Living the Farm Life! Out on the Farm with Lambs!
Each week so far my blog posts have been about my Tiny House, today I’m off topic because I want to share with you a little bit about one of the other aspects of my blog…farming!
Why? Because this past week has been lambing time on the farm! So it’s a great time to talk lambs and sheep and all other things wooly!
I’ll introduce you to my daughter Emily. Emily lives in the Tiny House with me and has been very much a part of the Tiny House and farm design process from the beginning! Emily is 20 years old and only remembers ever living in a rural environment, she’s been on horseback since before she started school and has always been an animal lover! Emily was drawn to sheep when she raised her first bottle lamb 7 years ago! She now runs her own Suffolk Stud on our property and over the past week the ewes have been lambing! Emily’s lambs grow up on the property to be Stud Rams & Stud Ewes!
Along with the Suffolk Stud sheep we also have other four legged wooly ones on the farm! Alpacas, Angora Goats, Coloured mix breed Sheep and Horses! We both love living with all of the animals and I’d not have it any other way! They are all so awesome to be around and they each have their own personalities and quirks! Something that I’ve learned about sheep that I always love sharing with people is that sheep most definitely have best friends! You’d not believe it until you see it but they have their little “hang out” groups and often will pair up with their same bestie when resting! So many of our sheep also know their names, and the goats all know their names…they come when you call out to them!
It is so wonderful to be on the farm with beautiful little newborn lambs running about but I have to admit we were not ready our first year for the amount of work, adaptability, organisation and sometimes heartache it takes to run a Sheep Stud along with the rest of the farm! Oh and then there’s sleep! There’s no sleep when it’s lambing time!! And there’s no sleep when any emergency arises!! I’ve learned so much and no matter what, the rewards far outweigh the down sides, figuring it all out on the go has been a huge experience! There’s a few misconceptions about farming and animals that have certainly been dispelled for me over the past couple of years! I think having the ability to be prepared and adapt at any given moment is probably the best overall skill anyone who’s living the farm life could learn! These guys do the weirdest things at the most inconvenient times! And in fairness to the animals it’s not always just them! Trees fall on fences, creeks will overflow and flood out paddocks! I’ve learned that having the ability to adapt and deal with the situation that presents itself is vital to getting through!
What have I learned about lambing and sheep that I didn’t know before?
The skill and planning involved in raising and breeding healthy animals is huge, along with hard work and a love for what you do! Lambing time on this farm is a dedicated period of weeks when nothing else happens! The nights are long and cold as checking the expecting mums and newborn lambs is a 24 / 7 job until they are all born! Most of the ewes birth on their own and have healthy lambs that they raise all by themselves! But occasionally intervention is required! I’ve learned how vital that immediate intervention can be! We’ve had a couple of lambs that have had to be bottle fed for a variety of reasons, and we’ve had a few ewes that have needed assistance birthing! I actually learnt from Emily last year how to pull a lamb out from a struggling mum…absolutely awesome experience and definitely something you don’t get to do everyday! I’ve learned that sometimes you do lose a lamb or even a grown sheep and that’s been such a hard thing for me…of course you always know going into it that sometimes unfortunately animals will die but facing it was so much more comforting and upsetting than I ever thought it would be. I’ve also learned how completely adorable and affectionate lambs are and how much joy they bring to the farm!
How do you prepare for sheep on your farm? How do you choose which type of sheep are best for you? How do you decide if you’ll breed or not?
I’d suggest the answer is to get as much professional advice as you can! Before moving to this property we had 4 sheep so things were pretty easy with them! A friend we met through agricultural circles was a shearer by profession who also provided a farm consultation service and he was key to helping with the set up of not only Emily’s Stud sheep but most of our other wooly ones were sourced through him, plus he was able to give all the advice and guidance that we really needed to get started! I’d also say that talking to an older, experienced sheep farmer is worth your time doing! The knowledge they gather over the many years of farming, lambing and all things sheep that they would have seen is priceless!
If you’re going to keep sheep start small! I’d definitely suggest starting small to get a “sampler” of what things will be like living and running sheep on your farm! The things you enjoy the most may surprise you and there are always going to be things that you didn’t expect or realise you’d have to deal with!
Sheep are a lot more amazing and loveable than I ever thought they’d be! Enjoy them 🐑!
If you have any questions you’d like to ask me please send me an email via the “Contact Me” page on this blog, I’m happy to answer and help as best I can.
Thanks for reading!
Jen 🏡