Our First Sheep

Allow me to introduce the newest critters on the farm:

That’s right, folks. We brought home two rams, from a farm a few miles south of here. They were born this year on Valentine’s day. Their sire is a roughly 200 Lb’s Navajo Churro ram (with four horns, very handsome feller) and their dam was a 250 Lb’s Lincoln-Wiltshire cross.

They have been kept on dirt paddock with their relatives since birth, fed alfalfa hay, not wethered.

But they will be wethered soon…

First, we had to patch the gates in the paddock to split it in half, so the pigs could be on one side and the sheep on the other side. Daddy was going to go carry the role of no-climb fence to the paddocks, but Mommy said she would go get it. Daddy didn’t think she could carry it, but she took that as a challenge.

This lady is awesome!

Saturday, we brought them home, fixed the paddock gates, and banded their cajones. Then we named them, Rameses the First and Mr. Wetherby.

😀

Then we left them to themselves with some hay and water.

Today, Sunday, we let them out on grass for about 45 minutes.

Because they were started on alfalfa hay and had never been on straight grass, we want to be slow about introducing fresh grass into their diet. Too much too soon, especially the rich April Spring flush grass, could give them really bad diarrhea. So we only let them out for less than an hour, before putting them back in.

Stay tuned for more updates as we ramp up our farm activity this spring!