I learned something fascinating

[Soubriquet]

A field nearby has lots of cauliflowers on them ready to be harvested

The other day, we spotted lots of sheep on the field

Thought that the caulis were ruined due to the weather, or the sheep had escaped.

However, we managed to speak to the farmer and no!

The sheep eat the greens around the cauliflower, but leave the actual flower alone.

What was once a green field, now actually has lots of white where the exposed cauliflower are.

I was amazed really

Here are some sheep eye candy

What about these mutant forrin sheep-camel guys?

Alpacas!

Those flooffy sheepies are too cute! What breed are they, @KittyKattyKate???

@justilou1 they are Valais Blacknose sheep, and every bit as cute in real life! 😍 🐑

They are Valais Blacknose sheep

@MitziK She reckoned that every Sunday lunch she ate as a teenager was two fingers up to the sheepy bastards.

This had me proper belly laughing 😂 Evil fuckers, the lot of them!

@RudolphReindeersFrostyBaubles

What about these mutant forrin sheep-camel guys?

Ooh, on the subject of camels (which this isn't), the taxonomic name for giraffes is Giraffa Camelopardis, because those who named them thought they were a cross between a camel and a leopard. They hadn't seen them in real life (scientists aren't explorers and mostly like to stay at home, close to a microscope) and were working on pictures drawn by artists from descriptions by explorers. There was a bit of 'chinese whispers' going on.

Here are some more animals depicted in the same way, to get your Sunday off to an amusing start:

io9.gizmodo.com/how-europeans-imagined-exotic-animals-centuries-ago-ba-1545362205

I NEED one of those Valais Blacknose Sheep. Of course I live in a hot, humid part of the world and they’d loathe it as much as I do. (Am rather scared of sheep, tbh, but they’re fecking adorable!)

My parents were walking, and saw a sheep on its back. All the other sheep in the field were ostentatiously ignoring said sheep. They had their backs to it, and were slowly walking, en masse, to the other side of the field. My parents flipped the sheep over. The rest of the sheep then nonchalantly wandered back, and joined it.

Clear evidence sheep will actually leave one of their herd behind. Another reason for not trusting them.

Im laughing at " careful hoof placement " sounds like me getting my pants on in the morning

Maybe the sheep don’t eat them because they look like snuggly little lambs curled up asleep? A field full of sleepy little lambs all in lines

Well, nice update for the fields

Apart from one small patch at the front of the field...it’s now almost green free!

There is another field next door so I wonder if they will go over there next.

They are going to be fat sheep

where do those Boris Johnson sheep live? I could do with some of that wool

Hmmmm this is a bit like dogs licking the dishwasher contents 🐾🐏🐑

@SOmuchsparkle

Hmmmm this is a bit like dogs licking the dishwasher contents 🐾🐏🐑

Except no one here can say the farmer is unreasonable...they don’t know which cauliflowers have been sorted and which haven’t..

They are shroedingers cauliflowers.

Both eaten by sheep and not!

I'm a bit disturbed that cauliflower is just left over sheep food.

Now I know why I can never find a cauli with its leaves on!
Growing up in a Welsh valley, I often woke up to the sound of a sheep knocking the lid off the dustbin. They could jump walls and fences, and barge a dodgy back gate. They were hardcore!

@BeakyWinder

I'm a bit disturbed that cauliflower is just left over sheep food.

Don't start thinking about Swedes/Rutabaga/Neeps, then. They were also largely animal feed.

@BeakyWinder

I'm a bit disturbed that cauliflower is just left over sheep food.

It's not "left over sheep food"

It's the bit even the sheep don't want.

It's the bit even the sheep don't want.

. I knew they were more clever than they look. Wonder if they'd like it if it was smothered in cheese sauce?

I learned from Sir David A who must never Die, that hippos can't swim. They just push themselves along and up from the bottom of the river to take a breath. My gast was flabbered.

It's not "left over sheep food"

It's the bit even the sheep don't want.

They would eat the white bit if they had run out of green, but the green bit is much sweeter.

The link below (although it's about turnips not cauliflower) explains it really well

www.facebook.com/100000442836588/posts/3829854000372657/

Didn’t they discover that quite a lot of animals roll over cattle grids?

I used to live in the New Forest and I think they put cameras up to see ponies and donkeys doing a rolley-shimmy over cattle grids.

Ponies (equines under 14.3hands high) are generally devious, clever and sly little buggers. Smaller they are, the worse they are (there's a reason Shetland Ponies are nicknamed shitlands!) And donkeys are too.
I've seen ponies that have been put on restricted grazing roll/slide under fences to get out, use the neck part of their rug to diminish the shock of an electric fence and get under it and escape, and many, many can open doors and have to have more locks than a prison cell to keep them from wandering around letting everyone else out and stealing their food, and breaking into the feed room.

My old horse though, he was onto the 🐑 he was terrified of them, as brave as a lion doing anything I asked of him, jump anything, go up or down any hill, past anything scary without a fuss. But a flock of sheep? Would literally stand snorting and shaking in terror.
I've seen sheep do some pretty amazing things over the years, one stand as a boost for another to raid something up high, or prune a tree, get over a fence or wall, get out of fields with no open gates or damaged fencing, break into gardens and sheds eating anything tasty....... That old horse was onto something, he knew

I've now got the scene from Lady and The Tramp with the spaghetti in my heas but it's me at one end of a cauliflower and a sheep at the other

Even the stock photo companies know about this way of fattening them up.