Farming For Self-Sufficiency
(Page 6 of 7)
November/December 1974
Copyright © 1973 by John and Sally Seymour. Introduction copyright © 1973 by Schocken Books. Inc.
If you have your own ram you can leave him with the ewes all the year, and leave their lambing date to them and him. If you borrow a ram try to do it so as to cause your ewes to lamb early but not too early: say about March. So put the ram in about the end of September and—if you can—keep him in for about six weeks. If you like, put some reddle on his chest so that he marks the ewes as he serves them: then you know that they have been served and can even work out the date that they should lamb.
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Folding sheep in the winter on arable land is a possibility, particularly in dry climates and on light land. Grow swedes, or marigolds (swedes are best), rape or kale. We never have done it but it 'does' the land, as farmers say, i.e., is good for it, gets the sheep off pasture (giving the worms time to die out there), and rests the grass. Sheep need hay while folded thus on roots, and if you want to fatten them feed them corn, too. Crushed oats and kibbled beans are very good. Give them as much as they will clear up quickly and no more (maybe a pound a day). But if you are just out for simplicity, and your own good mutton when you feel like it, I would suggest just leave them out to grass.
When they lamb there should be no problems, but if there are they will probably be the same sort of problems that we discussed at length when dealing with the cow. The same rules apply. If a ewe has a dead lamb and another has twins, it is advantageous to foist one of the twins on to the bereaved mother. Put the bereaved one in a small pen (four hurdles tied together) or a shed, rub the live lamb all over with the body of the dead lamb, and try lamb and foster mother together. If she knocks him for six take him out, skin the dead lamb and put the skin on the live lamb like a jersey. This nearly always works. After a day or two remove the skin and the adoption is permanent. You can then let them both out. If a lamb is very weakly, feed it cow's milk with a little glucose or honey mixed with it, warmed to blood heat. Many smallholders rear orphan lambs on bottles: Sally does nearly every year. I am against it but the children love it. And it is one way of getting cheap mutton if—and here lies the rub—you have the heart to kill them after you have brought them up as their mother. You must feed them very often for the first week or two, getting it down to say three times a day after a fortnight, twice a day after a month. It is an awful labour; they never do as well as natural sheep, they are an incredible nuisance, will follow you round baa'ing and bleating and trying to knock you over, will never, or hardly ever, join a proper flock of sheep, and if they don't get into your garden sooner or later and absolutely wreck it, then it is a miracle. They are murderous to fruit trees.
You do not shear your lambs their first summer, but the ewes, or any sheep left over from the previous year, you must shear in May, June or July. In Pembrokeshire we do it in June, to get it over with before the hay-making season. Shearing cannot be taught by a book and I am not going to attempt to do it. You must watch a skilled man and get him to teach you. You can sell the wool, but Sally always keeps a fleece or two back to spin on her handspinning wheel to use for knitting. After the shearing you must, if you live below seven or eight hundred feet, either dip your sheep or spray them against fly. Sheep fly are revolting green blow flies which lay their eggs on the dirty parts of sheep whereupon maggots hatch out and literally eat the sheep alive. If you have a few sheep only you might guard against this evil by constant vigilance. You should always keep sheep clean—when you see dung clinging to the backsides of sheep you should clot them—that is cut the dunged wool off with the sheep shears. If you see a sheep constantly twitching her tail catch her and examine for maggots. If you find these wash them off with dip or strong disinfectant. But I like dipping, because then you do not have to worry about 'fly strike' at all. Also it kills keds, another very nasty parasite of sheep. We always buy a proprietory dip, but if you object to unknown chemicals you can make one up with 2-1/2 lbs. white arsenic, 2-1/2 lbs. washing soda, 8 lbs. flowers of sulphur, 10 lbs. soft soap and 100 gallons of water. Sulphur alone is a preventive against fly, although it won't kill keds. Maybe you had better just go along to the chemist. We have a sheep dip, but spraying is equally good, or, in days gone by, we have used a tin bath.
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