Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Sheep World

I'm standing or just about standing in the Pacific Ocean. Click on pictures for larger view.

Some of the lambs at Sheep World. Yes it sounds a little kitschy but it was a very interesting place.

This is the seeing dog bringing in the sheep. He stares that sheep down and gets the sheep nervous. When the sheep get nervous they form into groups. The dog can then drive them back into the pen. The dog does this without ever barking.

The dog will continue to drive the sheep to where ever the herder is. So the herder needs to be on the ball at all times and aware of where he is.

Again the seeing dog is herding the sheep. His job is now done. Now another dog takes over and he barks and makes the sheep scared and by that means moves them into smaller pens so they can be shorn.

Shearing the sheep. The fastest time for shearing a ship was 32 seconds. Usually it takes a couple of minutes. The shearer will work 8 hours. You do the math on the number of sheared sheep in a day.

There are two types of wool on a sheep. Essentially the good wool which will go into clothing and the bad wool which will be used in other products life insullation or to make felt. This sheep was not all the cooperative. It took awhile to shear this one.

The dinner bell has rung.

Boy could these guys drain a bottle. All of these are orphans that Sheep World has received from farmers around the area.

Once they were finsihed with the bottle you had to stop feeding them or they'd get air in the stomaches.

They're still looking for a bottle but this one settled for this kid.

Still looking.

These next shots are around the town of Orewa and on our way back to Auckland.


No comments: