Sheering Day

...or should I say the after effects of Sheering Day!!

Thank Goodness!

We are done sheering for the year! Let me just say that that is the one thing that I am not crazy about when it comes to the sheep. Everything else is wonderful.

Here It Comes...

Once lambing season is over, we enter my least favorite time... Sheering season. and although I am much better at this than I used to be, the thought of cutting one of my little lambs with these monster clipper blades really bothers me! I tried to clip them with a more modest blade the first year we had them and it just would not get the job done...













..so come April.. think of my little lambs and pray that I do not even pinch them!

ID Tags.

We had these tags made for each sheep. Hearts for the girls and military style dog tags for the boys. Each has their name and ID number engraved on them.

Next Choice..

Since the chains did not work, we started to think of other options. The reason the chains failed is that I was not willing to put tighter ones on than what you see in the picture of the ewes. The chains are not adjustable. For that reason, we started discussing the use of a thick Nylon Dog Collar. It seemed strong enough. Easy enough to grab when we needed to catch and hold a sheep. The bonus was that it was easily adjustable in size - so as they grow or even as their wool grows, we could always adjust the size. SOLD! I went straight out to the largest feed and farm store that was within a 25 mile radius from us.

I knew exactly what I wanted ... 3 solid black collars for the boys, like this:


















...and 5 solid pink collars for the girls, like this:
















.. the black collars were easy to find.. the pink ones were no where to be found... at least not solid pink. This was the closest thing I could find for our ladies.
















Oh the shame.. I knew they did not like them. It was as though they were saying "Baaaad Taste... Baaaad Taste"!!!

So - Last Year..

.. we decided to use collars and tags instead of the ear tags. Our first choice was to decide on what type of collar to use. Our sheep are very friendly - but OH SO SMART! You see, they know if you are coming out to feed them, pet them or clip them! As you can guess, we needed something to grab that was strong and we bought each of them a chain collar. Yeah - look at the picture.. one still has hers and the other does not. Several of the sheep figured out how to remove their chain collars!

Why Bother Using ID Tag's At All?

... because every once in a while, you need to make sure who is WHO!

Ear Tags..

When we purchased our first 4 Miniature Cheviot sheep , 2 of them were ear tagged, like this:(not our sheep)












Essentially, it is a plastic ear piercing (usually) with a numbered tag like this:
















Although I hate the idea of putting such a large hole in my sheep's ears and placing a tag that in most cases hangs out beyond the ear and would easily be ripped out if the animal had its head stuck through a small space - be it fencing or just shrubbery, I thought it was probably the most effective way to identify our sheep. I was wrong. These plastic tags crack and break off. I suppose that after a few years, the plastic becomes brittle and therefor, cracks and breaks to pieces. This is what has happened to some of our tagged sheep.

Case in point ~ Our ewe on the left still has her ear tag. Ewe on the right does not!

Okay - So Maybe it is Not This Bad...

..but oh my gosh.. it has been so dry and so windy at our farm, I am wondering just how much top soil has blown away! Our sheep are fed pellets at night and some alfalfa in the morning. We rotate them between 2 pens, but the rye grass we planted in only growing where the sprinkler can reach it.