first went into the field, we were unable to see the Sheep. Of course we thought the worse, that they had gone through the open gate, to where you just would not know. We would have to hunt around for them. Fortunately the Sheep Dog knew where they were, and ran into their direction. The Dog was very good and soon had them though the wood into our field. One of the Ewes decided she was not coming, and ran back to the wood with her two Lambs. The Dog was sent around to collect them, but it was not worth wasting time for one Ewe and the two Lambs. Chances are that she will make her way to the pen over night, it should then be easy to catch them. T did not take to long to get the Sheep into the pen, that nine others had been in, for the past couple of weeks.
Only the Sheep are shorn, not the lambs. Twenty were done very quickly. New ear tags were put into the ears of both the Sheep and the Lambs. By law all farm animals have to be tagged with herd or flock numbers of the farm, so that they are able to be traced for future reference.
The reason for shearing the Sheep is for two main reasons. One is for the wool, although it is not worth very much. The little amount we produce is not worth selling. We give it to the people who shear the Sheep. They normally have large flocks, and are able to sell it. The other reason for shearing is to stop the Sheep from getting maggots. Flies will lay there eggs onto the Sheep’s coat. When the eggs hatch into maggots, the maggots will eat into the Sheep. If the maggots are not spotted, they will very quickly start to eat into the Sheep’s flesh. I have seen Sheep that the maggots have eaten into to their bodies, and continue eating inside of the Sheep. When we first got the Sheep last year we had a number of them with maggots. Fortunately we saw them in time. But even the initial infestation drags the Sheep down. After treatment, they soon recover. This time on shearing the Sheep, only one was found to have maggots, the very early stage, that we quickly got rid of.
The Sheep will now be penned up until they are taken to market to be sold. Although Sheep are very good for the fields, at Denbury we do not have the fencing to keep the sheep confined in our fields.