Just some more pics of the sheep and lambs Read more →
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Rams and lambs
We wanted to get into the same breeding cycle as the farmers around us so our best option was to get ourselves our own ram so that we didn’t interfere with our neighbours breeding. We put him with the ewes in September and after they were sheared we removed him 6 weeks later mid October as they need roughly 6 weeks to 2 months to do the deed, or rather impregnate the ewes. Our very dear neighbour behind us has allowed us to put our ram with his rams until he is needed again so that a) he has company and b) doesn’t do any damage to fences, etc. to get the other sheep. Gestation period for sheep is 6 months. We had a surprise yesterday, one of our ewes gave...
Read MoreBredasdorp auction
Every 2nd week the Bredasdorp Afslaers has an auction, loads of interesting goodies to snap up at a steal, if you are willing to be the highest bidder; loads of fun!
Read MoreSelling sheep
The abattoir came to collect the rams, which we had moved onto the other field so as to separate them from the ewes. I think they had quite a time loading them onto the truck, unfortunately our ramp is not operational, something we need to work on. Sheep are not the easiest to catch; I joke with friends and tell them that they can have a sheep if they can catch one. These things can jump like springboks, quite something to see. But so they did it and off they went. Ryan asked Whitey, our contact at the abattoir, to please keep one aside for us – it was finally time to fill my new deep freeze, which has been waiting for months for one of our own sheep; yummy! So a...
Read MoreTime to tattoo
We finally managed to arrange to sell our rams, 28 of them, through the Bredasdorp Abattoir; you keep the ewes as you want to breed again with them. Before we could sell them though we needed to mark the sheep because you cannot just sell livestock without being registered with the department of agriculture; this ensures that we are not selling stolen sheep. What wait for the department to respond So eventually the department of agriculture sends back a registered marking/symbols which one takes to the local agri who then make up the actual symbols. The marking is then done with a tattoo gun, quite a primitive looking torture device with lots of needles making up the...
Read MoreA little bit of background about the sheep farming
I have been told by a few people that we should start a blog, as there really are some weird and funny stories to be told at our small farm in Napier. But, before I launch into these stories there are a few things I need to mention to get you up to date. We started off with 10 inseminated ewes, which we bought from a neighbour who has prize winning sheep. All gave birth and some even had twins. Somehow, by pure luck, we saw our first lambing season through with great success, even bottle feeding a couple who grew up to be happy and healthy sheep. We bought another 10 ewes from another neighbour, so after the lambing season our numbers were up to 30 sheep (28 ewes and 2...
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