Last week, Alan and Paul (or the Newport Shepherds) visited our school. This was a really interesting visit as we got the opportunity to learn about the life of a sheep farmer in addition to seeing their sheepdogs, Birch and Mango, at work. Birch is a border collie while Mango is a bearded collie. Both dogs could instantly respond to the four commands (or whistles) used for gathering sheep. Paul and Alan told us about different breeds of sheep and they showed us samples of different sheep’s wool including Mayo Blackface, Soay, Hebridean and Herdwick. They told us that sheep’s wool contains lanolin which helps to protect the sheep from cold and moisture. Unfortunately, sheep’s wool is not that valuable today as so many of our clothes are manufactured from synthetic material. Paul and Alan showed us the teeth of two of the sheep. We learned that sheep have no upper teeth as they are ruminants and that a sheep grows two teeth every year but as it gets older, teeth get longer before then falling out, hence the saying ‘long in the tooth‘. They also showed us sheep’s hoofs and we learned that sheep can get footrot, a painful condition between their hoofs. We also learned about the rapid growth of lambs. Paul and Alan reminded us that collies are working dogs that need an active life and that despite all the technological advancements, there is still no substitute for a dog. Our session concluded with a demonstration on how to safely approach a dog. We really did enjoy this visit and it was fun sharing our farming knowledge with Paul and Alan.
