The lambs needed vaccinating. All the sheep needed a foot bath, worming/drenching and tagging, and the older ewes needed their hooves checked and trimmed. Sound easy? Well of course nothing is as easy as it sounds. Apart from numerous cuts, I got kicked in the mouth and have a fat lip, and Jen dislocated her thumb (it popped back in thankfully). The 'beast', as we call our tipping machine, did a great job once we got the hang of how to use it effectively and the run we set up worked well although most of the sheep needed coaxing into the beast and I frequently found myself wallowing in the mud trying to force an unruly ewe through the foot bath. More than once I found myself in a compromising position behind a ewe trying to prevent her from backpeddling. Jen always threatened to whip out (not a good choice of words I know) the camera so I am thankful at least she didn't - Australians have a dodgy reputation with sheep already so I didn't want to provide anything more for the gossipers among you.For the fashion conscious, all of the sheep we checked today now have blue mohawks so we can tell them apart from those that need doing next time. I swear by the end of this we'll have a flock of multi-coloured sheep.
At the moment cheese is the furthest thing from our mind (and we are only shaking our heads at the prospect of actually milking some of these sheep), but once summer comes and we can ship the lambs and many of the ewes off to [insert euphemistic term for knackers yard here] we will have a more managable flock, but the lessons we are learning now and the experience we are gaining will become invaluable. 100+ sheep at the moment is just a little too many to manage effectively, but eventually when we taste that first piece of Manchego or Cheddar, I am sure this day will be long forgotten...
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