The Rural Voice, 1987-05, Page 22mai
Ross, Doug, and Judy Miller on their Bentinck Township farm.
concern is the possibility of conta-
gious diseases. "Sheep can pick up
things that you just wouldn't believe
and I'm a prime candidate for bringing
something home," Miller says. For
her own protection and that of her cus-
tomers, she makes a point of disinfect-
ing her tarps and equipment between
flocks. "Customers may sometimes
get offended if I disinfect in their yards,
so I drive down the road a mile, then
disinfect everything." The stables are
cleaned and limed every week.
The threat of dogs attacking a flock
of sheep concerns most sheep farmers,
and Miller is no exception. One mor-
ning last June, she woke up to the
sound of barking dogs at the back of
the farm. Her sheep dog was lying on
the kitchen floor, so she got the gun
and made a beeline through the fields
and bush, running toward the barking.
"The sight that met me when I got
back there just sickened me. One of
my best ewes, her name was Debbie,
was all chewed up. Her throat was
slashed in such a way that you could
see the gullet, the jugular, and the eso-
phagus. The vet stitched her up but
she couldn't eat properly and ended up
dying. I found another ewe on her
back. She was chewed open ..."
Miller heard a dog bark and went
through the bush to shoot it. She
found three lambs on their own and
another three or four ewes on their
back. Once a sheep gets on its back,
it is helpless.
In the end, the dog was shot by
Dianne, Miller's sister-in-law (Miller
was shaking too badly to do the job
herself), and Miller received compen-
sation from the township for the killed
sheep and abortions, but one lamb was
lost in the bush and she did not receive
compensation because she couldn't find
it. "It took me two months before I
could get my sheep back to normal
again, they were so hyper and spooked.
Dogs and I do not get along."
"It's in a dog's nature to want to
chase something," Miller adds. "If
they just killed one, it wouldn't be so
bad. A wolf will kill one and eat it,
usually the smaller and weak one, but
dogs, they just kill for the fun of it.
Once a dog starts killing sheep, that's
it. They'll just keep coming back
until they end up killing them all."
Dog owners, she notes, often don't
realize that their dog has been chasing
sheep because it runs loose at night
and is back at the house by morning.
Raising sheep is a family tradition
on the Miller farm. Ross Miller,
Judy's 79 -year-old father, has been in
the sheep business for many years and
still keeps a flock of Lincoln and
Karacul-cross sheep. The wool from
these breeds, noted for its fleece quali-
ties, is sold to spinners for up to $2 a
pound, considerably more than the 60
cents a pound for wool from Suffolk
and other meat breeds. Ross Miller
shows his sheep at the Royal each year
and received sixth place for his black
wool fleece last year. Judy and Doug
also show at the Royal, where Doug
won reserve champion in the carcass
class for his Southdown sheep.
Judy has been a professional shep-
herd at the Royal for the past 11 years.
She tends as many as 150 sheep for
various exhibitors, sleeping in the
aisle for the two-week show. She
also does custom trimming. "They
have to be trimmed just right to
20 THE RURAL VOICE