Sunday 20 November 2011

Shake, raddle and roll (Paul)

It's a sheepy one tonight!  So if you're having trouble sleeping, keep reading the blog and there's that many sheep in it you will be off to the land of nod before you know it.

Today it was time to set our tups (or rams depending on where you are from) on to the 'ladies' at the hill.   We now have 115 Blackface ewes and they need a boyfriend if we are to be lambing in the spring!

Regular blog followers will know all about Wesley, so no need to introduce him.  However, despite him only being one and a half years old (or a shearling), he already has some young pretenders!

A friendly nearby farmer, Jeff Paxton of Greenleighton Farm near Morpeth has lent us a couple of tup lambs to add reinforcements to Wesley - why you might ask?  First of all genetic diversity, secondly practical!  Dave and I shepherded (well, he ran a lot and I was on the the quad) all the sheep to the 'top' field yesterday and it is 120 acres in that field alone so we need more than Wesley to track down the ladies!

Here are the two (very) young boys:s
Given their horn directions I have called them In (of the left) and Out (on the right).  You can see some of the big alpaca boys behind them: Loki (black and far left), then Hughie looking at the camera and Tenzing behind him.  I'm not sure who's the bum is!

So with our 3 tups we secured their raddle or harness with a block of colour under each so we can see who mates the most ladies.  Out of course has black - making him Black Out.  In has red and Wesley has green.  Place your bets!

With harnesses secure we then shepherded them up the hill.  With Dave still resting I needed a new runner - queue Debbie - come by lass!
The boys were soon up in the 'top' field and mixing it with the ladies - scores on the doors (or ewe's backs) to follow later in the week...

Whilst we at the hill we checked on our latest additions to the flock - an investment for next year, some Black faced ewe lambs (you mate them in their second year, not the first).
If you count how many there are you can either let me know the answer or you will be now fast asleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Paul

1 comment:

Rosemary said...

Nice sheep!

If I was a sheep I think it would have to be Wesley for me - so, I go for Wesley being the 'high scorer'!!