Monday on Marama Farm

For all you lazy people, headed to bed on Sunday night, I just finished a long day on the farm this Monday. Don't know if it will inspire you to quite your desk job, but thought a typical day might be of interest.

6:30 AM - Alarm goes off. I hit snooze
7:00 AM - out of bed. Getting ready by putting on the dirtiest clothes. Once clothes are clean, I'm really reluctant to get them dirty again . . .
7:30 AM - Muesli for breakfast. And some of the pumpkin bread I made last night. The farmer swears by muesli, but what I really want is some toast. No one in NZ seems to have a working toaster . . .
8:00 AM - Graham Clarke (the owner of my current WWOOF farm) comes in from shifting some sheep, and lets me know that a tailing crew is here, and they're out in the north sheep yards.
8:30 AM - Arrive at the sheep yards, a bunch of seemingly randomly placed runs and small yards that actually work quite well to get ~1,000 sheep and lambs sorted and moving. I introduce myself to the 5 person crew, and jump in.

Tailing Apparatus

Tailing in case anyone ever asks . . .

Sort the lambs from the ewes using a drafting gate (I'm not allowed on this part, I mostly just try to keep out of the way). When 200 lambs are stuffed into a 15 foot square pen, bleating horribly, we're ready to start. I've got a plastic jug of seaweed juice on my back with a long nozzle I shove down the lamb's throats and give them a squirt. It's an organic farm, so no antibiotics/worming agents in this mixture. Another girl holds some ear markers, for ripping two triangles out of the lamb's ears as the farmers mark. The older woman holds the tools for rubber banding the balls of the males, an older man will be doing the same to the tails, and two young guys shove their way into the lambing pen to start hefting lambs onto the slide. We throw them in on their backs, and tug them through each station by the legs.

Blood spatters everywhere from the ear punch, and the lambs fling manure around when they kick their hooves. Some lie quietly, and the disease fee ones have glistening off-white coats. They'll sometimes make eye contact, and others bleat horribly.


Lambs to the Slaughter

9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
We work the assembly line for about and hour and a half, then pack up the fences and gates, and move to another pasture. After eight hours, I'm covered in shit, have blood spatters everywhere (including my glasses), and have an aching hand from tugging down the lambs all day. Heavy little buggers.











Bruce taking a brief rest

4:30 PM - Then off on the quad bike (I do like roaring around on these things, but drive like an old woman after all the stories about the thing slipping over on steep slopes) to shift some more sheep in preparation for tomorrow. Since I don't feel comfortable on the steep slopes, a lot of walking around and waving my arms up and down, sometimes yelling random words or syllables to move the sheep through the far gate.

All in all, just the day I was looking for. Was going to tell the farmer I was leaving early if i didn't get more work/time with the animals, but this was perfect, in a painful and disgusting type of way. Ah, farm life.