Caring for the flock

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 14th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: sheep and those who care for them.

Interesting factoid: in Australia, sheep outnumber people by 3-to-1.

We take you to a retired sheep farmer in Australia’s state of Victoria who reflects on life and the farm. Here’s WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis.

REPORTER AMY LEWIS: Dennis Richmond maneuvers his wheelchair into the driveway of his Inverleigh home. His wife’s immaculate gardens are on the right. Beyond the fence are 5 black-faced sheep. Keeping five sheep is easy compared to the 3,000 Richmond cared for before he retired three years ago.

DENNIS: I’m just 2nd generation wool farmer, sheep grower. My dad started when he was a return soldier from the second World War.

Growing wool started to grow on Richmond.

DENNIS: When I was able to work in the sheds as a kid, I just loved the feel of the wool on my hands, and even the smell. And it just got into my blood, basically, from then, and that was all I wanted to do.

At age 16, he started wool school to learn how to classify a fleece's fiber-size and quality. But then things took a turn. One day he and his brother were feeding sheep from their ute, or utility truck.

DENNIS: A fox got up, which is enemy number one of the sheep farmer, so we started to chase it, and I got in the back and was trying to shoot it. First corner we got to, we were going quite fast, and I got tipped out. And I was just knocked out and didn’t realize what I’d done to myself.

Two weeks later…

DENNIS: I had really severe backache, and went to bed one night, and woke up, and couldn’t feel from my chest down. It just cut me off, yeah, at the T4 level.

A blood clot had formed around his spinal cord, paralyzing most of his body. After 10 months of post-op and rehab, he regained some use of his legs. He left the Melbourne hospital on crutches, still determined to be a wool classer, even as an incomplete paraplegic.

DENNIS: I took on the hard work. It was a little bit of an extra challenge, but once I realized that I could do it, it really spurred me on.

For 10 hours a day he stood and classed wool.

DENNIS: It was at the start a bit tiring. But as I got 2-3 years down the track, it actually was helping me, physically, to overcome the disability I had, ‘cause it was keeping me fit…

Eventually, Richmond married. He and his wife Marilyn ran about 3,000 sheep on his father’s property. But life wasn’t easy.

DENNIS: We did have quite a few bad years when we were first going…

His disability also gave farming an extra challenge.

DENNIS: Well, physically I couldn’t run. Which obviously I had to be a bit smarter if I wanted to catch animals.

An ATV four-wheeler was especially helpful in moving more quickly. The animals he had to catch were Merino sheep growing ultrafine wool. Wool is measured in microns or millionths of a meter. A human hair is about 70 microns thick. His sheep’s wool was 15 microns.

But sheep are more than the sum of their products.

AUDIO: [Sheep scrabbling]

DENNIS: Sheep are sort of known for being a bit cantankerous. It’s almost as if they’ve got their will and they don’t want their will broken as well. When you get a bit older you realize they’re only trying to either (be a sheep) be a sheep, to either get out of the situation you’ve put them in….

Richmond and his wife had three sons.

DENNIS: And the last one, our youngest, was affected by the smell of the wool the same as I was, apparently. Because he would sit in the wool all day when we were shearing, even when he was a young fellow…

Three years ago, Richmond ended up fulltime in the wheelchair. Their youngest son, Mark, took over the business.

DENNIS: And he’s doing an excellent job. I feel like I was just caretaking for him to take over.

AUDIO: [Shearing]

Mark learned the business side of sheep farming at agricultural college. He’s diversifying the business to include meat sheep, while also winning ribbons for his excellent wool. While he builds up the business, he works for an income off-farm shearing other people’s sheep and gleaning from their experience.

It’s not just about the wool.

MARK: Realistically, we’re not only in charge of the sheep, we’re in charge of 540 hectares here, so that incorporates all the animals and everything else, that’s in the soil...

These sheep growers know that caring for sheep means pastures of green grass, still water, and protecting them from enemies.

MARK: It all ties in together. If you’re gonna treat the sheep badly and try to be as tight as possible with what you’re doing, how you’re feeding them and stuff like that, and they’re not productive, you’re shut, slamming the door on your own foot.

Mark cares for his sheep. And they know the sound of his horn.

AUDIO: [Sheep, beep]

Being a sheep farmer is more than a job for father and son—it's their life.

DENNIS: I used to love being down the paddock, just being with them. I would often disappear and just go and sit in the paddock with them, particularly on a nice day, wouldn’t I? I would disappear with the dog, and I’d lie down on the ground and the dog would lie next to me and yeah…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Inverleigh, Victoria, Australia.

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