Two Sheep Dead
I went up to talk to the sheep today, as I had been paying more attention to the cows lately. I have been up the hill and checked the troughs every day, but I hadn't stayed for a 'chat' and a head count. This afternoon there were two missing, so I started walking over the paddock to find them. I found them all right, in pieces. The rest of the poor sheep had been in the same paddock for possibly days and been in danger of further attack. Russell and I had gone for a walk last weekend and counted them then, so they were killed over the last week. I moved the rest of the sheep down to the 'Triangle Paddock' next to the shed and then with a list of names in my hand I went through a process of elimination and I think the two dead sheep are Pinky and her daughter Little Pinky. I could tell that one was younger and had a red tag, but I couldn't find the tag of the other one and couldn't tell how large it had once been. Russell will bring his rifle up next weekend that we are here and try and get rid of some foxes for me. I was worried about doing that before but now it's different, I've lost two very good sheep that shouldn't have died (plus 'Cross' about six months ago from the same paddock). Now I have 18 sheep and one ram (soon to be sold). Three of these sheep are wethers but also some are non-productive. There are possibly 11 potentially productive ewes, including some lambs from last season. This loss brings the numbers right down.