Today we welcomed two new sheep to the Savage Hart Farm flock – siblings Daisy and Danny. Peg is concerned that with only two ewes of dubious age, our chances for having lambs next spring might be small. So last week we went to visit Sheri and Rick at New Start Farm in Brookfield, Vermont.
Most of their flock are Border Leicesters or BL crosses. Last February they took in Daisy and Danny, who are Merinos crossed with Polypay. They thought they would breed Daisy (Danny is a wether), but later decided that was too much for them. So they were willing to give them away to someone who would hopefully breed Daisy.
After visiting them and meeting the sheep last Friday, we agreed to return this morning to take them home in our truck Moby. Getting them into the back of the truck was an interesting exercise. Rick put a small pen on top of his trailer behind their Ranger (we need one of those). We muscled first Daisy then Danny up about half a foot into the pen. Next I backed Moby up to the back of the trailer. Again we muscled the two up about another half foot into the truck bed. Whew!
Back at home about an hour later, we pulled Moby up to the ladies paddock. Then we got some of our homemade fence panels out of the barn. Using some plywood we thankfully had on hand, we made a ramp and got all set up to get Daisy out. Peg took the rest of the ladies to the far side of the paddock with some grain, and I muscled her to the back of the bed. Once she saw daylight and green grass, she jumped/ran down the ramp. One down, one to go.
Moving over to the boys paddock, we pretty much did the same routine. The slope of the ramp was steeper, so I screwed in some “steps” on the plywood ramp. Danny was quicker to catch on and readily jumped out.
These two are BIG sheep. Rick figured Danny to weigh about 250 pounds, and I would guess that Daisy is maybe a little shy of 200. Calvin, our yearling ram, used to look big in the paddock – no more!
A little later, checking them both, they seem to miss each other and maybe their former flock, but we hope they will bond with their new flocks soon.
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Todd
Really enjoying reading the blog.