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.

Loving your photographs @Wallywobbles and @Honeyroar

Is this a joke? Sheep are self sufficient and wander about the hills and mountains of Wales eating grass by themselves. The wool keeps them remarkably warm in the harshest of temperatures, although you might see them huddling together. Most self sufficient animal ever.
Dogs on the other hand...

Sheep self-sufficient?
40 years ago, exH and I decided to try The Good Life. We bought about 30 “virgin” ewes and introduced them to a very nice gentleman ram.
Come lambing time, we brought them into a paddock close to home ready to move into the barn maternity unit in time for birth.
The first lamb jumped the gun. We found it wandering in the paddock bleating for its Mum.
Every single ewe was trying to distance herself as far as possible from this poor little soul.
Anyone seen Hyacinth Bucket coming across Onslow at the snooty golf club? “Nothing to do with me. Never seen it before.”
And you could almost see them thinking “I saw where that came from. It’s coming nowhere near me after that."
Happy ending. We found Mum.
But virtually every first time Mum needed convincing she had a young one or two to support.
Natural mothers? Not always!

Maybe the Welsh sheep are more self sufficient that the Durham sheep! We regularly rescue sheep who manage to get stuck in fences or get trapped on the back or end up escaping from a field and up on the road. They are very good at escaping but super accident prone.

Few more headshots. I have rather a lot of photos of sheep bums working out how close they are to lambing.

I’ve lost count of the sheep I’ve helped this spring. And when you’re say, untangling horns from a barbed wire fence, do they stand still? Do they fuck, and I have the shredded knuckles to prove it.

How soon to they get the tag? The ones we see on the hills are marked (red or blue on fleece) and tagged. I know the tag is to identify each individual sheep, is the colour different?

That was it Blodyn. Madly trying to herd the sheep out again before they ate everything. Constant feature of my childhood, particularly at Grannie’s, where the sheep got in all the blooming time.
I once visited my parents in their new house and jumped out of my skin when I turned the kitchen light on in the night and multiple white woolly faces stared back at me through the window.

You think it will be simple don't you. Attend to sheep, unhook horn from wire fence. Set sheep free.

reality: attend sheep. Get foot stood on by sheep panicking because you have approached it.

Sheep is now even more tangled than it was before.

Try to unhook from wire fence, get fingers nipped between horn and fence.

Wrestle with sheep and fence for a bit. Lose. Realise neither wire fence or sheep intend to budge.

Slip in sheep shit whilst realising this.

decide to give up and go back for back up/wire cutters . Realise the sheep has also given up and if you walk away now it probably intends to hang itself between the fence and the fence strainer post.

cry.

remember you have a phone and ring for help. No one answers.

Kick the quad bike tyre.

drive quad bike back and find some one who can help you .

get laughed at because you need help getting a sheep unstuck from wire.

re-attend sheep with back up.

sheep has freed itself and left the vicinity of the fence area. Get told you are a numpty.

or

sheep has died just to spite you for having the audacity to try and help it. Get told you are a numpty.

@007DoubleOSeven sounds like an idea that might help all these belligerent bored creatures!

Does anyone remember in the first lockdown there was that town (I think in Wales?) that got overrun by a load of goats who couldn't believe their luck at having the run of the place?

Must have been havoc 😄

Llandudno

I'm still not convinced they're less work than my twin toddlers.
Anyone wanna swap s couple of lambs to test my theory?

Mine to my son's favourite animal.😍🥰

Thank you all for this wonderful thread, it’s been entertaining and educational. Tbh, I only started reading it because one of my favourite animations is Shaun the Sheep.

Yeah, I've done twin toddlers. I'm not having it. Just the words 'twin toddlers' gives me flashbacks.

The time one got himself stuck under the supermarket trolley and I needed help to get him out while he and his sister screamed the place down. It was not unlike the sheep freeing experience described below, but with squeaking instead of baaing.
The time said twin threw himself on the floor in a rage, only to find he'd landed in a puddle. Had to carry him to the car under one arm while he screamed, and hold his sister's hand.

There was a lot of screaming, now I come to think of it.

And my sons, but courtesy of Shauns nephew Timmy originally @grannyjacob 😂

If, they get sick or have trouble giving birth, they tend to give in a die, a dead yew and its lamb, cost the farmer deear, then the cost of lamb goes up. They also, can just drop dead, if the feel sick, funny bxxgers sheep.

My niece asked me why wool jumpers shrink in the wash but sheep don’t shrink in the rain. Genuinely did not know how to answer that.

Well, rain doesn’t tend to be warm when it’s falling down unlike your washing machine.

If it’s on a cool wash, it should be fine. It usually only shrinks on a hot wash

My best friend farmed sheep in Wales. Many happy days before her now exH turned super twat.

They had an actual 'special' breed (of the time), as well as the usual.

Said breed was an expert at squashing its lambs, so didn't prove financially worthwhile.

Before this was discovered though, her exH spent a hefty 5 figures on a ram of this breed.

Which turned out to be gay 😄

Isn't it very oily with lanolin on the sheep?
That probably stops the entanglement etc that happens when you machine wash or heaven forbid tumble dry. A lot of wool 'shrinkage' is felting rather than fibres getting shorter as such, I think.

This is just the loveliest thread over

@picklemewalnuts my friends mum volunteers with Age UK and takes her sheep to 'cut the grass' in old folks gardens. Cheers them up no end and sheep get lots of lovely grass

That's lovely @Matchingcollarandcuffs