Last Saturday I went with Chiara to pick up a young ram in Carlow. I got him at a good price from a breeder of Lacaune who also makes cheese. Well, the little fella was very well behaved and pretty chilled out during the long trip back and he also seemed to adapt to his new place. I had put him where the sheep were first. Then the poor thing had a close encounter with the dogs and got pretty scared. The day after, as soon as he saw Peps, he took off and jumped like a wild animal the 5ft fence and took for the hill. Off he was. Gone, never to be seen in the next 2 days and nights. We went around the whole place and spoke to neighbors etc etc. Then this morning I spotted him on top of the hill above the stable, he was looking at me. I locked the dogs and went up with a bucket and some feed. Although he came closer, he never followed me. So I got back and got the sheep in the upper field and he of course came down because he couldn't resist the appeal of those sexy sheep :) and after some introductions he was in the fence with them. At night he came back with them and slept with them. Tonight I managed somehow to put him into his dedicated space in the big stable. He's a lively fella and he doesn't like to be alone...
In the meantime we also had another two lambs, one female and one male, which brings the total to 2 females and 2 males so far.
The Lacaune is a french dairy breed that is more similar to a Mediterranean one. Their production is smaller but the milk is richer. It is closer to the type of sheep we're looking for, low maintenance, smaller and with better milk. I'm very curious to see how the F1 crosses will perform.
Enjoy the pics
Love seeing your flock getting larger and larger. It just keeps sounding like a paradise over there and I can't wait to see the first cheeses being made. Maybe we can bring the wine and bread.
ReplyDelete