Pick and Choose

Yesterday I went out to the field and started  picking my lambs for this upcoming 4h year. You may be thinking "Whaaa?" See in our 4h club our achievement day is at the end of August. This may seem really weird to you cattle 4hers who just finished wrapping up your 4h year. To be frank, my year has really just started. This year my 2year old ewe Mayonnaise had twin boys. I will be bringing her back with her lambs at foot to compete again. My Yearling, Ketchup just gave birth to a big girl who I named Heinz. And finally I just picked out my ewelamb for this fall. I picked Relish. (Do you see a trend in names here?) This is when I start getting excited and begin to dread 4h at the same time. First of all I'm excited to wash up my lambs and go to the show. What I dread is the few months before that can happen. This is the time where I get to halter train my lambs. They may not be as big as cows or horses but breaking-in a lamb is not an easy task.
Over my years in 4h I have learnt that there are two types of lambs on average. These types arise once you get the halter on them and try and lead them for the first time. The first; the jumper. Holding close to its name, these lambs flail about jumping up and down and often hit me in the face (Don't laugh kamikaze sheep are terrifying). The second type; DEAD. No they don't actually die but this type plays dead. It feels the halter on them and it falls over. Much like a fainting goat they just fall, lie stiff and hope that you don't notice them. Neither of these lambs are easy to train. Either they are running around in uncontrollable circles or they simply won't move and you find yourself dragging dead weight. I'm really not going to lie here when I say that halter training is my least favourite task in 4h. Sigh. Another year another dollar right? I do suppose it has taught my patience and understanding but in the heat of that frustrating moment it never feels worth it til achievement day.

What is it like halter training calves? I never have done so. Is it just as tough or are there more injuries than I would know? Please fill me in. I'd love to hear your animal experiences.

A-Mazing!

I received this link in an email a while back. It is titled Extreme Sheep Art and for good reason! The video explains it but here's a quick summary. This is a film of a bunch of guys from Wales who, frankly, have too much time on their hands, and a lot of sheep. They use their well trained border collies to move their sheep in the most amazing patterns you will ever see! The whistles you hear in the background are the sounds of dog whistles some shepherds use to tell the dogs what to do and how to move the sheep. I don't think there is anything more I can say to show the greatness of this video. Just take a look! It will blow you away!!

Rockin Rodeo

Want an epic display of pure strength and endurance? One event at rodeos around the world is founded for kids to show their talents and rodeo ability. Yes children. Why is this on a sheep blog you may ask? Well this is simple, the event is Mutton Busting. Mutton Busting was brought officially into rodeo in the mid 1980s where the idea was that kids 5-7 years old (no bigger than 55lbs) would be given the challenge to ride a sheep for 6 whole seconds. It can be a rough and tumble sport just like full size rodeo. Many of the children I know who participate do it to prove to their families or themselves that they can be real cowboys or cowgirls.
Now how about those sheep? Annually we send some of our sheep to the Tees Rodeo for the first weekend of August for this event. How do we chose? All you animal lovers out there please don't be too afraid here. These sheep are almost 200 pounds and have tiny humans on them. It may not seem like the most humane event but we always take precautions to make sure that they all stay safe. We use the ewes that aren't pregnant, are in good shape (strong and not boney) and sometimes even pet sheep that have done such event before.
All in all the kids, the spectators and even the sheep can have a lot of fun.

Moisture

So I'm sure as you all know it has been raining. Lots of raining... And with that rain comes clouds. This is the reason for th lapse in blogs that I have been writing. See because we are in the country... ok so far out in the country we need to use satellite internet. This is at least better than dial-up! Since there is so many clouds our satellite dish couldn't send or receive the signals thus leaving us internetless.

This isn't the only thing the rain can affect. The poor little babies outside are feeling the rain and cold too. We have gone through a fair amount of blankets and antibiotics the last few days. Sheep get water logged. Their wool absorbs all the water it can and it stays for a long time. This water can get kind of cold in the wind that has been whipping around. When sheep get cold they get sick, and not just a common cold but pneumonia or other harsh lung infections or diseases. So this is when we have to bring all the sheep inside and try and treat all the sick sheep before they get too sick. This is when we use Penicillin or Oxytretracycaline (both antibiotics) to fight off any bacteria that may be housed up in the sheeps' lungs. Again this is another controversial method. Organic farmers can't use antibiotics to treat these diseases. I just feel sorry for the sheep who get sick and their farmers can't help them with science. 

Poo Poo and more Poo

Today is a special 4h activity on my farm. A fundraiser, a skill developer, and team building exercise of sorts. Judging by the title of this blog you may believe that this sounds like a "shitty" day (pun intended not meant for offense). This year not only did my club participate in highway clean up but we are working on selling 20L pails of genuine, high quality sheep manure. Now don't think that this is a job were we walk around following our sheep hoping to stuff a bucket under them hoping for a fresh excretion. No, no, no... This is old poo. 3-4 years old is ideal. after turning the fertilizer (the poo) and making sure that no sticks or twigs get in we are packaging them up to sell to local farmers and urban gardeners alike.
"Sheep manure is low in nitrogen – compared to other animal manures – so it won’t burn your plants. Plus, it’s a natural slow-release fertiliser and this is part of the versatility of using it as a mulch. I usually pour it on to about a depth of 50mm (2″) ensuring that it doesn’t touch the plant’s stem."- From http://www.gardeningtipsnideas.com/2008/03/the_many_benefits_of_sheep_manure.html.
If you are interested in buying some manure from our club ($10/bucket or 3 buckets for $25) please contact me or send me a personal message here on the blog for more information. 

Poster Girls.

This past winter we got the privileged to receive a "Proud to be an Alberta Lamb Producer" license plate.Since my dad is a director of the Alberta Lamb Producers, we got the chance to take a picture of our family farm with this license plate to advertise our love for farm and our farm itself. The above picture shows that advertisement. To the right is myself holding two of our bottle lambs, Barbie (black lamb) and Ken. On the left my mom, Lorna holding Burp with our late loyal sheep dog, Freckles. All of us are standing in front of our Volkswagen Beetle. Now this car may not seem like a true farm vehicle but it helps us even more with the commute and traveling to Alberta Lamb Producer meetings and events. This may just be a picture to some but it really does show that my family of Windpatch Farm, are truly Proud to be Alberta Lamb Producers.

Three Bags Full

Shearing is an annual ritual here at the farm. With sheep it would seem like a given. Sheep=Wool. So every year around the end of February we get all our sheep together, hire our Aussie shearer Dwayne, crank up the tunes and get ready for a long day of hard work but a lot lots of fun. Last year Dwayne taught me how to shear. To the perfect shearer it is a movement of 53 strokes that pulls the wool off in one big piece called a fleece. This fleece is then strategically thrown onto a special table and picked clean or at least close to clean. From there, the fleece is put into giant brown bags, kind of like big potato sacks. There are two ways of doing this. 1 is putting them into the bag by hand, or foot i suppose. Int he bottom picture on the left you can see my boyfriend Brendan stuffing a woolsack. Its a tough job but he makes it look gooood. lol. The other way is with a hydraulic press that is annually manned by my Grandpa. this pushes the fleeces into the bag at high pressure so we can get many many more fleeces into the bag. Now you would think that wool is kinda cool. We should be able to sell it at a great price but you would be wrong. Slowly the sell rate for wool is gaining because the consumer market is liking the idea of a natural and organic material instead of synthetic. But in the last few years, after we sell all our wool, we haven't had enough money to pay for the shearer!
Once the wool gets to the wool mill (Yes there is such a thing, there is a big one at Carstairs, where we sell our wool often) the wool is washed and cleaned fully then spun into yearn (then into mats or clothing) or carded into a filler (For douvets or bed pads). Then that's when you can buy it for your home!