Derbyshire Gritstone Ewes, Raddle or Reddle ram covered & mounted, dyed Hill sheep, Trough, or Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, England, UK
Sheep with a coloured mark somewhere on their bodies is a mark of ownership, each farm will have it's own unique mark. Tups/rams are sometimes put into a harness at mating time. These harnesses have a coloured, waxy block in them, which leave a mark on the ewe when mounted, this way we know which ewes have been mated with and which haven't. After 3 weeks the colour of the crayon is changed, and any ewe that is re-mated gets the 2nd colour on her and we know she is going to be a late lamber. Ewes only begin to visibly show a pregnancy about six weeks before giving birth, so shepherds often rely on the assumption that a ram will impregnate all the ewes in a flock. However, by fitting a ram with a chest harness called a marking harness that holds a special crayon (or raddle, sometimes spelled reddle), ewes that have been mounted are marked with a color. Dye may also be directly applied to the ram's brisket. This measure is not used in flocks where wool is important, since the color of a raddle contaminates it.
Size: 2724px × 3455px
Location: Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, England
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: agricultural, agriculture, animal, animals, atlantic, blue, bodies, breed, breeding, britain, color, colorful, colour, coloured, colours, county, crazy, dales, deterrent, dye, dyed, dyes, england, english, europe, ewe, ewes, farm, farming, farms, female, field, fields, funny, grass, great, green, grits, group, harmless, herd, hills, horizontal, identity, interested, kingdom, landscape, landscapes, livestock, mark, marked, marking, markings, marks, mating, meadows, mountain, mutton, nature, owned, ownership, paint, painted, port, prevention, punk, raddling, red, ruddied, rustling, season, sheep, sheep-fields, smart, smit, spray, sprayed, swaledale, tag, tagged, tagging, theft, tourism, travel, tups, uk, united, water, west, wild, wildlife, wool, yellow, yorkshire
