Sheep learning curves
- whitehousefarmoast
- Apr 26
- 3 min read
It has been a busy few weeks at Whitehouse Farm Oast and we have definitely ramped up the sheep farming challenge level!
We decided to administer the flock's booster Heptavac-P Plus, an essential annual medication for maintaining flock health. Although it wasn't due until July, we needed to move the date forward since the sheep will be in lamb next year, and this allows us to vaccinate before lambing season next year.
To do this we needed to set up the sheep race to guide each sheep individually for their vaccination. Someone once told me that you truly feel like a parent when you've successfully assembled your child's first bike, and setting up the sheep race is somewhat similar. Tristram and Uca deserve all the credit for meticulously going through the instructions and putting together the various parts, and getting it all ready in the field for the vaccination drive. Brooke, our expert shepherdess, came to assist us in getting the sheep into the pen, guiding them through the race, administering the vaccine, and recording the process. Matt, our great friend, arrived for a visit on vaccination day. Just a few hours after his plane landed from Canada he was managing the race gate and waving his arms to keep the sheep from jumping out of the pen. It's a great way to shake off jet lag, and he did very well, as we only had one escapee.
Next came the really big event, moving our flock from our farm to their new fields down the lane. When you move livestock, there are lots of little administrative things to do, like rental agreements and applying for a temporary land association for the flock, but the really big effort was buying and collecting sheep trailers to move them and getting them in. How many novices does it take to convince 42 sheep to board a trailer? Turns out 8 (huge thanks to Matt and Sarah, and Colin and Gillian and their unsuspecting guests enlisted at short notice!) and a lot of patience.
It took three loads to get them all down to the new field. The first group was relatively cooperative (good old Ivy, Myrtle, and all the favorites); the second group were a bit more reluctant until Violet, our little cutie all recovered from her sick bay days, swung into action and led them up the gangplank; and then finally the remaining gang of six—christened the Mean Girls, which included the flock ringleader and that old troublemaker one-eyed Dandelion—gave us the runaround for hours. But we got them in the end!
Tristram and I have also been out and about to get some lambing experience. Tristram got to see what you do with a prolapse, and I saw an incredible vet deliver three lambs by emergency C-section in the lambing shed. It was so helpful seeing how different people approach lambing, and one big lesson seems to be that you have to be single-minded about only keeping the best breeding sheep for lambing, as the stress and cost of complicated births is something to manage out of the flock as best you can. As all our flock will be first-timers next April, it will be a baptism of fire.
There has been lots of other things going on in the vegetable department, bee keeping and research and planning for the milking parlour and new cheese making room which have been keeping us very busy. We can't wait to get going on this new phase when our ideas and dreams start to take physical shape, and we are bracing ourselves for the disruption and constant decision making.
Lottie had a challenging April, starting with a badger attack which left her backside cut up and horribly bitten. Lots of visits to the vet and three weeks so far with the cone of shame, but she is making a good recovery. On the upside for Lottie, she can't believe that the sheep invaders have moved out, and she has been having her own little VE Day (Victory in Eridge) celebrations, charging around all her fields and enjoying walking around the yard without being under constant surveillance.
Sheep do not say thank you when you struggle to get a medication in or move them to lush fresh grass, but I think they do know we looking out for them and when I sit on my upturned bucket in the April sunshine and they approach warily and nusle my hand or ask for a scratch it is very rewarding. We can do all the building work we want but at the end of day there is no business without our ewes.