Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

Original poster

Why do sheep need so much help?

235 replies

SleepingStandingUp · 28/06/2022 15:28

Farmers always have to be there to look after them, seemingly more so for other animals (based on watching Down on the Farm) but why? Is it how they've been bred? Do they all need the same help really but it isn't talked about? Have cows and pigs got better PR? What would the death rate be like if all the sheep were left to give birth alone?

I'm not Ewe shaming, we should all be entitled to a little help.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Scrowy · 28/06/2022 16:10

It's breed, season, system and weather dependent.

We lamb 950 swaledale sheep outside every year. The vast majority of the time they pop out 1 - 3 lambs all by themselves. Its rare we have to catch one and assist it to lamb. We have maybe 15 - 20 sheep in the sheds if after lambing they or their lambs need a bit more help to stay alive.

Other than that our sheep work through the year is pretty routine, we bring them in to the sheep pens for drenching/worming, to treat their feet, to treat them to prevent lice and fly strike and to shear them. Each time they are straight back out to the fields again.

Like people some get sick and die. Some die of old age (but not many because they are usually kebabs by then).

I don't really watch down on the farm but from the bits I have seen they lamb inside which is a much more intensive system. The sheep are a bigger fatter breed breeding a bigger fatter lamb. And of course human intervention makes good telly.

Seeingadistance · 28/06/2022 16:09

A sheep’s one ambition in life is to die as quickly and as inconveniently as possible.

picklemewalnuts · 28/06/2022 16:07

ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs · 28/06/2022 15:44

It's not so much that they need help, it's that their sole goal in life is to find a way to die, so shepherds and farmers have to spend all their time trying to thwart them. For creatures so benevolently dim, they are actually quite innovative in finding new ways to shuffle off their mortal coil!

Love it!

Chikapu · 28/06/2022 16:01

Sheep are incredibly smart so of course they've trained humans to do their bidding while simultaneously pretending to be dumb.

ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs · 28/06/2022 15:44

It's not so much that they need help, it's that their sole goal in life is to find a way to die, so shepherds and farmers have to spend all their time trying to thwart them. For creatures so benevolently dim, they are actually quite innovative in finding new ways to shuffle off their mortal coil!

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 28/06/2022 15:37

See, I knew you guys would be more fun than Google

OP posts:
gingersplodgecat · 28/06/2022 15:35

They have been bred to give birth to more and larger lambs, but the evolution of their birth canal hasn't caught up.

Thunderpunt · 28/06/2022 15:31

@derxa should be able to help on this 🐑🐏

KirstenBlest · 28/06/2022 15:31

The amount of help depends on the breed. Some breeds lamb more easily.
Cows and pigs need help too, but fewer will be giving birth at the same time.

Alfixnm · 28/06/2022 15:31

Some creatures are just more fragile than others, to be honest. Horses and sheep don't do well when they're sick; cows on the other hand are practically invincible in comparison.

There's a saying some farmers have "a sick sheep is a dead sheep". Gallows humour, but not wrong