Joyce Country Sheepdogs

Joyce Country Sheepdogs is part of a family-run farm in Connemara in the west of Ireland.

                      

Joe is a third generation sheep farmer. But he also breeds Border Collies, which are particularly good sheepdogs.

       

                                                                                                                                                           

Then he chooses one of his dogs to round up the sheep. The dogs can hardly wait and bark very excitedly. But only one gets to show what he can do.

Joe's sheep are alone in the mountains all year round and are brought together by the dogs 4 times a year. They are marked with color spray, each farmer has their own color. This way everyone knows who the sheep belong to. 

                                

Joe lives on EU subsidies and the sale of the animals. Nothing is earned from the sale of the wool, the wool of a total of 200 sheep is paid with only 13 euros. They have to raise about 10% of the lambs a year with a bottle, too bad we would have liked to be there, but lambs are only available in spring.