The Wonders of Wednesday

Once again we begin with a morning walk. This is my moral high ground, if I've been for my exercise before I do anything else then I can't 'forget' to do it. That and the chocolate is far more satisfying! ;) 

Next up, yarding what turned out to be 901 ewes and another 352 lambs. When you're working a mob of ewes and lambs it always seems the more you work them, the more the lambs fall to the back. A bit like water rising through setting concrete. So, sheep yarded and the boys get into drafting them. In the meantime I set up the marking cradle and count the ewes out, keeping a 'wether' eye out for any mistakes. Herding the freshly drafted lambs into the shed is always a mammoth task. Imagine trying to herd a school of fish, if one breaks they all follow like a fluffy white tide. And yes they can crash through fences with their lack of yard experience. My brother copped the tide this morning!

Yes, that's him stuck in the corner...

The more we work them throughout their life the better they respond to us in the yards. In essence we train our sheep, although it never quite feels that way...

Now we get to physically mark the lambs. I explained this in the last post but I have some photos today. 

Our tags, each farm has it's own brand and there are an array of shades of the years colour to choose from. The colours run in an eight year cycle and tell us what age each sheep is at a glance. 

The tagging gun, these tags are much nicer for the stock compared to the old ones that punched a hole and then slid the tag through that hole. Lambs ears don't always withstand the old style so we've moved to these self piercing ones. 

The old tags. 

The infamous green ring and it's applicator. These are one of the handiest inventions on the farm and get used for no end of things! So you slide the green ring onto the four prongs... 

Squeeze the pliers and place over either the tail or the testicles. Instead of making a physical wound the green ring cuts off the circulation to the tail or testicles resulting in them dropping off after a period of time. It's less painful and leaves less risk of infection for the animal. 

We use these ear marking pliers to take two notches out of the animals left ear for  ewes and right ear for wethers. The tags go in the opposite ear. This allows us to determine their sex when coming through the draft and puts a physical 'ownership' mark on the animal. (Yes, some people will change the tags on an animal unfortunately.)

They get vaccinated using one of these, apologies for the photo of an old gun! Normally there is a needle and a refrigerated vaccine bag attached.

Lastly the animals get a 'scratch' to vaccinate against scabby mouth. 

All you do is make a welt on bare skin and as you scratch to make that welt you pump a drop of the liquid down the metal tip. Simple and effective. 

So we did all of that to 352 lambs today, which isn't many compared to a contractor but with renovations going on we're taking it at a cruisier pace than usual. Lambs are sent back to mum and left in a relatively small paddock overnight to ensure mothering up happens correctly. I try to send the lead of the mob back over the tail a few times to make sure all the lambs have a chance to find mum and then we leave them to it. (As long as you've remembered to shut the gate at the other end of the paddock! There may have been a revved engine and some quick manoeuvring to get the dry ewes, that always come to the front of the mob, back into the previous paddock.) Sheepwork is all sorted for the day and now it's back to the house where I found our new alfresco dining area! 

Mum and I spent the afternoon moving the pantry and the kitchen back into the dining room so we can still eat! Much to Dad's delight we ended up using his newly acquired pallet racking which truth be told is perfect for pantry shelving! (Sorry guys, we girls are going to be pinching your industrial shelves from now on!) That brings us to now, sitting back on the veranda watching the sun go down with a cider and getting this blog written. I hope it's informative for you all as well as entertaining. Oh, and we do stop for smoko either side of our lunch as well. Today was also the first spring day we've had, the sun came out along with the sun screen. The insects were in full flight, literally against my sunnies on the bike! Even the frogs came out this evening with their croaky songs. :)

There's never a dull moment on the farm!