Quote:
Originally Posted by hazelrunpack
Beautiful sheep, GF! So these will just drop their fleece without being shorn?
Alpacas must be like mules, then? Fiercely protective against predators?  Some of the neighbors have mules and they had to train their dogs to stay away from them, too... Reportedly, mules can defend against wolves, as well, which is a good thing around here... |
Hazel, I am not sure how much fleece a Dorper will shed on its own. We had a stud ram here last year and you may have seen his photo, he just had wool along his back, like a bad toupe.
Mine are cross bred so as long as they had that much I'd be happy, you have to keep their kidneys warm during the cold months.
There is a thing with alpacas called beserk male syndrome and it's usually a male that is hand reared and starts losing respect, thinking of you as another alpaca so it ends up wanting to fight you, and they can be quite dangerous. But then, overhandle a colt foal and the same will happen, they get bitey and disrespectful too.
We have a program on TV here called "The Farmer wants a Wife",(concluded on Wednesday night) where women can apply to be on it, to meet one of 6 farmers, and if the farmer likes what he sees and hears he gets to invite 3 of the women for a farm stay. One woman, on her first trip with one of the farmers to sell lambs, spent the time crying over all the poor sheep.
So, I ask you why would she consider herself suitable to be a farmer's wife?
She is a vegetarian. I have nothing against her, everyone makes their own choices in life, and funnily enough the farmer chose her as the one to be a potential partner.
It will be interesting to see if it works out. If it doesn't, she should have known better than to apply. Will she be able to guilt him out of rearing sheep and cattle? We'll know next year.
Bina, maybe because ours have Dorper in them, and Dorpers scavenge like goats, ours never get to come near the garden because they'd eat everything they shouldn't.
SamIAm, I used to love it when they had the sheep trials from New Zealand on TV here, those dogs are absolutely brilliant. Good photo's .
DD, thanks, and wish me luck weather-wise, we don't want floods again at lambing time. The thing I notice driving around now is that are hardly any sheep, but then people got out of them during the drought, lost sheep during the floods etc.. No wonder they are bringing so much.