Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Addicted to sheep BBC4  (Read 3790 times)

Hellybee

  • Joined Feb 2010
    • www.blaengwawrponies.co.uk
Addicted to sheep BBC4
« on: February 09, 2016, 10:23:08 am »
Watched this last night on bbc4, if you haven't seen it, well worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070jj99

Hillview Farm

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Surrey
  • Proud owner of sheep and Llamas!
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2016, 10:57:11 am »
Huge debate going on about it on another forum. That's worth a read!  :roflanim:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2016, 11:25:02 am »
Link, please, [member=27074]Hillview Farm[/member] ?
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2016, 11:26:15 am »
Watched this last night on bbc4, if you haven't seen it, well worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070jj99

It's repeated tonight at 11pm on BBC4, for anyone who, like me, doesn't have unlimited Broadband, and/or has insufficient broadband speed to watch a video on streaming.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2016, 12:12:01 pm »
Interesting slice of real life but probably not good PR for farming; as there was a good example of how NOT to lamb a ewe, the lamb being castrated was probably over a week old and the sawing off of the sheeps horns should only be done by a vet (as far as I'm aware). The children were the highlight of the programme for me.

kelly58

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • Highlands, Scotland
  • Home is were my animals are.
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2016, 12:13:11 pm »
Thanks Sally  :thumbsup: will try and stay awake to watch it  :sheep:

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2016, 12:21:08 pm »
More about the film itself here (which was longer than the BBC version)

http://www.addictedtosheep.com

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2016, 02:19:39 pm »
Interesting slice of real life but probably not good PR for farming; as there was a good example of how NOT to lamb a ewe, the lamb being castrated was probably over a week old and the sawing off of the sheeps horns should only be done by a vet (as far as I'm aware). The children were the highlight of the programme for me.

There's even more of that lambing in the longer version, and BH & I were both of the opinion that we'd have had the vet to that ewe - or taken her to the vet - some hours earlier.  I'm sure lambings like that are rare in pure Swale lambings; I lambed 450 Swales for a few years, and bad lambings were very rare, particularly with the ones that had gone to the Swale tup.  (As opposed to the BFL for Mule lambs.)

Which said, I wish he'd used more lube.   :o

I don't know that I could guess the age of the lamb being castrated.  I imagine they keep the ewes and lambs close by until they're tagged and ringed, so they can be sure they get the parentage logged correctly, and I would think you wouldn't keep them hanging around the farmstead longer than essential - so probably a few days, not longer than a week.

Sawing off the horn where you do not need to go into the blood vessels (and hence nerves) can certainly be done on farm.  It's routine, like trimming feet.  We took a Swale tup to the vet to have his horn trimmed because it was certainly going to need to be higher up.  The vet showed me how it was done in case we had another.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2016, 02:37:36 pm »

There's even more of that lambing in the longer version, and BH & I were both of the opinion that we'd have had the vet to that ewe - or taken her to the vet - some hours earlier.  I'm sure lambings like that are rare in pure Swale lambings; I lambed 450 Swales for a few years, and bad lambings were very rare, particularly with the ones that had gone to the Swale tup.  (As opposed to the BFL for Mule lambs.)

Which said, I wish he'd used more lube.   :o

I don't know that I could guess the age of the lamb being castrated.  I imagine they keep the ewes and lambs close by until they're tagged and ringed, so they can be sure they get the parentage logged correctly, and I would think you wouldn't keep them hanging around the farmstead longer than essential - so probably a few days, not longer than a week.

Sawing off the horn where you do not need to go into the blood vessels (and hence nerves) can certainly be done on farm.  It's routine, like trimming feet.  We took a Swale tup to the vet to have his horn trimmed because it was certainly going to need to be higher up.  The vet showed me how it was done in case we had another.

There was no excuse for a lambing of that nature in my opinion; but that is just my opinion.


Under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, as amended, only a veterinary surgeon may dehorn or disbud a sheep, apart from trimming the insensitive tip of an ingrowing horn which, if left untreated, could cause pain or distress.

http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/adlib/defra/content.aspx?doc=4154&id=4179

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2016, 05:28:33 pm »
Yes the lambing was pretty horrendous and yes I was telling the TV 'use some lube, use some lube', then afterwards 'how about something for the pain and shock'.  Also there was no attempt made to resuscitate the lamb, which was surely worth some kind of effort.

Sawing off the horn was definitely not how it should have been done, not least because that would have been extremely painful for the tup. Anything closer in than the cool tip is not for mere mortals to do.  I liked the moss trick though; we have tried cobwebs which work well.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Hillview Farm

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Surrey
  • Proud owner of sheep and Llamas!
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2016, 05:32:01 pm »
Of you go onto the farming forum under livestock it's near the top still. :)

Hellybee

  • Joined Feb 2010
    • www.blaengwawrponies.co.uk
Re: Addicted to sheep BBC4
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2016, 07:01:26 pm »
Agreed,I found the lambing scene distressing.  We lamb by the house, I don't think we d ever go back to field lambing.  otherwise a very good documentary. 

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS