"James Bond, The Ram, And Other Livestock Love Stories"
WRITTEN BY GWEN CARR
The intimate relationships between farm animals are much more intense and interesting than I could have imagined as a person raised in the suburbs with only pets. Dramatic romances, (albeit not monogamous), family dynasties, and intense mother love are all demonstrated by animals allowed to live as families.
CHAPTER 1, JAMES BOND
James Bond, the ram with the #007 ear tag, was a strong, white East Friesian and Hampshire/Suffolk cross. We had moved the ten or so rams to a separate area a full mile and a half or so from the ewes in the flock to control the timing of the next year’s lamb crop. They had an outbuilding and area in a nearby orchard, fenced in with 52” cattle panels, which sheep seldom can jump over. The larger ewe flock was at what we call the “Kempton Farm,” also fenced in by a waterway with similar panels and electric fence.
One morning when we went to check on the rams, they had entirely disappeared. Every one was missing. Their tracks lead into a neighbor’s cornfield. We had no more clues as to where they had gone. Fortunately, we weren’t to wonder long, a visit to the ewes revealed their destination. The sense of smell, so finely honed towards reproduction had led the males directly to the ewes in estrus…some of the smaller rams were milling around outside the fence. James Bond had hurdled the second fence and was wiggling his upper lip in flehmen, a ram’s way of taking in as much scent as he can by curling back his upper lip and inhales through his mouth. He scouted many available females, and many (over a hundred!) of his offspring were born early the next lambing season.
CHAPTER 2, MERCEDES
One of our first sheep, part of a group of obstetrical culls from a farm specializing in 4H show animals we named Mercedes. Mercedes immediately showed superior wisdom and leadership among the small flock of ten. A mainly Suffolk breed ewe, with a tendency toward producing triplets, Mercedes had quite a few viable daughters who were among the mainstay of the early Mint Creek Farm flock. An older ewe, her milk producing capacity often didn’t quite keep up with her multiple lambs, so we learned our bucket feeding skills on her babies. Her last pregnancy ended in painful peritonitis, before she died she walked around the barn, one last time and touched noses with her daughters.
My daughter, Raya, as a young girl, watched the sheep families and seemed to effortlessly remember who were mother and daughters, and sisters. She observed (now confirmed by animal behaviorists) that these family groups graze together, and called them “grazing partners.” This was very obvious when we bought a group of Barbados black bellied sheep, this different looking group held themselves apart, grazed and bedded down together and even ran as a group when they escaped. (Don’t worry we eventually got them in.) The Barbados were also excellent mothers.
Ewes in general are some of the most motherly creatures imaginable. Although the younger mothers, still really ewe lambs, may behave like clueless teenage mothers, for the most part ewes love their baby lambs and will do anything they can for them. The ewes are very specific that their lambs, are their lambs and they decide who is who by smell. Motherliness includes licking their newborn clean of amniotic fluid, nudging the baby up to nurse and pushing away random older lambs who decide they want to nurse.
A ewe may even stomp at a human intruder, whom she deems a threat to her newborn.
(This is not a perfect system and can be rigged to suit the shepherd.) The ewe has a special love song for her lamb, a gargling, mooing sort of sound that is unique. When she makes that sound her lambs look for her. Experienced ewes are devastated when they loose their baby lambs to miscarriage or other problem. They mope and howl and sometimes even eat less for a few days, until the hormonal cascade dissipates.
Raising our sheep on pasture enables them to relate socially, in kinship and love, choosing their own cohorts. Living more naturally gives them opportunity to form bonds and have a kind of fulfillment. This is another way that Mint Creek Farm is a farm with heart.