Only 24 hours till we leave for Bendigo. Finally it looks like it might all come together. The farm sitters arrive this afternoon, (thank goodness for relatives prepared to put up with four puppies, a couple of poddy lambs and wood stoves). The sheep have been shorn and are leading after a fashion. When the wool came off the sheep were carrying a little less condition than we would have liked (a lesson for next time). We have only spot cleaned the sheep rather than bathing them (hopefully not a lesson for next time). The days have been so cold, we have been worried that shearing, washing then travelling would impact on their health, so we are hoping that we can buff them up on Thursday in Bendigo so they look beautiful for judging on Friday.
Following our little taste of success at the Sydney Royal we thought it might be nice to go to the 2011 Australian Sheep and Wool Show at Bendigo. The Dorper is the feature breed this year and seemed like a good opportunity to increase our skills for training and preparing sheep for show. Unfortunately, we are never as organised as we hope to be. The lead training is progressing slowly, the shearer doesn't come until tomorrow and the lights on the trailer are not working. And these are just the top of a long list that needs to be completed before we leave for Bendigo on Wednesday.
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. 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.
Getting Ready for the Show We have decided to bite the bullet this year and take sheep to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney. After showing our sheep at a few of the small local shows it seemed it was time to stop mucking about and get on with the job. So where better to start than the biggest show around.
The paperwork has been sent off and the show team selected. Not a full team for every catagory, but a start. The sheep are now penned so we can start feeding them and getting them used to being handled. We have had to improvise as we don't have a suitable shed near the house and a festive marquee has been pressed into service providing shelter.Next weekend the training will begin in earnest - teaching sheep to lead. I'm not too worried about the young sheep, but the older ram is big and strong with a mind of his own, at this stage I'm not sure who will win. |