Millie and Candy sheep are home from the Food Farm at the Royal Easter Show. When we let them off the truck and into the yard they seemed a little shell shocked. Three weeks in a shed with everything laid on, thousands of people admiring them and two performances daily about being sheep, has left them a little star struck and I'm sure we will find them annoying until they settle back into being ordinary sheep.
It is amazing to think that between 30,000 and 60,000 people went through the Food Farm each day of the Show and many of them had never been close to a farm animal. Millie and Candy are popular with everyone (except the people who could hear Millie bleating at night) as they are so friendly and able to be patted. I guess you can go to the zoo to see exotic animals but if you never go into the country there is not much opportunity to see a farm animal close up.

The puppies are only a week old and they have tripled in size. Meg is a very dedicated mother and they always beautifully clean and full. Meg however never looks like she is enjoying the experience. Yesterday she insisted on coming with us when we worked the sheep in the yards, even dogs appreciate a little respite and outside stimulation.

A heavy frost early in the week triggered the need to give a final drench against barbers pole worm, also any sheep that have been on low lying wet areas need a drench for liver fluke.
These, our maiden ewes, have been drenched prior to taking them to our other block.
Hopefully, this will be the end to flystrike, that seems to have plagued  sheep farmers everywhere.

Martin with the winning young ram (not standing very well).

We are back from the Show and had a wonderful time. Our ram (ram lamb born after August 2010 ) won a first and our two little ewes in the same age group won a second and third - not bad for our first time at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. We also learnt a lot about preparing sheep for show and how to do it better. Presentation can make the difference between a first and second.
For anyone interested in showing their sheep the Sydney Royal really makes it easy. Everyone was friendly and helpful,  from the people on the gate to the Coordinator of the Sheep Section.

The young ewe class (I must practice my squatting). ( sweaty work -Martin)

We saw our ewes Millie and Candy who have been in the Food Farm at the Show since the 13 April. They are thriving on the attention. We were amazed when we delivered them, they practically walked around to their pen of last year without direction! They must have remembered. Millie has been keeping all the young people awake by bleating at night. I don't think she will be asked back. Martin said we had sent her to Sydney as we needed the respite.

Meg's Pups.
To top off the Show Meg gave birth to her pups on Tuesday night. Three females and 2 males, four of them are black and one red female. They are all beautiful and in three days they have almost doubled in size. It will be three weeks before they open their eyes and we can see if any of them have blue eyes.

Everything is as ready as we can make it. We have run out of time. The sheep have been washed, taught to lead more or less, and fattened up. Now we start the journey to Sydney.

The Show team is now down to four sheep, three ewes and one young ram. The other ram got a cough and it hasn't improved in time. The rate of attrition of  the Show team had me thinking that all we would end up with, would be some charming sheep photos glued to the front of the pens, thus depicting our prospective entries.

The show team is  having intensive tying up and leading lessons, and  are none too thrilled. We were  getting along just fine, plenty of food at regular intervals, a lovely sheltered accommodation,and a constant flow of music,- then I put the head stalls on. Now I need to convince them to be best friends again.

Unfortunately I hurt my finger just as we  started the lead training and that has delayed the whole process. Now with a week to go until the Show, the training process has been considerably compressed. Lucky Dorpers are smart and learn fairly quickly. Black Adder the big ram has become lame so that is one battle I won't have to fight.

Took seven of the young ET lambs ( these are Visagie bloodlines  from South Africa ) to the AI centre, hopefully to cooperate and provide semen for future use, Should the rams prove worthy, we will make the  genetics available to those who wish it.
 I seem to spend most of my life in my truck. Running a stud is certainly not money for jam, but wouldn't want to do anything else.