Breakfast - Lincoln style

All sheep are excited about their meals.  Having raised both Lincolns and Romneys, I can tell you that Lincolns are particularly enthusiastic eaters.  It is not a wise shepherd who gets between a Lincoln ewe and her dinner - the result could be the flattening of the shepherd!  Here we have our old girl, Ingrid, enjoying her breakfast of oat and alfalfa hay.  Ingrid is 12 going on 13 years old and she lives with the ewe lambs we are holding over the winter.  Because the ewe lambs are still growing, they get richer feed than the adult ewes who are due to lamb in February.  And the reason that Ingrid lives with the ewe lambs is because she is an older girl, with worn teeth, who has trouble maintaining a healthy weight on the normal adult sheep fall rations.  Ingrid is currently our only retired granny sheep on the farm.  She was taken out of the breeding line up after 10 years of outstanding results.  I'm guessing that 15 to 20% of my ewe flock is related to Ingrid.  She was one heck of ewe in her day, producing champions in the show ring almost every year.  And more importantly her offspring were able to produce equally impressive lambs.  So it's good to see the old girl enjoying her golden years.