Sometimes sad things happen on farms. When I came across this situation this past week I was afraid it was going to be one of those times.
Clifford and I mustered a group of ewes out of the Pet Paddock at Struan Farm so Aaron could work with his bobcat and truck in the area nearby without having to close and open the gates. All of the sheep cooperated but for one ewe with a lamb. Now I'm not the best at mustering, so Clifford and I went back to try to get them to move along with the rest of the mob. He was instructed to "come behind," which means to stay behind me.
The lamb was huddled at the base of a tree with mum nearby. As I approached she stamped her hoof but they didn't move, the lamb didn't get up. Oh. Oh. I think mum knew that I was concerned about the situation, she let me get quite close, and I kept the silly dog well away.
So we left them alone in the paddock, she wasn't going to leave her lamb. Awhile later I began to worry that perhaps the lamb couldn't stand up to get a feed, so grabbed the powdered lamb's milk and a bottle. When I walked out to see them, the lamb was up and they were walking around. We were able to muster them up and out into the next paddock.
I'll never really know what happened there, why they didn't move. But I'm thankful everyone was okay.
I want that lamb!
Posted by: linda ducruet | 12/07/2012 at 05:43 AM