Diary of a Dairy Shepherdess

Diary of a Dairy Shepherdess šŸ‘ Breeder of high quality, coloured dairy sheep šŸ‘

13/08/2026

My ever so trusted helper.
Dotti is a champion in her field.
Not many commands needed. Her instincts tell her what to do and what she does is fantastic.
I just love this dog!šŸ„°

This yearā€™s line-up for the main mob.(I forgot to take a photo of Lotta, first freshener - due 24 September) Only 2 1/2 ...
12/08/2026

This yearā€™s line-up for the main mob.
(I forgot to take a photo of Lotta, first freshener - due 24 September)

Only 2 1/2 more weeks to go and then there will be a whole week of sleepless nights, with a short break and another week of sleepless nightsšŸ˜†

This year will be the last year until probably 2029 with focus on dairy offspring. We do have enough great stock for the time being to build from that. Weā€˜ll probably breed 2 or 3 to one of our dairy rams next year but there are bigger plans for the rest. There will be strict selection criteria for who will stay and who has go as the numbers just keep on going up rather than staying steady, let alone decline. Other sheep ā€žcollectorsā€œ probably can relate when I say, it is soo difficult to let sheep go. They are all great these days and each one of them makes their own important contribution to the overall improvement of the flock. But yes, quite a few will be off to loving, new homes and for the rest there are exciting plans.

We will be dedicating the next two seasons to focus on improving the fibre quality of the flock in order to improve our wool even further and achieve high quality coloured wool for spinning, weaving and crafting.
More exciting news to come very soon!!

She is such a cutie!Trying to find a name for her that starts with RšŸ¤”Edit: The winner is Rosa šŸŒ¹
11/08/2026

She is such a cutie!

Trying to find a name for her that starts with RšŸ¤”

Edit: The winner is Rosa šŸŒ¹

The lambs are old enough to go on adventures outside.So far they preferred to stay and sleep in the barn and as a conseq...
11/08/2026

The lambs are old enough to go on adventures outside.
So far they preferred to stay and sleep in the barn and as a consequence their mums stayed with them and didnā€™t want to go outside to graze.
They had enough silage and lucerne but when the sun came out yesterday I decided it was time to gently kick them all out of the barn to enjoy the beautiful weather. And enjoying they did.
There was a lot of happy bouncing and joyful nudgingšŸ’›

I had a very shocking conversation on messenger today.Someone texted me and asked politely if I could do a lambing assis...
09/08/2026

I had a very shocking conversation on messenger today.

Someone texted me and asked politely if I could do a lambing assistance video.
I might be naive and assumed the person was genuinely interested in learning about lambing and how to help their ewes if they are in trouble and so I texted back that that was a fantastic idea and if they had particular questions, thinking that an educational video might help other beginners too.

My reply is above in the photos and then they got bold and suggested above and added two photos of women CLEARLY and genuinely assisting ewes.
But with the description of what that person was asking for it proved that they saw it from a different perspective.
I immediately blocked and reported that person and feel very stupid to have fallen for that but I also think other shepherds and shepherdesses should know that sickos like these are out there and abuse and exploit innocent animals. And they might go off on photos or videos that we post, innocently, thinking it helps others.

Things like that should not stop us genuine people to try and help each other but we might have to find ways to go about it that donā€™t feed into pervertsā€˜ desires.

Please share so others are made aware too.

08/08/2026

Roxyā€™s lambs overslept when the rest of the group left the shearing shed to graze outside.
They werenā€™t too fussed when I came in to clean up and I thought Iā€™d sit a bit with them.
Both were quite curious & just so cutešŸ’›

Bought this 36 litre pot second hand.It looks to be a plant pot originally but it holds water and it is not lined with a...
05/08/2026

Bought this 36 litre pot second hand.
It looks to be a plant pot originally but it holds water and it is not lined with anything so I figured itā€™s good enough to give it a try and up my cheese game this season.
Looking forward to learning how it behaves and interacts with the sheep milkšŸ˜‡
Abd if it doesnā€™t work Iā€™ll get the family in Austria to send me a proper one over from Europe.

Who else is making their cheese in copper pots?

Now that was unexpectedā€¦Freckles has had triplets the last two lambings with a one year break in between to ensure she h...
03/08/2026

Now that was unexpectedā€¦
Freckles has had triplets the last two lambings with a one year break in between to ensure she had recovered from the first lot.
She was in really good condition when I put the ram in with the ewes and must have dropped a ton of eggsšŸ˜…

She had shown signs that she was going to lamb last night but didnā€™t actually start pushing until 1am in the morning.
I watched her on the camera and when she started lying down for pushing I went to the barn to be present as I did expect another set of triplets.
After 15 mins of pushing a tail popped out and I knew I had to glove up.
Tied Freckles up and pushed the bum back in to reposition the legs. It took half a minute to get everything sorted and then the lambs easily came out, back legs first.
Unfortunately it had already passed. I tried to revive it but I was too late.
I let Freckles lick the dead lamb and went to fish for the next one.
Out came a gorgeous black ram lamb and after that a big white ewe lamb. It had myconium all over it, indicating that it had been distressed from the drawn-out birth and her sister blocking the birth canal.

I thought that would be it and let Freckles clean up her lambs.
After a few minutes Freckles started to push again and out came another, tiny black ewe lamb.

All three lambs were very lively and tried finding the teats straightaway.
I stripped some colostrum from Freckles - fortunately as it there were clumps in there which would have blocked up the teats and the smaller lambs would have most likely not been able to suck them out. Even with two hands it took a bit of working and squeezing until clump-free colostrum came through.
I gave the super thick colostrum in a bottle to each of the lambs to guarantee their first drink.
Two had already figured out the drinking on mum when I left the barn at 3am.

I am slightly exhausted and I am sure so is FrecklesšŸ„“
I am thinking about pulling the big white ewe lamb to ensure everyoneā€˜s wellbeing - mumā€˜s and lambsā€˜.
Those who have expressed in raising a bottle ewe lamb please get in touch, if you are still keen.

02/08/2026

Sweet Rosie kicked off the season with a white ram and a black ewe lamb.

Now I understand why I have missed all of Rosieā€˜s births so far.
I was watching her on the camera from the comfort of my bed and when I noticed she was getting close I got up to get dressed.
Coincidentally it was my usual time to get up and make lunch for my daughter anyway, so I quickly made it and off I went to the barn. It was about 20mins between getting up and walking through the barn door and by the time I arrived Rosie had already given birth to the boy.
While she was standing there, licking him dry she quickly squirted down and pushed out the girlšŸ˜³

I now also understand why one of the lambs two years ago had died after birth.
It must have been a similar situation, with the first one already born and the second basically falling out without Rosie really noticing.
There was a lot of mucus-y birth fluids that came with the second lamb today and I had to step in and free itā€™s face from it or it would have suffocated.
Assuming thatā€™s what killed that other lamb as I had missed the births.

Itā€™s a fine line between letting nature do its thing and helping out too much but I prefer the latter. My lamb survival rates are high and while some might say I might be breeding sheep that depend too much on the shepherd and wouldnā€™t survive by themselves - well, they already depend on us to shear them. I am happy to go the extra mile and not have unnecessary losses.

Hereā€™s to lambing 2026! Only 19 more to gošŸ¤¦šŸ½ā€ā™€ļø

Finished the barn clean-up just in time to tuck the three ewes in that are due within the next few days.Now we waitā€¦ ...
01/08/2026

Finished the barn clean-up just in time to tuck the three ewes in that are due within the next few days.

Now we waitā€¦

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