Why do sheep need so much help?

[SleepingStandingUp]

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.

Ugh. OP. Don’t you know Google exists

Great thread! There's been nothing like enough mention of sheep on The Archers recently (or anything else farm-related, moan grumble moan), so this has scratched an itch.

I recently went to a farm that had a sheep called Sandra... she was a pet and followed you like a dog....😂

We had a tame sheep when I was younger. She was called Baa. Her mother had been killed by a dog and we found her when she was a day old in a stream next to her mother’s body. We’d just had a roast in the oven so we popped her in a box and put her in the warm oven and she came round. My uncle was a farmer, so gave us milk replacement and bottles. She grew up thinking she was a dog.

Heres a pic of her in the back of the car with me and the dog, and an inset pic of her as a lamb on the settee!

This is one of the loveliest things I've read on here for a long time! Love the pictures 😍

Aw. That's the kind of sheep I'd like. Maybe my brother will have an orphan he'd like me to raise...

I just watched an American (Canadian?) shepherd on you tube today. No idea how they knew I'd like it...

Classics! Wahey! Well deserved.

@Honeyroar absolutely love that photo. It’s like a scene from a gentle Sunday night BBC drama.

Will the sheep stay in Classics, though? Or will one randomly appear on its back in AIBU?

Goats would eat everything else, including possibly your washing, before starting on the grass. They're browsers, not grazers. For grass, you want sheep or geese (though a pair of geese needs a full acre of grass to avoid supplementary feeding!).

Ooh, geese... they are on my list, too.

Brother's goats were supposed to keep on top of a field with brambles and stuff round the edges. They didn't. He's supplementary feeding them, and still having to do 'gardening'.

Are we talking about actual sheep or the humans being bred in this earth? Lambs to the slaughter 😂😂😂😂

😂😂

Sheep are notoriously stupid, get themselves into stupid situations & can’t manage anything without some form of supervision.
As a minimum they need shearing once a year, dipping for bugs/lice etc a couple of times, feet need checking/seeing to every few months & in the winter they need usually need supplementary feed & shelter.

Cows need their hooves trimming every 4/6weeks the same as horses need theirs seeing to. They both also need anti-fly spraying throughout the summer.

Pigs are hardier but need shelter from the sun as they sunburn, light coloured horses can get sunburnt too but I am unsure about cows, & food supplementing when there is nothing to graze on.
when it comes to babies they all need help from time to time. Some sheep are again lazy & will only push for so long before giving up or they run out of energy & sadly die. Cows & horses are a bit easier but again unexpected things can happen to cause issues at birth & pigs are notorious for laying or rolling on their babies & accidentally killing them.

I worked with horses for about 24 years and at one point my boss decided to get about 20 sheep as well. I can honestly say I've never met an animal who's aim in life is just to die and seemingly for no good reason at all, apart from the fact that it was a Wednesday! Is this why farmer's have hundreds of them I wonder??

My friend’s mum had Jacobs Sheep & one year there were 3 orphans. Needless to say Billy, Shaun & Fifi came to live with us. Billy was a bully, Shaun was stuck in the middle & Fifi was a drama queen 😂

They're often throwing themselves in the river round here. 🙄

Usual popular Breeds
I think have been bred to have large young + twins 2b common

My DH spends his days muttering "bastardy bloody sheep" We have one that runs into the sea any chance she gets.

Farm animals are bred to give farmers the advantage or supermarkets in some cases so the animals are not "natural". All domesticated animals need people to feed them, birth them, care for them when they are sick. Think dogs... Altho they soon go feral like cats if abandoned. Sheep are not particularly stupid but they are grazing animals that naturally live in herds which are prey animals in the wild. Think wildebeest in Southern Africa.

I haven't read the whole thread do forgive me if this has been mentioned/asked.

We have cattle, although I did have a pet sheep for many years and helped with lambing when I lived in England. Cattle can die if they're sideways on a slope and their legs are pointing up hill. They sometimes can't get up when in that position and they bloat & die. We have been lucky and caught a few cows right after they calved in this position. When you flip their legs over the right way all the gas comes belching out of their mouths.

Also shepherds; have you ever seen or heard of a sheep 'pile up' or 'pile on'? I read it's when the sheep stampede and the lead sheep run into cliff face or other obstacle and the rest of the sheep pile on top of them and they manage to suffocate themselves.

My mother was Welsh, lived in Wales in the 1930's, and she told me about how they used to shout, "sheep in the garden" and they'd all rush to save the veg.

Sheep and they're lambs are more vulnerable than cow's. To being attacked by foxes and dogs etc. A herd of cows can charge which is often enough to scare the s* out of someone.

Nearly every day I see Facebook posts of sheep needing help. Asking who to contact to get them back to where they should be.They're wanting to graze on longer grass.😪 One lot got down a cliff ended up down by the channel and sadly drowned. It's rare you hear of escaped cow's.

This is my favourite thread. Ever. Period .

They're not kept in smaller fields, barns or pens like other animals (except perhaps when lambing). So it isn't so easy to look after them as it is, say, chickens who are either in a barn or a large enclosure. Sheep are virtually "free range" in many cases, so their environment can't be so closely controlled.