Once the alpaca water was sorted and Rascal, ducks and chickens, it was time to go to Tregurnog. Getting sheep in is never easy and that big old quad is so bashed about, it’s a nightmare to manoeuvre. The story behind it’s current state is an interesting one. Jordan tipped the whole 400kgs of it over on herself (by accident) in 2018 😲 It’s never been quite right, since. Much the same as her shoulder in all honesty although her cracked rib and punctured lung healed nicely. I’ve digressed. 🙄We had to get the lambs in and we used the big old quad.
Firstly, we divided them into boys and girls. I made that sound easier than it was in reality. Then it was my turn to let the first batch of already sorted and sprayed ewe lambs out. Unfortunately, I opened the wrong gate and sent them back into the unsorted group 🤦 This happens at least once, every time we do someone with the sheep. Farming isn’t easy 😂 Once we had the system going, we went fairly well and got the ewe lambs separate from the wether (castrated male) lambs. We looked at the boys closely and selected 16 from the 19 that we had. Next was ear tagging.
Ear tagging has to be done, by law. One of the ear tags has a microchip with all the relevant information. On the outside, each ear tag has the flock number and a unique number for each sheep. When there were two left to tag, a wether came towards me with only one tag. He had immediately ripped it out on something. I was so busy shouting this out that he barged the hurdle I was holding. I now have a graze on my shin just above my burn scar 😂I’ve also got some of his blood on me. I went off for the med kit so his ear could be cleaned and treated. The last thing we did was mark up the largest ones so they’ll go through the market in two separate batches. We gave them some water and nipped to Creigiau Tesco for some nourishment and drinks for us.
The truck needed a bit of a once over after being sat in the garage for so long. Not a complete wash and polish or anything drastic like that. It’s the mud and dirt that holds it together mun 😉 While I was passing tools and eating, mainly eating. I got caught in brambles and cut my ankle just below my burn scar. FFS mun. My foot was in danger of falling off if anything else happens in the same place!
Once the track was sorted, we rehitched the small trailer and got 9 of the lambs loaded up to take to Garth Hall. They were dropped off in the paddock where they’ll stay until they go to market in Blackmill on Thursday. We can’t use the large trailer at the moment so that will probably be two trips in the small trailer on Thursday too. They were released into the pen where there is some lush, green grass. Once they had water, we went back for the other seven. Home for dinner then.
When I went back, I checked for eggs in Barry. None. I went to feed the alpacas then. I got spat at by Casper. Charming. I fed the girls next. Cleo spat on me and then Bernadette did too. I was not amused. In the midfield, Kylie didn’t go for eat at all. She spat at me when I was putting the food out and then just lurked by Ffion. I had to climb straight over and shoo her away 🙄 With that done, it was time to put the Peckys to bed.
Once they were out of the way, I let the wethers into the wellfield. I put a bag of alpaca mix in the jeep ready for tomorrow and put the ducks to bed. It was Rascal’s turn next. There was a broken egg on the floor. One of them, is consistently breaking eggs. 🤬 They don’t lay enough as it is! Finally, I fed the rams and locked up.
Lambs sorted.
Helen x
