The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Womble on November 14, 2022, 08:55:52 am
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I've spent nearly a decade trying to push and maneuver heads back out of fences, and it's often really difficult to do because the sheep tends to work against you.
However, I was 'today years old' when a farmer friend gave me this tip :idea: . I couldn't believe how well it worked - try it for yourselves and let me know how you get on.
1) If stuck in Rylock, pull the vertical wires apart on each side of its head, to give it more room to move.
2) Pick up one of its back legs and pull.
3) Reset Rylock.
That is all! ;D
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2) doesn't work for horned sheep. You have to manoeuvre the horns back through one by one of they will be knocked off.
Usually by pushing the sheep towards the fence (your legs shoved against it's bum) it enables you to disentangle the horns in peace.
When we were first presented with a stuck lamb, we cut the wires, but after a couple of goes at that we found the pulling the vertical wires apart trick.
ps once they have been stuck a couple of times, horned lambs learn to manoeuvre their own horns out of the square, hyper intelligent Hebrideans do anyway ;D
Another comment about sheep mesh fences. Never have the mesh double or you can never get a sheep's head out and you may well have a hanged animal. We found that out the hard way!
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Sorry, Fleecewife. My memories of keeping horned sheep are clearly so painful that my brain has completely blocked them from my memory ;D .
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I think goats do it for attention! 😠 there always seems to be one who constantly gets their head stuck and stands there yelling.
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You can buy stock fencing with oblong gaps, up to 1' wide. Since we switched to this (five years ago) we have not had any polled sheep stuck at all, and only 1 horned. It's a little more expensive but worth it to me.