It's a hot day in the yards as Oxford farmers Alistair and Genna Bird start the pre-summer task of crutching a mob of woolly sheep.
Ewes huddle together while some of their lambs find shade under a small tree in a pen.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
In the rush to get the kids to school Genna has forgotten the sun cream.
"It doesn't normally worry Alistair but I've got a bit more Irish blood in me I think!"
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Genna guides the sheep into a narrow race that leads up to a compressed air sheep handler that holds them steady.
The handler, known as the Te Pari 'Racewell'. was designed by a member of the Fagan family, renowned for their shearing prowess.
The sheep handler clanks loudly when a steel gate opens and shuts as an animal enters.
Some ewes have second thoughts and want to go back down the race.
This puts Genna between the large, jumpy girls and the pen behind her.
"If they see a sheep on the other side they'll do a U-turn and if you're standing there they don't care. One of them bowled me over just before!" she says.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Alistair uses a shearing handpiece to trim the wool around the tail and between the rear legs of the sheep.
This is where dags form when loose faeces sticks to the wool.
"Now it's a bit warmer the dags on the ewes attract flies and of course flies lay eggs and eggs turn into maggots, that's how they get flystrike," he says.
After hatching, the maggots bury themselves in the sheep's wool and eventually under the sheep's skin, feeding off their flesh.
"So you just clean them up, take all the dags off and that will stop the flies from hanging around."
Removing the daggy wool on a sheep only takes Alistair a few seconds, then he flicks a button and they're released into a paddock.
"So once they are all crutched they'll get on a truck in the next month or so and then get shorn at the home farm, as there's no woolshed down here."
Here is a link to Alistair's Kiwi Farmer YouTube channel.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
