Lambs away - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 14 November, 2011

by Rosemary at 7:30am in Sheep 2 comments Comments closed

Well, that's Dan off to the abattoir with the five tup lambs. Will I ever stop getting a twinge the morning they go? I've been awake since 5am.

This was the best loading we've done - because they loaded themselves. Yesterday at 4pm, Dan reversed the trailer close to the field gate; after dropping the ramp and opening the trailer gates, we built a little pen from the back of the trailer to the field gate itself and called the lambs in. When we cosed the field gate behind them, they were enclosed in a small pen comprising the open trailer and  maybe a couple of square metres of grass. The trailer was straw bedded and they had a bucket of water. We left them there overnight.

When we went out this morning at 6.30am, three were lying down in the trailer and two on the ramp; the two on the ramp wandered into the trailer when they saw us. The trailer gate was shut, we tagged them in the trailer, closed up and off they went.

We're about 30 miles from the abattoir, so they'll be there at 8am, hopefully for it opening, so they'll be killed quickly. Best we can do, under the circumstances.

I'm going down later in the week to see the carcasses. Apart from one that's bigger than the rest (he was a single), they are pretty even sized. It will be interesting to see our "end product".