Brad
----Original Message Follows----
From: Mary Swindell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [blackbelly] RE: Some tips on how to handle blackbelly sheep and enclosures
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:04:58 -0600
Hi Brad,
All the tips on shaking a can of grain, building narrow pens, sheds, etc., are good ideas. But in my opinion, nothing can replace the value of a good herding dog in gathering these Blackbelly sheep. I have two trained border collies which are invaluable to me and which I use every day. If you have a herding dog available, her or she can catch the sheep if the gates, chutes pens, and fences fail. If a sheep gets out on the road, you can send your dog to herd them back in and you can avoid having a catastrophe. If you need to hold a bunch close to you and gate-sort one or more of them into a separate area, the dog can help you do this. The dog can react much faster than a human, if some of the sheep start to bolt and run. A dog can gather in 5 minutes what it might take a human 2 hours (or more) to accomplish. The purchase price of a good trained herding dog and the additional effort to get yourself trained as a dog handler will often be the best investment you ever make. I know many livestock producers have developed stock handling methods that work just fine for them without utilizing dog(s), and I greatly admire their ingenuity. Just wanted to put my two cents' worth in, to tell how great it is to also have a stockdog!
Sincerely, Mary Swindell
At 08:05 PM 11/16/2003 -0700, you wrote:
Message: 4
From: "BF Morris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 18:08:59 -0800
Subject: [blackbelly] Some tips on how to handle blackbelly sheep and enclosures
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hello. We are new to this list and new to Blackbelly sheep. Last summer we purchased two Blackbelly lambs and we really like them. We want to start a flock for rasing our own meat. Having had these two for the last several months has generated some questions that we would like to pose to this list please.
One of the first things we found out is that these animals are difficult to
handle as they are very quick and hard to catch. We are in the planning
stages of building enclosures just for these sheep and we wonder about
enclosure shape and size in relationship to this issue. We are in the
Southern California desert and have zero pasture(no rain here seldom) so all
feed will be hay not graze in case this information is important. Is the
shape of the enclosure important in that it can be made to facilitate easier
capture and control of the sheep? Would long narrow pens be a good idea for
herding the sheep down to one end when they need to be under control or
selected out and moved to other pens? How do you get control of your sheep?
I think we'll have many more questions and appreciate the help very much!
Thanks, Brad
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