I promised a week in the life of, so here is Friday of the next week. What were we doing? More lamb marking and crutching the ewes at the same time. It keeps us busy when we have to yard the mob and draft the ewes off their lambs before 7:30, for the contract crutchers to get their full day. So we begin with that and then it's into lamb marking! I've previously shown you most of what we do when we lamb mark, the only thing left is what we breed for. (If I've forgotten something or you want to know something, please feel free to ask.)
The wrinkles or skin folds across this guys neck are something we try to breed out of our flock. The cleaner bodied they are the less likely they are to end up fly blown. Take my word for it when I say it's not a nice experience for anyone. 
The same goes for the skin folds across the breech here. The cleaner their bums the less dags they end up with which again reduces fly risks and means they are easier care sheep. We'd prefer them to look like this. 
The wrinkles or skin folds across this guys neck are something we try to breed out of our flock. The cleaner bodied they are the less likely they are to end up fly blown. Take my word for it when I say it's not a nice experience for anyone. The same goes for the skin folds across the breech here. The cleaner their bums the less dags they end up with which again reduces fly risks and means they are easier care sheep. We'd prefer them to look like this. So that's the main thing we're targeting in our fine wool merino sheep. Aside from our breeding program Friday was a busy day because we needed to mark the lambs,
draft more ewes for the boys,
and crutch all at the same time, and in the dodgiest yards we have.
(I'm sorry you can't see it in action but we were flying that day and I didn't have time to stop and ask permission.) The ewes walk up a ramp and along the race at the back of the cradle. You can see an opening just below the wool bale hanging down for shade. This is where the ewe is pulled out of the race and rolled into the cradle. She lies upside down so that she can be crutched, this is shearing the wool off the area around her bum, and anything with dags (collected poo) as well. We also 'wig' them, or shear the wool from around their face, as sheep can become wool blind and it helps remove the risk of grass seeds in the eyes.
One of the hardest things on a day like today is getting the dogs to behave themselves when they're not needed. Charlie eventually got the picture that she didn't get admonished if she stayed close and of course I couldn't resist a cute photo!
Buddy on the other hand will happily cruise all day and you have to call him out of the shade to get some work out of him!
Or the first braid of the hat season.
It's all about remembering to take the time to enjoy what you do. When you're flat strap it's easy to forget to do, but the spring sun is beginning to shine and life on the land doesn't get much better than this time of year.
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