Sheep Handling - 10 Quick Tips To Proper Sheep Management
Sheep Handling - 10 Quick Tips To Proper Sheep Management
Although sheep breeding has the potential to give back lucrative earnings, you need to be ready to invest your time and effort before you can start enjoying the rewards. Since sheep handling is considered to be one of the more complicated tasks that you need to deal with, it's important that you do your research early on so that you'll know just what to do once you get there. You need to treat sheep different from other animals as these creatures are known to have a mind of their own. Do you want to know more on the proper sheep handling guidelines? Then here are 10 tips that you shouldn't miss out on.
1) When herding sheep, always make sure to lead them along a clear path. This is because sheep respond poorly to barriers.
2) Allow your sheep to roam in open spaces. This way, they'll be able to get all the exercise they need.
3) Make sure that your woolshed has no dead ends. Place mirrors where you feel it's necessary to keep the sheep from getting agitated.
4) Another useful sheep handling tip is to hide dead ends is to use sheep decoys.
5) If you plan to keep your sheep in pens, you need to make sure to board it up so that the sheep don't realize that they're locked it get distracted by the outside world.
6) Sheep hate bright lights so it's important that you take the necessary steps to prevent windows from giving off glare.
7) You should also make sure that light doesn't pass through under gratings. Keep woolshed doors boarded so that light won't be able to pass through easily.
8) Sheep will easily panic when made to walk on slippery surfaces. So if you want to transport them while keeping their stress levels low, it's important that you pad the floors with a lining that will give them some grip.
9) Since sheep can easily get used to the noise and signals that you may use to prod them to move, you need to change your sheep handling techniques every once in a while. This will prevent them from getting too comfortable with you or ignoring your calls.
10) Sheep have great memories so if you have to subject them to unpleasant activities such as tagging or shearing, try not to do it at the same place 3 times in a row. Mix it up so that they won't be able to anticipate what's coming up next.