Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The joys of waiting: our owners don't always know the exact dates we might be due to give birth because often they did not catch the ram mating with us (we are VERY quiet about it I'll have you know...). Some sheep owners put a 'raddle' on their rams which is a harness that fits around the chest and has a special sticky coloured paste in it. When the ram then mates with us the paste leaves a mark on our backs. If we are checked very day, the owner will then be able to work out when we are due to lamb: clever eh??

Some sheep owners put all their sheep inside a huge barn just before the first possible lambing date and keep them there until most of the sheep have lambed!! Our owners let us out during the day if the weather is good enough and then bring us in at night.

We try to give them clues about when we are about to give birth such as going all 'starry eyed' or wandering off on our own a bit. When we start to nest and when our udder really bags up (gets like a drum it is so full of milk) then we all know the time is soon...