Sorting Sheep

We've been sorting sheep for fall. We evaluate all the ewes, rams and lambs every year to decide who is dinner, who is keep and who is for sale. These are the ram lambs. We're trying something new. After the evaluations are done those that I have identified as for sure butcher got red ear tags. That way if we have people come to buy live dinner sheep I can tell them that only the red tag ones are for sale and it should make it easier to pick out a batch when each slaughter date comes.

Next slaughter date is for a batch of ewes, the ones out in the front field. But the date after that is for ram lambs and so this will mean I don't have to sort them out again looking at each tag number but can just pick out all the red tags and find enough that are ready to go when we load them up.

Ewe lambs also got sorted but I haven't decided who is butcher yet, still analyzing the data. Adult rams are also done and I picked out 9 as possible butcher. I really need to get rid of a few more but not sure who yet. I still have to plan my matings first.

Next major sheep task is get all the adult sheep feet trimmed. We will wait until we get some rain or snow to soften the hooves. They are so hard and tough now that I can't even clip them off properly. It takes me a long time to do sheep feet because my hands and wrists give out and I usually 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 very hard to trim them properly.