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Sheep Heaven
A small holder's guide to raising sheep.
The Small Block Holders Guide to Sheep Farming
Instead of just talking to the experts, the Country Life team is getting its hands dirty and is off buying sheep.
Sheep get a bad rap these days - they're lots of work and the wool's worth nothing. Viewing it from a highly technical view point Susan Murray wants to know if they'll make her scruffy rough paddock around the house look like a nicely mown lawn and will she have lamb to eat for Christmas.
With this in mind, she bought 10, five-year-old romney/finn ewes from a hill country station near Whatawhata in Waikato and is running them on her large lifestyle block near Hamilton.
Collection items
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Sheep Heaven - 1. Meat the Sheep
12 Feb 2010Buying sheep for a small block. How many do you need, where should the yards go, what breed is best and where do you buy them. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 2. Baaad Medicine
5 Mar 2010The sheep are named on Susan Murray's lifestyle block and a vet talks about fobbing off footrot, flystrike and facial eczema. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 3. Science of the Lambs
19 Mar 2010Producing good lambs all comes down to ram breeding and selection. March is the time rams need to go out with the ewes in the North Island so Sheep Heaven goes to Bill and Sue Garland's property to… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 4. Makin' Woolly
2 Apr 2010William the ram has met up with most of the ewes and stirred a childhood memory for Susan Murray. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 5. Yard Opening
21 May 2010Dignitories gather at the property where Kim, Kathryn, Carol, Carla, Eva, Susan, Maggie, Nicola, Mary and Lynn live, to formally open the yards and talk about the science of sheep pregnancy. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 6. Counting Your Lambs
25 Jun 2010Sheep scanner Karl Williams tells Country Life the alarming news about possible lamb numbers come August. They discuss why scanning helps ewe management. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 7. Baaabies
23 Jul 2010Resident vet Caroline Hamilton talks about caring for just-born lambs: warm baths, warm colostrum and helping slow-to-lamb ewes, glucose supplements and mothering on twins. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 8. Shorn
30 Jul 2010Gun shearer Edsel Forde removes the fleece from the 10 ewes. His business gets busier each year but he still sneeks time shearing in Sardinia. Over there he reckons he works for five hours a day, and… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 9. Sell the Wool
13 Aug 2010Susan Murray's off to sell the wool from her ten sheep. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 10. Farming Triplets
20 Aug 2010Sheep farmers need to find a way of increasing their lambing percentages to stay in business, however introducing high fertility breeds comes with management issues. About a third of Edward Dinger's… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 11. The Vet Arrives
27 Aug 2010Our lifestyle block at Susan Murray's place now has nine ewes (one died) and 18 lambs. However it's not all been plain sailing. The vet was called on Tuesday. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 12. Autopsy
24 Sep 2010Just before lambing, one seemingly healthy ewe at Sheep Heaven was found with four feet in the air. An autopsy was performed. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 13. Docking
1 Oct 2010There are a good number of lambs ready for the rubber ring. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 14. Offspring Sale
10 Dec 2010The end of the year is here and it's time to rid the lifestyle block of ram lambs and old ewes. Prices at the Frankton market have been firm, will it stay that way for Sheep Heaven's visit. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 15. Killing the Fatted Ram
11 Feb 2011Sheep Heaven is calling in the home kill butcher because the young rams may need removing from the flock. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 16. The naming of a flock
22 Apr 2011Sheep Heaven is back with a new young ram to mate the flock of 12 ewe lambs. These young girls also get named and apparently there's some link between them and the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic netball… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 17. Netball Competition
13 May 2011The 12 ewe hoggets, named after the BOP Magic Netball team, have been hand dagged in preparation for Sunday's big ANZ Netball championship clash between the BOP Magic and Northern Mystics at Mystery… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 18. How Good is the Wool?
15 Jul 2011A sample of wool from Arahi, one of the ewe hoggets gets taken to the National Agricultural Fieldays to test its quality. There's a new fancy machine which comes up with lots of useful measurements. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 19. Off with the Wool
22 Jul 2011Dr Clive Dalton hand clips Arahi the ewe hogget. How many beanies will her two and a half kilo fleece make? The lovely looking wool is off to Kane Carding in Wairarapa and will be spun and knitted by… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 20. Wool Cheque
29 Jul 2011Sheep Heaven has more wool to sell. Some from the just shorn hoggets, and some lambs wool held from last spring. With basically a doubling in wool prices since January, will the wool cheque cover the… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 21: Beanies
16 Sep 2011Wool from one of Sheep Heaven's hoggets, Arahi, has been turned into superior quality, highly desirable, cream coloured beanies. Lilly Gable spun the wool, Sylvia Sealey knitted it. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 22. Third lambing season
27 Jul 2012The flock of sheep Country Life is running on a lifestyle block is about to start its third lambing season. The flock's named after the Magic netball team and they were mated to a texel ram. Next… Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 23. Regrassing
12 Apr 2013The persistence of the pasture at Sheep Heaven, the lifestyle block sheep farm, isn't great so regrassing is the name of the game. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 24. Plant species for lamb growth
24 May 2013Brett Te Whare discusses plantain and chicory as species to use for lamb growth. Audio
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Sheep Heaven - 25: At the Frankton sale
Sheep Heaven is a lifestyle block near Hamilton. Four years ago a foundation flock of ten ewes was purchased and over time the ups and downs of farming them and their off spring have been reported… Audio
Galleries
Toolbox
- Shears
- Hoof clippers
- Ear tags
- Maggot fly product
- Aerosol antibiotic/antiseptic
- Eczema zinc bullets
- Spare battens and staples
- Raddle
- Ram harness
- Glucose for sleepy sick pregnant ewes
- 5 in 1 vaccine for ewes
- Lamb reviver tube
- Crook
- Frozen cows’ colostrum
- Wool pack