Oh Mercer!

Poor Mercer got his head stuck in the cattle panel wall of his pen yesterday. I found him being rammed by Elwood while he was trying to get himself free. We got Elwood preoccupied with some hay and tried to get Mercer unstuck, but every time we tried to push his head back he pushed against us. So next we tried giving him some time without Elwood ramming him. After half an hour he had made no progress. All the other sheep have heads small enough to get easily in and out of the cattle panel. Mercer has a much larger head and must have really worked hard to get through. We ended up having to cut the cattle panel to get him out. Then Alan did a nifty job weaving a repair.

As a treat we let the rams out to graze on the lawn today. It was time Elwood was reminded about electric rope and Mercer had never experienced it. They each got a little zap then kept their distance from the rope. They were very well behaved and ate grass for over an hour. But they were still happy to get back in their pen for a grain treat.