A Sheep's Eye View of Breakfast

Here's the routine. First they rush us through a little door down to the milking pen. It's a bit of a tussle sometimes to find a place to eat, but there's a place for each of us. Last sheep in gets the position furthest from the entrance, but closest to the exit.

They've got little bowls set out for us. Breakfast is a handful of  flavor pellets, some corn, some miscellaneous grains. Not a whole lot, but tasty - in that sort of "designed for maximum hunger response" sort of way.

While we're eating the stocks come down. May as well give in and enjoy what comes next.

The shepherds, pretty upbeat guys. And do I mean guys. Big lusty men.

They walk on down the line and attach milking claws with four little teat cups to our udders. It's a little odd. Not like having a baby lamb attached. But it's not so bad. You get used to it.

They time the milking pretty well to last as long as the meagre serving of food we get.  By the time we're done eating, we're fairly well drained of milk. The stocks come up and they herd us outside.

We're pretty free then to wander - within limits, that is - around and graze. The grazing - that's lunch and dinner. They got some big white dogs - friendly, like the shepherds - to keep us in line.

And it's off to work!