It was scanning day, all the sheep on Jimmy`s farm, the Ewe`s, needed scanned to assess how many potential Lambs would be born. All the colours are date related, prior to scanning, however, depending on how many lambs inside, they get a colour for that too! Which when you look at them, they are truly Multi-coloured sheep!
It was a fowl day today, rain and 60 mph winds, just getting the sheep into the race, was bad enough.
A mixture of Texel`s, Suffolk`s and various Cross breeds.
Waiting for the scanners pad, poor things, due to all the wet weather this year, they look a bit depressed!
The long way home, hotly pursued by little Sky, the sheep dog!
For those not in the know, the red mark on the rumps is an indicator that they have mated! The male sheep,(Tup) wears a harness with a block of colour on his chest! Need I say anymore?
It was a long day.
A long, wet day, but good to know what's going on inside the ewes!
ReplyDeleteWell its all a matter of money. A fact, not always palatable, but true, and essential for the Governmental control over overstocked National herds.
DeleteVery pretty sheep.
ReplyDeletePretty funny,I have never seen them marked around here
ReplyDeleteI think here its not only tradition, but more of a control feature of the national herds.
DeleteWhen my dad kept sheep he sprayed 1 onto the first to lamb and 1 onto each of its offspring, the next family had 2 etc. By the time the barn was full it looked as though we were playing some weird form of bingo.
ReplyDeleteI`ve seen that too! I suppose it depends on which part of the country the herds are!
DeleteGreat pictures, nice to see some colour at this time of year even if it is artificial, at least it signifies new life that will arrive in the Spring! There's hope for us all :-)
ReplyDeleteYes! Lets hope so!!
DeleteIt appears that Tup was a very busy boy!!!
ReplyDeleteAh, yes indeed "they" were, usually one Tup per hundred!! Sometimes less. But never more?
DeleteWhat a day for it. Never knew of such a thing as scanning.
ReplyDeleteKK
It was a wet day, but good, hard work never killed anyone.
Delete