When to be concerned about welfare of neighbouring sheep?

[Lorielus]

Hi,

I was hoping for a bit of advice from anyone who might be a farmer/experience with sheep farming.

Our house is surrounding by fields that are rented out (not by us) to an unknown sheep farmer. While the enivornment is perfect for sheep - grass, streams, trees for shelter/shade, at least two/three of the sheep had/have injured legs for some time and are clearly quite lame in at least one leg and, more recently, a sheep is now dead in the field.

The farmer rarely seems to check on them except to shear them, but I've no idea how often a farmer should check on sheep.

Are two/three lame sheep and a dead sheep in a field containing a flock about fifty/sixty or so just part of sheep life and entirely to be expected, or is that something we should maybe be considering mentioning (being in the UK) to the RSPCA? We don't want to overreact if that's just the reality of sheepdom.

Many thanks!

 

[CluckerFamily]

My first attempt would be to contact the farmer to let him know about the dead sheep.
He may not be aware of a predator in the area.
I am by no means a sheep farmer but I love watching sheep! Farmers in our area tend to have an alpaca or llama with the sheep to protect them.
But I would find that farmer, maybe he is also ill and can't watch the flock like he normally does.

 

[Lorielus]

Thanks a lot - a very fair point that he may be ill (or shielding). I let the people that own the field know who said in turn they'll let the farmer know, so will be interesting to see how responsive he is in collecting the poor sheep.

The sheep itself didn't look like it had external injuries (not that I examined it very closely) - I live in rural scotland so I don't think we really have any natural predators of sheep. I guess a desperate fox might go after a winter lamb but I doubt a fully grown sheep - though again I say that from a place of complete ignorance! I think the most venomous snake we have is the occasional adder (though I've lived in Scotland all my life and never laid eyes on one) so can't imagine it was that either.

 

[RainbowHen]

Thanks a lot - a very fair point that he may be ill (or shielding). I let the people that own the field know who said in turn they'll let the farmer know, so will be interesting to see how responsive he is in collecting the poor sheep.

The sheep itself didn't look like it had external injuries (not that I examined it very closely) - I live in rural scotland so I don't think we really have any natural predators of sheep. I guess a desperate fox might go after a winter lamb but I doubt a fully grown sheep - though again I say that from a place of complete ignorance! I think the most venomous snake we have is the occasional adder (though I've lived in Scotland all my life and never laid eyes on one) so can't imagine it was that either.

I think this is a good plan. I know sheep can roam quite far and it may be difficult to keep an eye on such a number of them. I'm sure the farmer would greatly appreciate the extra eyes on his herd.