condition scoring a ewe

Moved the sheep today, as they were so low on grass in the little field.  There’s not much grass in the big field, but enough for now - and they rushed in scoffing as much as possible.. which is their reaction however much grass they had before.

We are not keeping our sheep for fun or as pets, but to raise lambs for food, but we did name our three ewes, as we intend to hang on to them, and they are Sheila, Shirley and Sharona.  It’s just easier to describe to other members of the family rather than their tag numbers.

Sharona is the friendly one, will come up for a scratch, and maybe a handfed leaf or some other delicacy.

Very handy too, for condition scoring.  She stands quite happily whilst we amateurs feel her back and hips.  The other two wont have any of it, and as they are pregnant you have to balance learning and trying to keep them fit against not hassling them, which is not ideal in the early stages.  So we use Sharona as a guide.  You cannot work on just looking at them, all that wool is a disguise!  They are even woollier than this picture which was taken in November, now their wool is as deep as the length of my hand

Really was not that long ago that we had too much grass, and we were moving them about to keep the levels down.  Now we are back to trying to keep them in food.

Made slightly harder with the other complications - that it is best if they don’t return to a pasture for 3 weeks to keep parasite levels down, and that we want them in the orchard for lambing time, as it is closer to the house and has shelter.  Their calendar is looking busier than mine….