Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

Lamb Marking

Lambing has now finished, though we are still feeding the 3 poddy lambs for a couple more weeks. Fortunately we are down to 2 bottles a day, which is slightly easier.

The farm has a rhythm to it. Things have to be done in a certain order, and after lambing comes marking. Marking is probably my least favourite part of farm life, because it involves cutting the tails off all the lambs. For people who don’t live on a farm, this can seem horrible and unnecessary, but you only have to see a flyblown sheep suffering to understand that it is the less of two evils. 
If the tails aren’t removed, then the sheep manure tends to stick to the tail and back legs. Flies find this a perfect place to lay their eggs, and when they hatch, the maggots eat the actual sheep. Sorry for that visual, but I guess you now understand why it is necessary!
Country Boy and a friend spent the morning marking the lambs, who surprisingly, seem to cope really well. They put a band around the tail before cutting it off, so there is very little (if any) blood. They also put a band around the testicles of the boy sheep, which causes the testicles to fall off later. We buy rams for breeding with, because the rams have been bred for their superior genes (well that is the theory anyway). Neutered boy sheep are called wethers.

 Meg and Hannah are still quite squeamish about marking, and really don’t like looking at it.

They did find Lucy and Caleb, two of our poddy lambs from last year. They didn’t get their tails cut off (though Caleb did get a ring around his testicles), so they are easy to spot in the crowd of sheep. Also they are invariably in the wrong paddock. Lucy and Caleb came straight up to the girls for a pat when we arrived. Another very un-sheepish thing to do!

Our friend has a little dog, that thinks it is a proper sheep dog, though the sheep tend to ignore it. She is a lot of fun for the kids to play with however, and when we arrived she promptly started begging Toby for his sandwich. I think that she is the perfect size for Toby!

By lunch time the lambs were marked, and counted.These lambs will be sold for meat. Now we need to start  getting ready for the next lot of lambing when the merino lambs (for wool) will be born. This week Country Boy has to give all the merino ewes an injection before they start their lambing.

As I said, the farm has a rhythm about it, but it never really ends!

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Comments

  1. Cathy says

    Telling it like it is – love your post. I guess a lot of city people wouldn't understand what's necessary. A lot of hard work so we can enjoy the meals we want. We don't value our farmers enough!

    Reply

  2. The Kids Are All Right says

    I love your posts so much. So far removed from my life but not, if I really think about it. These stories are part of the larger story about that lamb that ends up on my plate. And if I am going to eat meat I need to acknowledge all that goes in to bringing it to me.

    Reply

  3. Grace says

    You really put some perspective as to how busy farming life can be. Love that second last photo of Toby looking down at the little dog 🙂

    Reply

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