Facilities in a Sheep Farm

In New Zealand, sheep are very valuable commodities. Not only do they provide meat and milk, they also provide wool, which is a material used in clothing, felt, and cushions.

To maintain healthy sheep, farmers usually let them roam around large tracts of their property. Enclosed with a fence, this area is called a paddock. Here, the sheep roam around freely, eating grass. Usually, a sheep farmer also uses his trusted and loyal assistant, a sheep dog, to guide and protect the sheep against predators like foxes or pests. Fresh water is provided through troughs or ponds. In New Zealand, the grass has so much moisture that the sheep do not need that much water.

A sheep farm also has pens and barns. Although they are allowed to freely move around most of the time, sheep need shelter if they are freshly shorn. That is because they are very susceptible to disease and death during windy, wet, or cold weather. They are also placed inside the pens or barns if they are nursing their lambs or when the weather is cold.

The sheep farmer's property may also have a facility called a shearing shed, especially if he also engages in the production, selling, processing, or exportation of wool. A shearing shed is a place where the sheep's thick wool is removed from the animal. During peak times, a shearing shed can process hundreds or even thousands of sheep. Furthermore, the property may also contain a special facility where automated machines extract milk from the sheep. Bigger properties have nurseries where sick or injured sheep are nursed back to health as well.

Finally, after a long day's work, the farmer and his dog retreats back into his house, also nestled inside his large property.