Black & white lambs. Photo by Adam D. Bearup
We have owned and lived on our own 20-acre piece of paradise for about 10 years now. Throughout the years, we have raised many animals on this farm, including feeder cattle, egg-laying chickens, meat chickens, ducks, hogs, and turkeys. We have always discussed raising lambs and this year, we finally are in a position to be able to do it!
Locating and Transporting Lambs
It took several months to locate lambs to buy in our state. I thought that it would have been easier to locate lambs to buy, and I learned quickly that lambs are not as readily available as I had hoped. I talked to the lady who was selling the lambs and asked for her advice on how we should haul them from their farm to ours. She has seen everything from hauling lambs in dog crates to people putting lambs in the back seat of their cars.
The “lamb lady,” as we now call her, urged us to find a way to haul lambs that would prevent them from jumping out. I immediately thought of the small trailer that we use to haul pigs and other animals to our farm with.
Constructing the ‘Lamb Tractor’
Our thought was to have the lambs live in a “lamb tractor”, which we would move around the pasture each day. We have raised feeder cattle several times, and that means that we have extra cattle panels in our storage barn. These cattle panels are 16 feet long and 50 inches tall and are basically sections of a very sturdy fence that are normally used to close off pastures and make feed lots. I decided to take four of the cattle panels and tie them together with metal ties to form a big square.
This big square would be our lamb tractor. I put a tarp over half of the lamb tractor so that the lambs had a shady place to be during the sunny days. The tarp would also keep the lambs dry when it rained. I used an old horse hay feeder in one corner of the lamb tractor and made sure that I could drag the lamb tractor around without too much effort. With the lamb tractor assembled, it was time to go get the lambs.
Watch the video to see how our adventure goes in picking up the lambs and bringing them back to our farm. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep up to date with my new videos.
Adam D. Bearup is a designer, green builder and farmer, who learned about biodynamic and regenerative farming for a project he built in Northern Michigan, The Earth Shelter Project Michigan. Adam has degrees in marketing and management and a Masters of Science in Green Building. Read all of his MOTHER EARTH NEWS postshere.
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