Why do sheep need so much help?

Not sure this is true,

Birthing large lambs is not something that is encouraged or bred for, the ideal is for each ewe to have sensible sized twins. Farmers will ultrasound their in-lamb ewes to find out how many there are and adjust feeding accordingly - to avoid over large singletons which can be a problem. Others can have triplets/quads+ which require fostering on/hand rearing so can be a problem. Then there are the dystokias where lambs are malpresented or two come at once, developmental abnormalities (particularly in years when there have been outbreaks of schmallenberg virus and they come out with two heads and such like) and then problems with the ewe such as uterine inertia or ring womb (where she doesn't dilate)

Indeed all the problems which can crop up in any birthing mammal, including humans. The intervention rate on a population level is probably lower than many other species, particularly humans with our massive heads, pedigree dogs and Belgian blues, but a farm can have thousands of ewes, so lambing is a busy time.

(But they definitely do have a tendency to give up and die when things get trying - and have some fantastically old-fashioned named ailments... watery mouth, rattle belly, pulpy kidney, joint ill and braxy)

Agreed that they are fairly stupid!

We lamb quite a lot of sheep every year and the problems are mainly due to misrepresentation, so lambs coming backwards or with no/one leg along with the head. Easiest for them is two toes and a nose.
Sometimes the lambs can be tangled up a bit as well so it takes some working out which legs belong with which head.

We also have quite a lot of cattle and more often than not they will need assistance too. We seem to have done a disproportionate number of cesareans this year too, around 10%. It's not ideal but pulling would likely kill the calf and quite possibly the cow as well. Our vets are very experienced and wouldn't do this if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

They just have the most remarkable propensity to die. I wouldn’t know where to start with my stories…

i couldnt see the field of sheep on our walk yesterday due to a thick hedge but my goodness i could hear them,
what a racket

Sheep haven't really changed that much in recent times. Particular breeds go in and out of fashion but largely they are the same animal. It's virtually impossible to intensively farm sheep in the same way you can pigs or chickens

Most of the breeding was for wool rather than for meat before that.

My Aunty, who farmed sheep said they only had two aims in life. One was to graze next door and the other was to die!

I have read this thread with great interest. I never knew there was so much to learn about all these animals and how they all differ. It is sad that sheep have been over bred and made them weak all in the name of consumerism/meat consumption.

Fascinating thread!

I'm a city mouse so have no close experience of sheep, but I'd always wondered how come Gabriel's flock of sheep all run off the cliff in Far From The Madding Crowd, rather than just the first couple dropping off before the others catch on and stop. This thread has explained that beautifully!

IANASF but my impression is that sheep that are bred to be useful for meat or wool sometimes need lots of tlc to reach that aim but those that are bred to make the most of some otherwise useless land are as hardy as fuck.

They all have different personalities. I love watching the lambs. There's such a difference between the bold ones and the timid ones. When they get in a gang and charge about in circles it's kinda mad.

For several years now it's been the same ewe that breaks into my garden. Most of the others seem content to respect a fence. She's decided that running full pelt, head down until the posts eventually come out of the ground is worth it. My grass is no better than what she already has. She also doesn't care whether her lambs come with her or get abandoned on the other side. Some of them are really attentive mothers. Others, not so much so.

Over domesticated. It is our fault, basically.
Horses too. They seem to like to die from everything and anything.

I really want the OP to change the l in their name to an h.

🐑🐏

Are the ones who have learned to eat seaweed any brighter? I can’t help thinking that seaweed sounds a lot more nutritious than grass so could have improved their IQ over the years……

If you see a sheep on her back you need to roll her up again, and watch her for a short while as she might be wobbly. Their fleeces can get waterlogged and then are incredibly heavy. That , plus pregnancy, can make sheep unable to right themselves if they accidentally roll onto their backs. They can die if left.

Having grown up on a farm I am enjoying all the sheep stories but they aren't the only animal to depend on humans for reproduction. There are some breeds of cattle that always need to have a caesarean section. And turkeys apparently struggle to have sex they have been bred so big.

Reminds me of the time I took my daughter to play at a friends' place and turns out they have sheep. Their mum asked one of the boys to go feed Rammy. He did so by hooking the feed bucket over Rammy's horns and leaving him to it.

I've always heard that you should help them, as they can die rather quickly if left.
We once came across a lamb baaing loudly on the path, standing its ground as we approached with our (on lead, obv) dog. We then noticed a sheep on her back nearby. So I sent DH to right it - wasn't hard and it seemed fine, lamb trotted off happily to its mum.

If we hadn't intervened, I'd guess both the sheep and the lamb might have died.

One of those that live just across the road from us gets a bucket stuck on its head with monotonous frequency. Cue much frantic baaing and head shaking. It comes off relatively easily ( we can’t just ignore it). Mind, what does it say about the farmer’s intellect that he keeps leaving the bucket in the field?

If you find a stuck or upended sheep should you help it out then? I always remember being told not to “interfere”.

Shetland sheep are small, wiry and cunning. They appear to be the exception to the suicidal rule, instead being utterly bloody minded and impossible to do much with. To add fun to life, they like cliffs, and don’t seem to fall off them much. Though might get stuck meaning the coastguard gets called out to rescue them. When the coastguard people have hiked for miles to tricky spot, lugging all manner of equipment to go down and get it, the sheep then usually skips gleefully back up the vertical drop and evades capture. If you’ve ever bought a Shetland wool jumper, you’ll know that even their fleece annoys you - itchy itchy scratchy scratchy. I have a sneaking admiration for them, but mostly fume at their existence. Which is exactly what they want I think.

Lambs always seem brighter than sheep. As though when they're young they have energy and ideas, but then a few months in they wake up and realise, shit, I've turned into a sheep. No wonder they lose the will you live.

Goats otoh...

My neighbour has three sheep. They're very clever when it comes to escaping but then once they've managed that its like they've used up all their clever and just stand bleating in the middle of the road looking thoroughly bemused as to how they ended up there.

I have known many sheep fall off cliffs. They really are very dim indeed.

Still, good meat and lovely jumpers!

Sheep are hella stupid though, I'm not disputing that.

(TW) The farmer at the end of the road has a ram called Suicide Sam. He's a jumper.