The life of a sheep!

Gabby

I was in the barn the other day and our eyes locked on each other.

My mind raced back over our years together. I was amazed at the many facets of this pretty gals life here on the farm.

The daughter of Willow, another of our very photographed and storied gals here on the farm. Gabby was born several years ago. A real beauty of a lamb! Shiny black and long strong legs with a very happy bounce that took her about the barn and pastures. One day during barn chores I noticed her mother, Willow, seeming to talk to me, she kept baaing at me and standing in one place. I followed her cue and found Gabby, clearly not feeling well. Her wonderful momma kept nudging her with her nose. Gabby didn’t have the strength to even nurse her mother, which of course was her life blood. Long story short, we almost lost Gabby. After weeks of constant attention and TLC she survived and was soon romping again about the pastures.

As a shepherd you become especially connected to sheep you’ve spent such heart rending time with. Anyways, I always noted a sort of smile on this little girls face (she’ll always be a little girl to me).

The first 18 months of her life she got to enjoy just the frolic! Then at her almost 2nd year of life she had a baby of her own but poor Gabby freaked! Her instinct, so viable in the Navajo breed , brought her to a wooded area to have her lamb. She gave birth with ease. As she stood over her newborn trying to put two and two together my husband John spotted her and went to check on her. She saw him coming. A little freaked already, his approach was just too much and she bolted, never to accept her little girl again. We tried and tried but to no avail.

Some farms/shepherds might decide it is time to move her along I felt I couldn’t. One might say the situation was contributory. To our wonderful surprise the next year Gabby raised a beautiful healthy lamb!

As we share this moments glance my human self is sure she too reflects back over our many emotional moments together.

Silly human!

To Wean or not to Wean

Observing a mother and her new born is a heavenly site.  We respond  based purely on emotions,  whether we've actually "mothered" or not.   At the moment you lay your eyes on this site all the world around is a blur and all that matters is the true love that halos around them.  It is such a pure connection that under no circumstances one should want to come between them, right?

A lot of the methods used in sheep farming  are about "management" of the flock.  The larger the number your trying to manage the harder it is to keep "order".  Orderliness becomes a goal for efficiency.  Efficiency adds to profits.  Follow me?  This is a slippery slope.

Weaning is one of those "management" tools.  According to reference books,  lambs should be removed from their mothers at 8-10 weeks old.  The reasons are mainly that the needs of the lambs for maximum market potential are different then the mamma's.    Growth of the lambs requires richer, higher protein grasses or grains which the mamma's don't need.  The only way to accomplish such a task is to separate them.  The other argument we found (didn't read it in a reference book) to support weaning  is the mothers will give and give until they are basically spent.  We find the heat of the summer, coupled with the very selfless nature of mom's takes everything out of them and begins to compromise their own health.

For these reasons one might wean.  

Wean:accustom (someone) to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond.

Now that I've given you a bit of knowledge about weaning I'd like to share our journey with this decision.

We began this farm knowing we would make choices about the care of our animals based on our experiences, not just because everyone said so. Many topics of care and handling were researched and we found enough disparaging information that we felt strongly our decision to observe first was a worthy one.

Many of our farming practices were established by observing,  educating ourselves, then we'd established our way.  Weaning the lambs was one really challenging task.  Now 8 years later, after going back and forth, this year, we're not weaning again.  The first three years we didn't wean.  I wish I could tell you why we decided to wean the 4th year but I'm betting we succumb to the "text" book ways.  Most other shepherds around us weaned which made us question our decision even more.  Our farm was growing and as often happens after you've immersed yourself in something you loose some of your "curiosity" or better yet, the luxury of time to remember to be curious and ask questions.

So, we spent a few years weaning.  It is a very difficult task, not physically challenging, just heartbreaking really.  They cry and baa for easily 48 hours.  The mothers also.  Eventually they all settle in but gosh it never felt right.  As often I'm guided on this farm, if it goes against nature my heart cannot find peace with it...this is one of those lessons.  

With most industrial farming models, maximum growth of the lambs became the  shepherds primary goal in order to get those lambs to market fast and efficiently.  Is fast and efficient our ultimate goal.  Those that know this farm know our answer to this question is NO.  We strongly believe you sacrifice so much in order to achieve those fast/efficient goals.  It is this very reason that so many breeds of livestock are in danger of being lost for good...they don't meet these industrial models!

In summary, we've have some of the best looking, healthiest lambs ever, happily growing on mothers milk...there must have been some divine wisdom in that!

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