What a wonderful word……” tupping”. You will all know that a male sheep is called a Ram, but for those of you who aren’t fully aware of the strange dictionary of words used in the shepherding world, a male sheep is also commonly known as a “Tup” – hence when the rams are put in with the ewes it’s called “tupping time”. Our rams were put in at the beginning of the month and prior to the day we always give them a thorough check over to make sure they are fit for the task ahead. This time of year always reminds me of a visit we had from a number of young children to the farm. We were getting the rams ready, and I attempted to explain in simple terms what we were doing…….
“Ok children, before we put the rams in with the ewes, we always given them a thorough MOT, just like we do with our cars to make sure they are fit to work. But today we will call it the 3 T’s that we are checking.
The first T is for teeth – sheep only have teeth on the bottom – no teeth on the top like us. We check them to make sure the ram can eat properly and that none of them have fallen out – we can’t take a sheep to the dentist!
The second T is for toes, and we need to make sure that the rams feet are in good condition and that he walks well.
The third T children is for …..(at this point the adults in charge start to blush as they realise too late what I am about to say but I plough on regardless)…….Testicles which must be large, of an equal size and firm to the touch”.
The children never batted an eyelid as the description of the final “T” went straight over their heads – but there was stifled giggling amongst the adults.
“Finally children, before we put the rams in with the ewes we put a harness on him called a raddle which has a large colourful crayon fixed to it so when the ram finds a ewe he likes, he jumps on her back and leaves a lovely coloured crayon mark. We then know that she is going to have lambs”.
There were lots of smiles all around as my very simple explanation seemed to have worked. A few days later I met one of the mums whose child had been on the visit to the farm. She thanked me so much and I just said that I hoped her son had learnt something.
“Oh yes” she said. “We were sat having tea and my son said to me……Mum does Dad wear one of those raddles?”
Janet East
