Fitting in sheep maintenance can be quite tricky when running a smallholding. Keeping on top of hoof trims, dagging and whatnot in between our day jobs and life in general can sometimes be a challenge. So we try to keep Saturdays free for sheep jobs and we keep a list stuck on the fridge telling us which of the little darlings is next due a haircut and a pedicure.
Sometimes a spanner flies into the works. Last month Storm Amy hit so we couldn’t do any outdoor work for the day we’d planned. Then Adrian and I caught covid and we were wiped out for a couple of weeks. Then I went south to see my mum on a long over due visit. Suddenly the jobs were piling up so Adrian booked a day’s ‘holiday’ from work, and I cleared space in my diary so we could catch up on all those jobs that were looming over us.
We especially chose today for our ‘catching up day’ because the forecast had said it was going to be sunny. Unfortunately the sun decided to hide behind some big rain clouds as we set off to find our sheep. Great we thought, there’s nothing quite like doing hooves and bottoms in the soaking wet.
We had ten sheep to do according to our list and first up was Selene the flock leader. Luckily she was already hanging around the pen so we called her in and posed for a wee selfie. Over the years we’ve developed a routine for doing our sheep. Adrian holds them in position and I do the snipping and trimming. First I trim the wool from around their eyes, then I check their hooves and trim any overgrown bits, and lastly I trim the wool and any dags from around their bottoms.
After working on Selene the pen had got all muddy and we were sliding around. It was extremely tempting to scoot back indoors for a cup of tea in the warm kitchen but somehow we resisted. Instead Adrian headed off to the shed and came back with a dumpy bag full of last year’s hay. This made the perfect base for the pen and we were able to crack on and do some more sheep.
We did three more sheep in the drizzle and then miraculously the sun came out which made things much easier. We paid special attention to Yssi who has a bottom issue. Yssi has an incredible fleece and a particularly woolly bottom. She’s also prone to getting urine stains at the base of her tail. This causes a permanent damp patch which can get infected and attract flies and maggots. Because Yssi’s had flystrike in the past we try and trim her bottom weekly during the summer as a preventative measure. After trimming her up I give her a quick spray with “Protego powder spray” which helps to dry things up and also prevents flies.
Next we worked on Yaar, he’s our big beautiful wether (castrated tup) with a very friendly nature. Adrian had no trouble at all asking him to follow him into the pen. As I was trimming around his eyes I spotted a tick on his eyelid and sorted that out with my trusty ‘tom tick remover’.
After a couple of hours we finished our ten sheep and went indoors for a welcome cuppa. We both had a warm glow and felt very pleased we’d caught up on our sheep maintenance.
