Rounding up Rogue Sheep

It’s a drizzly Friday morning on the farm. I’m stood resting on a gate drinking my coffee, gazing across the fields. I second glance across at the size of my flock, or should I say the flock that isn’t all mine. Over night I seem to have acquired some rogue sheep, an additional flock of Swaledales. My first thought is how the heck has that happened as in the last few weeks we’ve been assessing all the boundaries for gap and believed we were stock proofed. Then again when ever is a farm stock proofed, especially with Swaledales?

Having Swaledales in my flock I know only to well how difficult they are to capture. Also, as a new tenant to the farm I have no dividing fences between fields that are suitable for sheep. The last farming tenant had cattle and the fencing for them is useless for any other livestock. This is a job we’ve just been quoted for and agreed to implement. But on this Friday morning, with all the sheep mixing, my immediate thoughts were on how the heck am I to separate my flock from my neighbours?

Skye the trainee sheepdog

Of course, I have Skye my 11 month old Border Collie, but she’s not ready to be shedding sheep. So with the use of my quad and some clever manoeuvring I was able to split them into two flocks. This also poses the question of another sheep dog to bring up in the ranks.

After moving my flock into the furthest farm fields, I managed to coral the invading flock into a separate field with access to a lane allowing me to funnel them into the farm yard. At this point I need the help of Skye. Whilst she’s not fully trained I do have enough commands to get her to walk on, lie down, pull off the sheep and flank around them if they were to split. So team work commenced and I managed to move the sheep to a holding pen on the farm.

The next task was to find out who owned them as I had no idea of which fields they had escaped from plus the neighbouring fields are rented out. Thankfully, within 24 hours they were collected and returned to their farm.

No two days are ever the same in farming, a planned day can changed within seconds where livestock is concerned. Everyday is a learning curve, one that whilst frustrating, can end up being rewarding.

Posted: February 10, 2022