Blackbelly Corral Routine (formerly "How to Train Your Blackbelly")

Описание: Old corralling routine for our American Blackbelly ewes.

Blackbelly are more skittish than other breeds of sheep, which can make hands-on management a little more challenging. Even though ABB are pretty self-sufficient, making hands-on work rarely necessary, it makes life a lot easier if you can develop an efficient and low-stress handling practice.

None of these ewes would come within 10ft of a human when I first got them (even with a feed bucket). However, like most livestock, AB are highly food motivated and thus trainable with a little bit of grain. Once they learned what was in the bucket, I could get them to follow me around the pasture, and I used that to work this routine with them on an almost daily basis for a few weeks. Other than training or occasional hands-on management, our sheep’s diet is entirely pasture...making them even more pliable when the feed bucket comes out.

Hands-on management used to be an exhausting and stressful process for both me and the sheep (involved a shepherd's crook and a lot of chasing), but with this routine and handling system it takes a fraction of the time and energy. It took a few years for us to sell enough sheep to invest in a system like this, but was ABSOLUTELY worth the money. Since shooting this video we've upgraded the system with a larger sweep, a longer chute, a 2-way sort gate, a holding pen, and a weigh station. I highly recommend something similar if you’re going to breed sheep.