Spring and sheep!

We may well be three days short of spring when looking at the calender, we may well be three weeks short of spring as far as recorded averages for this area will tell us, but all the signs are here. Yesterday we hit 80F (26C) and, for the last week, night time temperatures have stayed above freezing point. The geese have returned, the chickens have started laying eggs with vigour, the grass is turning green and, most importantly, the sheep need a haircut. We like to have them sheared a few weeks before we start lambing but that sometimes proves to be a challenge. Last year with too much snow, we were faced with a barn that the shearers were unable to reach with their vehicles, first because of 4ft snow drifts and then later because of knee deep mud. As it turned out last year was a bad year for us, with only seven of our sheep bred. Not to go into details, it was a mini disaster for us that meant lambing paid for none of the usual bills, like paying for all the winter hay. These things happen, every farmer will tell you woeful tales of bad years but the only real solution is to look forward to better times (or to give up, which is not in either of our natures!).

We do not have sheep that are bred for their wool, such as merinos or Wensleydales, we breed meat sheep. Wool is not our prime object in shearing. We shear for clean sheep during lambing, so we can see what is happening as the delivery time approaches, and so the lambs do not have to fight dirty wool in order to get to their food source. We shear so that our sheep do not get too warm in summer and die on us. We shear to avoid nasty things like fly strike, when flies will lay their eggs in damp wool and a little while later maggots appear and do gross things to your sheep.

I have been to sheep shearing competitions in the northern counties of England and Wales, I have read books about Australian and New Zealand shearers and all have convinced me that shearers are a breed apart! It came as no surprise that Anita used to use a local man who I can best describe as "a sullen man of few words". He sheared all the local sheep, gave a fair price and was reliable, which is about as much as anyone can expect or want. When we decided to have sheep, we used this same man except, by then, he was into his 70's and slowing down. The year he retired we decided to use the same man as our neighbour was using. It made sense that he would do our sheep after the neighbour's, thus making a full day's work for himself. He arrived and within five minutes he was arguing with Anita, shouting at her, upsetting her to the point that I was ready to go to the house for the shotgun. His visit lasted 15 minutes and we have neither seen nor heard of him since. We still giggle at the way Anita stood up to him and ran him of the property.

Imagine our relief when the old shearer recommended some young men from just across the Minnesota border. The first year they came there were three of them and they did a wonderful job, last year we made an appointment with them that we had to cancel because of the weather and the inability to keep the sheep completely dry. This year Luke came on his own. We put up panels to restrain the flock and another 2 to enclose the shearing area that housed six sheep at a time. Jake helped with the sorting, Luke sheared, Anita de-wormed and vaccinated and I bagged the wool. It took us less than 4 hours to finish up with 32 sheep. We laughed, we joked, we shared stories and both Anita and I were impressed with the young man. He was knowledgeable, well versed in all subjects that we broached, respectful and did a wonderful job with the sheep. In fact we felt honoured to have gotten to know him a little better! He broke the stereotype I had in my mind of sheep shearers!

We are happy, about 60% of our ewes look as though they are 2-4 weeks away from lambing and all the rest bar one look pregnant. If the weather holds, this may be a good year! If, if, if! The sunshine has brought the kids outdoors, too. They spend their days playing and eating, and as they have started eating hay and weeds, we think we will start milking Daisy next week. I can't wait to taste the first goatmilk ice cream of the year and to start the first batch of cheese. Spring holds so much promise.