Liiz
Member
Hello!
I'm an imposter here - small animal vet so I've done a few lambing seasons, off work d/t crazy illness so writing a novel for fun.
Unfortunately a sheep farm has turned up in my novel - I only say unfortunately because I haven't worked with sheep since I qualified, and was therefore hoping I could trouble you for help.
My made up sheep farm has Easter lambing in a barn. It is on the edge of a national park, has a few grassy fields with footpaths through and a ridge beyond with heather/ shorter grass (perhaps they graze on this land with permission- if so who would it belong to?). I was thinking of a peak district gritstone edge when I wrote the storyline, or farms in a valley in the Lakes...
What I can't figure out is, how is the land used over the year? Is it normal / plausible that the ewes would be brought indoors to lamb, put out to grass after a few days, then - at somepoint when be lambs had grown a bit - a gate would (deliberately) be left open so ewes and lambs could wander up onto the higher ground (if so, when would that be? perhaps when they run out of grass or atocking density got too much on the lower fields?)
Or maybe the ewes and lambs would stay lower until the lambs went for slaughter, then the sheep would be allowed to roam higher again?
Or maybe the gates from the lower field would be left open, so the ewes and new lambs would have access to the moorland / ridge bit right away? (If so would they actually leave the nice green fields at first, or would they stay until the green grass was grazed low, then venture higher?)
Which scenario's most likely? Or does it depend on something i havent thought of yet? Thanks for humoring me!
I'm an imposter here - small animal vet so I've done a few lambing seasons, off work d/t crazy illness so writing a novel for fun.
Unfortunately a sheep farm has turned up in my novel - I only say unfortunately because I haven't worked with sheep since I qualified, and was therefore hoping I could trouble you for help.
My made up sheep farm has Easter lambing in a barn. It is on the edge of a national park, has a few grassy fields with footpaths through and a ridge beyond with heather/ shorter grass (perhaps they graze on this land with permission- if so who would it belong to?). I was thinking of a peak district gritstone edge when I wrote the storyline, or farms in a valley in the Lakes...
What I can't figure out is, how is the land used over the year? Is it normal / plausible that the ewes would be brought indoors to lamb, put out to grass after a few days, then - at somepoint when be lambs had grown a bit - a gate would (deliberately) be left open so ewes and lambs could wander up onto the higher ground (if so, when would that be? perhaps when they run out of grass or atocking density got too much on the lower fields?)
Or maybe the ewes and lambs would stay lower until the lambs went for slaughter, then the sheep would be allowed to roam higher again?
Or maybe the gates from the lower field would be left open, so the ewes and new lambs would have access to the moorland / ridge bit right away? (If so would they actually leave the nice green fields at first, or would they stay until the green grass was grazed low, then venture higher?)
Which scenario's most likely? Or does it depend on something i havent thought of yet? Thanks for humoring me!