On sheep and maternal separation

Last 18 January I wrote [1] that ‘Sweetheart Vivienne and I are well into the HBO TV series In Treatment [2]. Since then we’ve continued to watch, enjoy and learn from this superb offering. As it’s about a psychotherapist and his patients, a recurring theme’s how when youngsters the patients were psychologically damaged by what their parents did and/or what they should’ve done but didn’t. Mobs of sheep are matriarchal. Rams don’t rear the lambs they’ve fathered. The mothers, i.e. ewes, do it all. And, I must say, ewes are super mums. At least our Border Leicester ewes are. So protective, devoted and bonded. But inevitably we must wean our lambs from their mothers. We did it yesterday. We put our 17 ewe (i.e. girl) lambs in one paddock and our 13 ram (i.e. boy) lambs in another paddock (some pictured) – both far from the paddock their mothers remained in. The mothers seemed unconcerned. They continued their business of eating grass, seemingly unaware their lambs were no longer at their sides. The lambs, in contrast, rushed around their new paddocks, bleating plaintively for their mums. Undoubtedly they’ll quieten in a day or two, then miss neither mums nor milk. Or will they? Maybe they suffer psychological trauma after forced separation from their mothers. Are sheep aware? It’s hard to tell, as they don’t have intelligible communication – at least with us humans. To learn more we may need a series of In Treatment about, written by, and starring sheep. How tantalising.

A Saturday ram re-up

On our farm we run and breed Border Leicester sheep. They’re full bloods, i.e. their bloodlines are pure. So we carefully ensure our rams aren’t related to our ewes. Given this, and also that we don’t mate our ewes until they’re over 18 months old, each two years we need to buy a ram. We’d last bought one in March 2008. So this year we needed a re-up. A lamb’s gestation period’s five months, and we lamb in late October when it’s warm (unlike many farmers who lamb in late winter so they have lambs to sell in spring. They have heavier lamb losses which they expect/accept.) So a week ago I began phoning around. Due to the above average rain Tasmania enjoyed in Spring and Summer, many farmers decided to increase their sheep numbers. So rams were hard to come by. Eventually we decided to buy a ram lamb, i.e. a lamb under a year old. Yesterday morning we drove to Hagley where a farmer had yarded up 90 ram lambs (pictured). They weighed 45-50kg on the hoof, and looked in fine fettle. We selected one who’s long in the body (so hopefully his offspring will be too, making for thicker chops) and well hung (I don’t know if that signifies virility; but it can’t hurt). We paid A$300. He’s now resting up in our home paddock until late May when we’ll introduce him to 30+ girlfriends. (The usual mating ratio’s one ram to 100 ewes, so one to 30+ is a doddle.) I’ll keep you posted regarding developments.