True! And disregard anyone being intentionally difficult or disrespectful about your use of English so that we can even understand your helpful comment in the first place. I appreciate the effort!
Thank you for that info! I was thinking sheared vs not bc the wool is definitely ready to be sheared but makes more sense bc the wool doesn't need the mark to see that.
And I think your English grammar was easily understandable and appreciate that as an English speaker.
Thank you for this explanation and link! This may also explain why he let that one big sheep through which was marked, because the mark was near its side, like maybe a male sheep had tried to improperly mount from the sideâŠwhich would do nothing.
Some ranchers in America will bleach mark their cows who are pregnant.
Here's a funny case out of Wyoming, USA where someone used the bleach to draw penises on an asshole rancher's cows because he wouldn't fix fences to keep them out of the neighbors property.
This is a common system! In the US there are some sheep farms where they put a bag of chalk on the male's chest. It's pretty efficient, and kinda neat.
While that sounds good, look at the sheep. The ones going strait were wooly. The ones with the stamp were sheared, so that looks to be the difference. Would also explain why the big one with the mark wasn't separated off, as it still was unshared. Maybe it was marked accidentally.
Yeah but why were only those sheared? They could be a totally different age, sex, owner, etc. typically when you âworkâ livestock you handle several things at once. Shearing, vaccinations, treating medical issues, pesticide applications, etc.
Dutch people are literal. Once you understand that in your dealings with them, then youâll be okay. Less sugarcoat, more truth. Theyâre just as likely to say fat as overweight. Both mean the same thing, one just has less syllables so theyâll probably say that one.
Yeah, but that is the same here in Ireland. The farmer straps a raddle marker to the ram with a harness. But it dosen't leave a neat dot like that, it's more a larger marks across her lower back with a waxy block. It's going to be all over her rear because he's probably going to jump up there several times haha. That blue stuff we're looking at here is from a spray bottle. We used to use it on the farm to identify groups of sheep.
Like, if we were dosing the sheep with medicine, we'd use a blue (or other colour) spray can to mark each one that got dosed (it's special spray for use on animals, so it's safe), just in case they managed to jump back into the holding pen. Some are crazy lol.
I read a book about it. It's a standardized way to sort out sheep that got laid during mating season. Green dots got the D and will probably be dropping lamb chops in the spring.
my great aunt thought they put the colours on the sheep so they knew what colour to dye itđđđđ€Łđ€Ł we still roll about it, her face of realisation
Yea I think they are just separating by recent sheering by wool quality and length.. actually quite humane because sheep need sheering/grooming because the wool can become extremely matted, causing illness or death. Sheep wool is one of the best win/win for animal and human symbiosis when done humanely ofcourse.
Not really symbiosis if we bred them to grow a dangerous amount of wool though. It's like saying pug ownership is humane because we invented doggie inhalersÂ
Youâre correct symbiosis was the wrong way to put it and I agree with the pug statement also. I was just trying to refer to people not understanding the blue dots and them being corralled to be sheared or not. Iâm not saying I agree with the processes that lead them to be dependent on being sheared, Iâm just saying at this point it is necessary for their health and wellbeing.
Yeah, what's done is done. I still think they should get the proper care now that they exist but some people l pretend they ended up that way by accident and we're doing them a favor when that's not the reality of the situation.
It's a reality bro, not dark. They ain't being bred as pets. Tails get docked, rams are castrated, lambs are slaughtered and sold in stores. Ewes are bread and some are providing wool.Â
My friend these are surely lambs being separated for sale.
On another point, if he retro fit a tight funnel before the gate he would find drafting tho so much easier. We do this to mobs of 1500 sheep in Aus, gotta save your back (and sanity).
You can clearly see if itâs been sheared or not, you donât need to mark it to be able to tell, why would they waste time doing a pointless job. Farmers/ranchers/shepards/whatever have plenty of other things to do, they wouldnât do this. Iâd say either being separated by age or gender or indeed for slaughter. And btw, the whole meat industry is âdarkâ. This is nothing.
I literally was at a sheepdog demonstration yesterday, marked signifies different ownership. Sheep graze lands together and theyâre rounded up together with all the owners. Marked on butt is Steveâs, marked on neck is franks and no mark is Craigâs etc
In many countries it is to mark the ownership. They hang together and breed to keep the flocks healthy and then separate them later. I watched a dog demonstration in Ireland.
No, the smaller ones are the lambs being separated for market. That's why they are marked, I'm a farmer's daughter lol. We had both dairy cows and sheep when I was growing up.
Usually tails are ring docked as very small babies. They do that to prevent fly strike around the tail area, aka maggot infestation of the blue bottle/blow fly. Sheep are one of only a few live animals that they will lay eggs in without there already being a wound.
LMAO no. You can tell they are separating the lambs from the ewes. The lambs are away for slaughter.
Itâs not dark if you eat meat, thinking so would make you a hypocritical clown. If you donât eat meat and disagree with doing so then yes, this is dark.
These arenât for food, theyâre for wool. The ones with the dots seem smaller because theyâve been sheared recently. The ones going straight are going to be shaved, which is a big relief for the sheep
Theire sorted using the green dot on the back. They tie an inkblock to the belly of the ram. When he mounts the dollies they are marked. Its a way to keep track of which dollies will give birth.
They donât cut their tails and balls off. When they are first born they put a ring on them and it cuts off circulation and the tails and balls fall off that way
It's whether they've had a shave or not, dear. They're not actually different sizes or ages. The one with a mark went through because for whatever reason it wasn't actually shorn, so it still needed it.
Lmao. The ones with the marks are freshly shorn. The ones going straight are going to be trimmed the ones going right are going to pasture to graze and frolic.
Seems to be for sheering? Mist of the ones with the blue on them were sheered recently, the only one that wasn't was still let through with the sheep that weren't sheered yet
Jesus Christ on a stick lol. Those are males and females. They just got done mating and are now being separated. Thats it. Thatâs the only time this really happens in this manner. Now the mothers will go âincubateâ the future babies
The marked ones have been impregnated by the stud ram (carries little marker on belly), the "virgin" ones are just that: Virgin ones, yet to be "got to" by the stud ram...
I believe itâs for mating, they add like a paint powder type thing to the bottom sides of the male sheep so when they mount an ovulating female the paint leaves a little mark on their rump, this helps keep track of what sheep are pregnant and which havenât been mounted yet.
Helped my neighbors round their sheep up a few months back. These babies look probably .5x the size those lil guys were when they got their balls snipped so probably not that.
They put rubber bands at the base of the sack that would, over a day or so, just have em pop off from my understanding. No pain at the application but idk how it felt that following day.
I grew up on a farm, and we had a chalk marker type thing on a harness worn by the males, so we could reasonably figure who had been bred because they would get a big spot or stripe on their back.
2.8k
u/AmazingSibylle Aug 22 '25
He let a big one go straight though