[Marlin.45]

Wandering up the fields on Saturday afternoon I spotted way up the top of our main hay field a white lump that wasn't there the day before. On reaching said 'lump' I found it was a rather large white headed Ewe. We don't keep sheep and it has probably warped in there.....as we think the post a rail is adequate for sheep  (but obviously not?)

As it is in a 3 acre field we haven't been able to corner her to see whether she is tagged and all we can make out are two paint markers on her back. So far we have asked all the local farmers and no-one knows who she belongs to. The only suggestion was to hunt down a mysterious old guy that rents patches of land up and down the valley and has a pretty laid back attitude to raising sheep. Only problem is he doesn't have a phone and no-one knows where he lives. Brilliant.

For now the ewe (though miffed) has a plentiful water supply and is gnawing away at our future hay stock but does anyone have any suggestions as to what we should do? I have heard that if it keels over we are responsible for disposal costs (seems healthy....for a sheep). My suggestion is if we cannot find the owner within the next few days the farm gate is going to be propped open 

[MarvinH]

Id just leave it.

[Marlin.45]

To eat our grass supply or re-ID? 

[Anke]

Well next year's hay supply won't be growing until next spring... and it may well be illegal to just open your farm gate and let her wander on the road - possibly causing a serious accident.

Yes I would leave her for a while and see what happens. If she got in through your fence she will also know how to get out.

[devonlady]

Put a notice up in a prominent position saying that the sheep has been on your land for (however period a time) and that if the owner doesn't collect it within seven days it will be disposed of.
I did this once when I found two Shetland ponies on our land who seemed to have no owner and within the week they had been collected. Never saw the going of them though!

[Marches Farmer]

How would you feel if you just opened the gate and she was hit by a car, passengers were injured and she was lying in the road with her ribs caved in and her leg hanging off ....?

[Me]

MF I would feel pretty bad. But can understand the temptation.

Its a difficult situation though. I rent a bit up the road next to a guy who starves his cattle every winter, last year I had to phone him at home, go to his house, phone him at work and then (eventually! Three weeks later!) inform him I was going to charge him £10 per head per day before he would remove his cattle from the land I was paying to be on, the locals told me I had no chance as his cattle go where they please every winter and he has been prosecuted once for cattle on the road. Anyway, big falling out and the cattle went, I have just moved my sheep off the one field as there is nothing left there, I said to my wife at the time the cattle were hungry again (you can hear them all bawling up and down the valley) - over night a black steer appeared, it has been there nearly a week.

What do you do? TBH I'm thinking of giving the land up next year, its very difficult land anyway but as I have put in a lot of work there I don't want to. Any innovative suggestions that don't involve risk of injury to man or beast? Also I detest phoning pen pushing authority types.

[Rosemary]

Surely if folk are neglecting animals to the detriment of their welfare, it's a police / RSPCA matter?

[Fleecewife]

Marlin.45 - a sheep eats about five small square bales of hay per winter, so she won't be much of a drain on your stores.  Can you use binoculars to see if she's tagged?  I think you've done all you can to find her owner, so now she's yours.  As she has crayon marks on her back she's probably in lamb, so needs good forage to survive and produce healthy lambs.  My feeling, but others will probably disagree, is that a ewe, a flock animal, who is prepared to go off on her own to protect her unborn lambs and find the best food supply she can, is a sheep to keep.

If you really really don't want to keep her, then find a new owner.  If she's not tagged then you need to get official advice as to what to do.  If you don't have a flock of your own but want to keep her, then you can easily get a flock number and order a set of red eartags for her.

Sounds like she needs a health check so you need to work out how to catch her, remembering she's in lamb, so she needs to be stress free.

I don't think you would really leave the gate open and let her wander off....

ps - post and rail is not adequate to keep sheep in, unless it's backed by sheep mesh.

[kanisha]

recently following the cutting of the maize field next to my sheep followed by a rather too close trimming back of the verge and damage to fence  a large number of my rams went walk about. ( 10 ) Eventually I was able to track all of them down and get them returned save one.  He was found a couple of days later in a paddock with a couple of pet ewes . With a most indignant owner not because of the ram per se but because he considered his fencing more than adequate. I am most grateful that he didn't just turf him out as the risk of him getting shot during the hunt season here is high ( small black ram looks like boar from a distance) and yes he would have continued to wander until he was forced to cross a road at some point. 

[Anke]

What sort of crayon marks has she got - a wide fairly smudged ark on her rumpjust on and above her tail indicates that she has been mated. Small dots (as would be done with a spray can) anywhere on her body may indicate that she was to be sold (either in lamb with said large mark) or as a cull and she managed to jump off during loading. If she came from a large flock her owner may not think it is worth bothering to find a cull ewe... She could also be a (castrated) he (as in fat lamb going to market) that jumped the hurdles on loading... happens quite a lot.

[Deere]

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Just under a month ago I had a Swale ewe and it's wether lamb turn up for breakfast with the boys (Tup and tup lambs).

I've penned them up and read the tag numbers and contacted animal health who didn't really want to help/know.  I decided to have a word with our local livestock market and they said they would get back to me if they had any reports of missing sheep.
I work on a farm next to our land so have made farm to farm enquiries to no avail.

This was about three weeks ago and I've decided to keep the two newbies housed for a while for their own protection as they were jumping all over the walls/fences and got onto the road one morning.

The ewe was fully tagged and the wether lamb had no tags and is soon fit for the freezer   

I've a friend who has Swales who will take the ewe so that she can be kept how Swales are more accustomed (moors, hills, ranch farming ).
She will also produce a nice lamb or two as my Charolais tup has introduced himself when she invited herself onto my field 

Not really sure what else I can do?

[Old Shep]

Surely the two paint markers on her back will be the flock mark?  In the old days you used to get sent a sheep keepers flock book which listed everyone's flock marks so lost sheep could be returned.   Is there an online version now?

[sokel]

Every winter we gain at least 1 ewe. Not sure how they get in as ours never get out  . Last year we had 3 that nobody knew who they belonged too this year we already have 2.
In our case I have a feeling they come down off the fell as there is several sheep up there that don't seem to belong to anyone (untagged and never sheared).and always seem to come down to the farms to get food when and where they can

[Me]

Confessions of a sheep rustler??