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.

Ewes' news

The gestation period for lady sheep, i.e. ewes, which depends on factors including breed, weather and nutrition, is an average 147 days (range 144-152 days) [1]. The ram we bought last 10 April [2] met his 35 girlfriend ewes on 23 May. Via this calculator [3], our earliest lambs will be born on 17 October. Whilst some farmers shear their ewes before lambing, we prefer to pre-lamb crutch them as the weather’s still too cold to remove their woolly coats. Pre-lamb crutching involves shearing the wool from around the anus, vulva and udder. Doing this reduces the risk of four things, i.e. lamb(s) being infected during birth, udder infection, lambs sucking on wool rather than udder, and fly strike. Farmers whose ewes lamb in the winter may need to crutch them before summer to help prevent fly strike. That crutching removes wool only around the anus. Thus pre-lamb crutching involves removing wool from a wider area (but still much less than a full shear). The timing of pre-lamb crutching’s critical, i.e. not too early that the wool grows back before lambing, and not too late because the closer to lambing the more likely the crutching will stress the ewes and so increase the chance of premature birth or stillbirth. Our 35 girls were pre-lamb crutched last Sunday, 12 September, i.e. 35 days before 17 October. None was obviously stressed by it. The photograph shows the end result. Stand by for lambing news in mid to late October.

We have a sick sheep.

We have a sick sheep. A ram. Indeed a ram lamb. Born last November. Until a few days ago he was healthy. As can be. Then he got shitty. Literally. Suddenly. Within 24 hours he was lagging behind his peers. A few hours later he was too weak to stand. He’s a dear little fellow. Worth saving. The initial treatment was a dose of drench – a liquid medicine to clean out the worms in his gut that caused the diarrhoea and sapped his strength. Weaners are less able than older animals to fight off worms – their immune systems are more immature. Next was a vitamin injection. Then a 3-4 times a day regimen of 30 ml of Vigest tonic [2], a lift onto his feet, a drink from the trough, and some Ewe & Lamb Pellets [3] to eat. Two days ago he had the strength to stand for only a couple of minutes. Yesterday he stood for 10 minutes. So he’s seemingly improving. But he’s not out of the proverbial woods yet. The drench works within a few hours. So the worms are gone. The questions are if his strength and nutrition have been depleted too far; and if he has the will to live. So far so good. On both counts. Yesterday I worked in Deloraine. But today I’m at home, so he’ll be getting intensive care. Sick animals bring out the rehabilitation physician in me. I hope he makes it through. He’s a dear little fellow.

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.

farmdoc's blog post number 106

Of the music that stirs my soul, Sheep May Safely Graze by J S Bach is up there with the best. I marvel at how this music sounds serenely rural. Bucolic. Pastoral. Listening to it, I imagine our sheep on the hillside in front of our house, grazing safely. Though Mole Creek sheep have few predators, I’m concerned our sheep do graze safely; and contentedly. I feel responsible for them, because they can’t attend to all their needs without some human intervention. But despite my concern, sometimes things happen. Last week I found a 9-month old ram lamb down and unable to get up. Initially I thought he may be cast, but most cast sheep are big, woolly and pregnant. And my boy was none of these. Anyway I stood him up, held him upright for a minute, then let him go. He trotted off out of sight over the brow of the hill, seeking his mates. The next day he was dead. I don’t know why he died. Eating bracken fern? Or perhaps a nutritional deficiency? But all the other sheep look healthy. I’ll never know. When previously I worried to an old farmer, his aphoristic reply was: ‘You have livestock, you have dead stock’. I know this, but still I wonder if it was me who somehow prevented this lamb grazing safely.

farmdoc's blog post number 63

Sheep are herd animals. And followers, so they mostly walk in single file. Thus my dictionary defines a sheep as a woolly ruminant mammal, and also a vulnerable and docile person who follows others rather than decides independently. I reckon our society comprises mainly sheep: followers of the media, politicians, moguls and celebrities. Logically, none of these groups deserves to be followed: the media’s primary objective is to sell advertising, if politicians aren’t psychologically damaged before entering parliament they become so soon after, moguls’ monetary wealth is often accreted by less than moral and socially responsible means, and celebrities are famous for talents which almost all others don’t and never can have. These four groups of so-called leaders coerce the population into vulnerability and docility – by locking them into long-term mortgage debt and consumer debt, thus forcing them to work in often menial unsatisfying jobs for long hours leaving them at best tired and at worst defeated and depressed. Little wonder, then, that in Australia volunteerism is in serious long-term decline, mass political protest is dead, and social capital is depreciating. In summary, civil society is not flourishing – at the very time it must because of the grave complex problems confronting us. Keeping the populace vulnerable and thus docile is what the media, politicians, moguls and celebrities want. But it’s not what I want.