Little baby sheep, running towards me, their legs moving at lightning speed. At first, I thought they might actually want to snuggle with me, but it was the blue baby bottle full of milk they wanted. After a couple seconds of being slightly bitter and feeling rejected, my heart melted as the soft little lambs chugged their milk in front of me. If I could have stayed in this moment forever I truly would.
This day at Killary Sheep farm with farmer Tom was not only so cute, but also very educational. We saw sheep in their open fields grazing, as well as young lambs being contained for Farmer Tom to raise on his own. The lambs can be compared to human babies because just as infants put everything in their mouths, so do lambs. For this reason, farmer Tom keeps them in an enclosed cage and feeds them milk through a bottle because they are not ready to eat the grass yet. The abundant amount of knowledge Tom shared with our group about raising sheep was mind-blowing. He works endlessly to run his entire farm by himself and knows exactly what each sheep needs. The open fields, full of green grass are so helpful for the sheep to eat. Farmer Tom helped us to understand the sheep’s everyday needs, and how to take care of them. After talking more to farmer Tom it was easy to see how knowledgeable he was. Understanding the needs of sheep and interacting with them was important because these animals are extremely important to Ireland’s culture. Everywhere we looked you were bound to see sheep trotting along the side of the road or grazing in the fields. Not only were the sheep adorable but it gave us a sense of how common they are along the fields of Ireland.
