There Is Sure To Be A Good Deal Of Rough Scrub And Brushwood
On The Run, Which Is Better Destroyed, And Which Sheep Would Not Touch;
Therefore, For The Ultimate Value Of Your Run, It Is As Well Or Better
That It Should Be Fired Than Fed Off.
The very first work to be done after your arrival will be to make a yard
for your sheep.
Make this large enough to hold five or six times as
many sheep as you possess at first. It may be square in shape. Place
two good large gates at the middle of either of the two opposite sides.
This will be sufficient at first, but, as your flocks increase, a
somewhat more complicated arrangement will be desirable.
The sheep, we will suppose, are to be thoroughly overhauled. You wish,
for some reason, to inspect their case fully yourself, or you must tail
your lambs, in which case every lamb has to be caught, and you will cut
its tail off, and ear-mark it with your own earmark; or, again, you will
see fit to draft out all the lambs that are ready for weaning; or you
may wish to cull the mob, and sell off the worst-woolled sheep; or your
neighbour's sheep may have joined with yours; or for many other reasons
it is necessary that your flock should be closely examined. Without
good yards it is impossible to do this well - they are an essential of
the highest importance.
Select, then, a site as dry and stony as possible (for your sheep will
have to be put into the yard over night), and at daylight in the morning
set to work.
Fill the yard B with sheep from the big yard A. The yard B we will
suppose to hold about 600. Fill C from B: C shall hold about 100.
When the sheep are in that small yard C (which is called the drafting-
yard), you can overhaul them, and your men can catch the lambs and hold
them up to you over the rail of the yard to ear-mark and tail. There
being but 100 sheep in the yard, you can easily run your eye over them.
Should you be drafting out sheep or taking your rams out, let the sheep
which you are taking out be let into the yards D and E. Or, it may be,
you are drafting two different sorts of sheep at once; then there will
be two yards in which to put them. When you have done with the small
mob, let it out into the yard F, taking the tally of the sheep as they
pass through the gate. This gate, therefore, must be a small one, so as
not to admit more than one or two at a time. It would be tedious work
filling the small yard C from the big one A; for in that large space the
sheep will run about, and it will take you some few minutes every time.
From the smaller yard B, however, C will easily be filled.
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