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Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Larry
2006-05-27 03:23:16

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while showing
me around. They are indispensible, and the farmer's job would be almost
impossible without them. Any given farm might contain dozens of fenced
paddocks (fields), and it's the job of the sheepdog to herd and corral the
sheep from one area to another. On the day I visited, Graham discovered
that many of the gates separating the various paddocks had been left open --
one of the worst things that can happen on a sheep farm. He suspected some
young kids passing through his place to go fishing had just left the gates
open, and was upset as hell about it -- with good reason. I spent the next
four hours with him crossing the entire farm in his jeep, trying to recover
all the sheep that had wandered to the far corners of the farm. Graham
would have an even larger job the next day, when he'd have to go and
separate the sheep again, once they've all been found (the lambs are kept
apart from the ewes, and given the best grazing areas, since the ewes will
eat practically anything). With almost every gate left open, the sheep were
now inter-mixed, and wandering off to places they shouldn't be.
Graham and I spent four hours driving over the farm's hilly terrain in
his jeep, looking for sheep, and sending out the sheepdogs to help when some
were found. The dogs rode in back, and when sheep were spotted, Graham
would get out and have the dogs corral them from one fenced paddock to
another. It was uncanny the way the dogs understood Graham's commands.
He'd call them by name, and the appropriate one would repond. He'd yell
"Come around!" and the dogs would get behind the sheep. A different
command, and the dogs would catch some wandering sheep off by themselves,
and yet another command would have the dogs corral the entire herd of sheep.
When the sheep were heading in the right direction, Graham ...

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