Silence of the Lambs

This is a former vegetarian’s tale of working on a sheep farm for a day. I didn’t take any pictures because 1) I didn’t want to feel like the idiot taking pictures while everyone was working, and 2) my fainthearted readers (Mama) might not want to see pictures of this anyway. But it is interesting, and the countryside is beautiful, so I might take some pictures another time.

I went over to Braden and Robyn’s bright and early, hopped on the four wheelers with the sheep dogs loaded in the trailer behind, and headed up a very rough “road” to muster some sheep. Muster means to roundup and push the sheep where you want them to go – the dogs are very good at this, and they are amazingly well trained to Braden and Robyn’s commands and whistles. We also had to walk down and back up some steep hills to make sure none of the sheep had been left behind. Once the sheep were where we wanted them, we brought them into a pen and sorted out the ewes from the lambs.

The order of the day was tailing lambs – there are over 5,000 lambs on the farm, so this is a task that takes weeks to complete. Tailing involves placing a tight elastic ring at the base of the tail, which does hurt the lamb a bit at first, but then it goes numb because the tail loses circulation and dies, and falls off in a few weeks. This is done mainly because sheep tend to get their tails dirty when going potty and they don't wipe properly, which attracts flies, making them prone to a disease called fly strike, which would kill the sheep in a matter of days. If the lamb is a male, an elastic ring is also placed on their boy parts. This is for several reasons: testosterone is bad for the meat, castrated rams are easier to deal with, and to avoid any unwanted sheep pregnancies. The lambs also have their ears clipped – males on the upper left ear, females on the lower right ear – to tell them apart. It's a bit bloody. My job was to pick up the lambs (average 30ish pounds, I think – less than a hay bale thank goodness – by the way they call the 4UR-size hay bales “idiot blocks” over here) and put them on the chute upside down with their legs in the air. The chute has rollers, so after Robyn finished clipping their ears and giving them a vaccine, Braden would pull them down the chute and put the elastic bands on, spray their tail area with a medicine of some sort, and then send them back to their baa-ing mothers. This whole process is quite loud because the ewes and lambs do not like to be separated. Not so silence of the lambs after all.

So that was essentially how I spent the day. Picking up lambs, riding around on four wheelers (called quads over here), entertaining Logan (Braden and Robyn’s adorable 4 year old nephew who is visiting with his parents for a few weeks), and being eaten alive by sandflies. Ah, the life of a farmer. Alas, I don’t think I am cut out to be a sheep farmer. I loved being outside and working with the animals, but I think I am more a crop farmer type person. I have all the respect in the world for Braden and Robyn and all farmers who treat their animals right, but I guess I’m too sentimental for the job. But don't get me wrong, I will be out there again next chance I get. But isn’t lamb the saddest meat? I have been bottle-feeding some pet lambs and sick lambs, and they are sooo cutttee and sweet.