We’ve been sorting sheep for fall. We evaluate all of the ewes, rams, and lambs every year to decide who will be dinner, who will stay, and who will be for sale. We’re trying something new this year. After the evaluations were done, those identified for butcher got red ear tags. That way, if people come to buy live dinner sheep, I can tell them that only the red tags are for sale. It should make it easier to pick out batches when slaughter dates come, too.
Our next slaughter date is for a batch of ewes – the ones out in the front field. However, the date after that is for ram lambs, so this all will mean that I don’t have to sort them again. Instead of looking up each tag number, I can just pick out all of the red tags.
Ewe lambs also get sorted, but I haven’t decided who among them will go to the butcher yet – I’m still analyzing the data. The adult rams are also done, and I picked out nine as possibly butcher-grade. I really need to get rid of a few more, but I’m really just not sure yet. I think I’ll plan to have my matings first.
Our next major sheep task is to get all of the adults’ feet trimmed. We will wait until we get some rain or snow to soften the hooves. They’re so hard and tough that I can’t clip them off properly. It takes me a long time to do sheep feet because my hands and wrists give out – usually, I end up with blisters. Black Welsh feet are tough, which is both good and bad. Good in that they are very sound on their feet, but bad in that it can be tough to trim them properly.