Author Topic: Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence  (Read 4181 times)

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence
« on: November 14, 2022, 08:55:52 am »
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
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2022, 12:44:19 pm »
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!
"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.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2022, 03:33:02 pm »
Sorry, Fleecewife. My memories of keeping horned sheep are clearly so painful that my brain has completely blocked them from my memory  ;D .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2022, 11:40:16 pm »
I think goats do it for attention! 😠 there always seems to be one who constantly gets their head stuck and stands there yelling.


SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Freeing a sheep with its head through a fence
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2022, 07:51:54 am »
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. 
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

 

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