Day Off
Matt called after we got back here last night and said we would have a day off today due to a poor weather forecast. It rained in the night and morning broke with a full overcast. We took our time getting up and at 10 headed for the barn where the crew was supposed to be working with the sheep. On the way there, we walked through the paddock for the horses, and Sugar was followed all the way by a new friend, Cookie, Heather’s horse, who never was more than 6” away from Sugar. I think he (yes, Cookie is a boy) thought that Sugar’s iPhone, which is superglued to Sugar’s left hand, was food for a horse. He was disappointed when we left the paddock and closed the gate on him.
Foot Rot
The crew, consisting of Matt, Heather, Laurel, Kim and Nevil, were examining the feet of 1000 sheep to see if they had foot rot. Due to the moisture on the floor of the valley, the sheep are susceptible to this virus. If they get this highly infectious disease, it eats into their hooves. Rather than treat them, they will be separated from the rest of the herd and then sent to the meatpacking company for slaughter. So this was the process.
The sheep that hadn’t been checked yet were in a pen outside the barn. Nevil’s dogs, jumping back and forth over the fence of the pen, would guide them to a chute where they proceeded in single file toward the barn. Kim would make sure that they would continue toward the barn where they would meet Lauren who made sure each one got on a conveyor that was shaped like a V with about 10” open at the bottom of the V for the legs and feet to fit through. The conveyor would take them over a 6’ x 4’ pit in which Matt was lying down with a large flashlight - he grabbed each foot as it was going by and would check it for rot. If the sheep had rot, he would tell Heather and she would spray its forehead with paint. When each lamb reached the end of the conveyor, they entered another chute which led to a pen. For the marked lambs, Heather would pull a gate across the chute where the healthy lambs went and the sheep with the foot rot would enter a different pen. Heather was also the one operating the conveyor, shutting it down when Matt told her too, oftentimes because one of the smaller sheep had fallen through the V and was kicking him and crawling over him. Her hands were full so I operated the gate for the condemned sheep, opening it when a sheep with foot rot came out of the conveyor and closing it when the healthy ones came out. Of 1000 sheep checked, about 50 were struck with the virus and would be immediately shipped to the meatpacker for lamb chops. The others would have their feet dipped to prevent them from getting foot rot.
It is quite a scene: Nevil yelling at his dogs and giving them commands and the dogs launching themselves back and forth over the 4’ fence of the first pen; then the 3 attractive 20-years olds in shorts, with sweatshirts, baseball hats for Kim and Heather, first Kim holding a shepherd’s rod poking and prodding the sheep toward the conveyor, Lauren making sure, by lifting them onto it, if necessary, that the sheep actually got on the conveyor, and Heather running the conveyor, spraypainting the foreheads of the diseased ones, operating the gate until I got there, and all the while, Matt flat on his back in coveralls with plastic safety glasses on, all mud spattered on his face, glasses, coveralls and baseball hat, checking each foot with his flashlight by grabbing it with one hand and shining his light on it with the other. They had started at 7:30 in the morning and finished at about 11:30 with a 30 minute coffee break at about 9:30. 1000 sheep - that’s 4000 feet to check and a lot of dirty work for all concerned.
Merino
Many of the sheep are Merino sheep, and in the old days, according to Matt, only royalty could own a Merino sheep for their fleece was used to make cloth to clothe the members of the royal families. It was the first breed of sheep to be introduced into NZ, by Capt. James Cook in 1773. They are farmed on the tussock land of the South Island where they thrive on the rugged terrain and the harsh climate. Their fleece is very dense, and is very fine and soft. It is known throughout the world as the softest fleece for sweaters and other garments. Other of Matt’s sheep are a mix of Merino and non-Merino sheep. It takes about 1 year for them to regrow their fleece after they have been sheared and the annual cost of shearing Matt’s sheep is about $50,000-$60,000 per year. But the quantity of fleece shorn can bring in up to $450,000 in a year.
Farm Tour
After a couple pictures of the crew, Matt asked Nevil if he would take us on a tour of the farm while he did several jobs, switching several herds of sheep and cattle from the pastures presently occupied to new pastures. Nevil agreed. Matt then told us to go to the garage, get the “white truck” and take it down to the shed where the boat was and Nevil would take us for the tour. We returned to the garage, and the “white truck” turned out to be a swanky Lexus SUV - so off we went to get Nevil who drove us out to the outer pastures. He released his dog Page, a young one, and away he tore rounding up the sheep and directing them to a gate where they would pass into another pasture - going left when Nevil whistled in a certain way, and right when he whistled in another way. It was amazing to watch as it took this dog about 5 minutes to have several hundred sheep going through the open gate to the adjacent pasture.
We then moved on to the pasture with the cattle - Matt has about 150 of them and they are all raised for their beef. Slaughtering time was approaching for many of them so that they would not have to carry them (i.e. feed them) through the winter. They have grown their own feed but don’t have enough for all the cows. Nevil explained that the ranch is self-sufficient - they don’t have to buy feed to sustain the sheep or the cows. None are used for milk. Nevil turned on the water in the water trough in the new pasture - it works exactly like a toilet bowl with the rubber flotation ball at the end of the arm which, when it gets to a certain height of the water, shuts off the source of the water. When the water level in the trough went down to a certain level, the ball would drop and the water supply would come back on, and so on. Nevil told us that the black cattle were Angus; the brown cattle with white faces were Hereford; the reddish cattle were “stabilized cattle,” whatever that means, since I didn’t understand Nevil’s explanation and he is not a man to whom you ask the same question twice; and the black cattle with white faces were a cross between the Angus and Herefords.
Page went to work again herding the cattle to the open gate into the new adjacent pasture, and made quick work of it. Once the cattle entered the new pasture,they all ran to the water trough because, according to Nevil, they mistakenly believe that the water in this water trough will be fresher than the water in the trough in the old pasture. Nevil also explained that cattle and sheep complement each other in how they eat the grass. The cows eat the longer grass, leaving an inch or two of grass, whereas the sheep will only eat the shorter grass, leaving the longer grass. Another benefit of the cows entering an irrigated pasture first is that the worms that will sicken lambs don’t like the moisture and will climb up the taller stalks of grass to get away, and so the cows eat them and they do not get sick from them. By the time the cows have been there awhile, the worms will be gone, making it safer for the sheep.
Shrek
After our farm tour, Jo made several suggestions for the rest of our day, namely to take the white truck and drive down to Tarras for lunch and then continue down Lake Dunstan to Cromwell where we could browse the shops and then eat dinner at Feast, a popular local restaurant. We did all of this plus drive to Bannockburn, a vineyard area of Otago District, and to Clyde where the dam is located that created Lake Dunstan. We also learned about Shrek, a Merino lamb (“New Zealand’s most famous lamb”) who evaded capture at Bendigo Station for 6 years. When they finally captured him, he was sheared on national TV, and his fleece was auctioned off to benefit charity. HIs fleece weighed over 60 pounds and was purportedly enough to make 20 men’s suits.
Oh, by the way, the clouds parted and it was a beautiful day, but the wind came up and was as strong as it has been the past two days. We will try again tomorrow to go to Glenorchy for the jet boat ride.
Love to all and especially to our Maggie who is having her first birthday, Dad, Nat, Matt, DB and Master
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