Things have moved on I am glad to report.




Mike looking for animals to slot

Mike does tail his lambs here because if the tails are not taken off, they either get full of 'dags' (use your imagination) hence the phrase ' rattle your dags' meaning hurry up.

If not dags the lambs are bothered by flies & where do flies head for ?
That's right - the longest, smelliest bit - the tail.

Mike uses the rubber band method of tailing lambs.
The band goes on over the tail, within half an hour the tail is dying & it then drops off over anything up to a month.

He says he did used to cut the tails off but the lambs appeared 'to be in agony' for an hour or so afterwards. This is why I am quite comfortable around Mal & Mike & their methods even with my hippy, tree-hugger's attitude towards animals.

Sheep also suffer from footrot which means periodically going through them all & paring away the rotten flesh with a sharp knife.

I am assured this is a nasty, smelly job & the sheep don't much appreciate it either.

They need to be routinely drenched for parasites & these I am only just learning about.

Their feed has to be carefully moderated after the results of scanning are known.
Too much food for a ewe which is not pregnant, is almost as dangerous as
to little for one that is.

Now we come to THE most stupid thing that I think a sheep can do. If they are particularly woolly they can lie down, lose their balance & get stuck. Their wool parts, they cannot get their legs to the right angle to the ground to get any purchase, they bloat & can die in a couple of hours although some can last days. This is known as getting cast.

I suppose it's how we feel when we are blind drunk & just cannot get up. At least we have the fun of getting drunk first !

The guys check all the paddocks daily for sheep which have become cast. This consists of a drive around all the perimeters of the fences tooting the horn on the trucks & making sure any sheep which are laying down are able to get up & run away.

I like these drives with Mal. I am gate monitor if he drives & vice-versa. I ask about all the bits of machinery we see abandoned on the land & he is happy to have a captive audience.

I must sign off for now, I hope these ramblings about sheep are not too
tedious, I know I am in for some stick when I get home but I love learning about all the stock.

If it gets too dull just look at the foties.

The 'Baldrick Goes Forth' foto is of a WW2 Chevrolet 'Puddle Jumper' which was used as a troop carrier. It has been lovingly restored & I felt very moved when I got in it.

Q, could you oblige with some shots of Mal & Mike moving the cattle around
please ?

Especially the one where it looks like Mike is water-devining.

Thank you.

Cx