Sheep Trek 2009 and Why I Need My Working Dogs

Last winter we had about 100 head of sheep. We had approximately 40 lambs that were grazing an area 1/2 mile from the main farm here in central KY.

Well, the '09 Ice Storm hit us with a vengeance. I woke up to find the electra-net fencing enclosing the area the lambs were in laying on the ground, and no power, phone, etc. The post and wire perimeter fence was fine and I was not afraid the lambs would get out on the road so I figured give it a day or so, everything will thaw and all will be well.

NO thaw. With no way to get them water or feed and the grazing all frozen under the inches of ice,it became obvious the lambs were going to have to go back to the farm (which had power). Now how to get 40 lambs across the downed electric netting, up the drive, out on to the road and keep them together the 1/4 mile to the farm entrance?!

The scary part was the road. Not that there was much traffic with the ice, but even one car would have been one too many. A couple of neighbors were roped in to stop any traffic(they did have to stop one truck) and my Australian Shepherds and I were set to try the big trek. My older Aussie provided the push while the younger, faster one provided the steering(hopefully)and I tried to lead the way.

The big issue with the steering aspect was the steep banks and fences on either side of the road preventing the dog from covering where he really needed.

Convincing the lambs that the electric net could now be crossed was the first hurdle and of course a couple of the completely headless ones had to take off the wrong way. After a few minutes of skidding, sliding, slipping and the odd curse, the dogs and I got everyone underway, with nothing broken, and headed for the road.

The neighbors were manning their stations and we made it out to the road and got everyone headed the right direction. Luckily my older dog has a wonderful sense of backing off the pressure and never pushed the lambs to hard. The younger dog had a tough time figuring out how to get to head when needed as he could not flank out around as he wanted. Soon though, he did figure out how to just turn his head away as he passed them and although there were some tense moments when I thought the whole flock was going to get past the entrance to the farm and take off down the hill, with the help of the neighbor at that end and the flattening of the terrain, we got them turned into the entrance of the farm and then were able to fetch/drive them the additional 1/4 mile to the farm pasture.

It probably only took about 30 min from start to finish and the temps were in the teens but I was stripping out of my jackets and gloves trying to keep ahead of the lambs while running uphill. All's well that ends well but the lambs are staying at the main farm this winter!

Wendy in KY