Well, my family kept sheep on a fairly large scale. We had a vast tract of Namaqualand where they normally grazed, but because of stock reduction during drought the entire flock had to spend two years on our main farm, which was irrigated.
I got used to the constant baa-ing.
I did find that sheep were rather stupid, by contrast with goats, which can be directed more easily.
We had employees who sheared some of the sheep (a large part of the flock were of a breed that had hair as well as wool, and their fleeces were not in much demand).
A friend of my father’s farmed on a much larger scale with sheep (wool merinos) in the Great Karoo, and had a large shearing shed which stood empty for much of the year. But in the shearing season, itinerant shearers would arrive by donkey cart. The sheep would be penned and, one by one, taken into the shed to be clipped at great speed.
We kept the sheep, and goats, largely for meat.
Every lambing season there would be one or two lambs abandoned by their mothers, and they would be taken into our household and bottle-fed.
One lamb became a family pet, and used to run behind our car alongside the dog. But after two years we took her out to join the flock, and she gradually forgot us.
My father also favoured using sheep to keep our lawns short, rather than using a petrol (gas) mower. He had a pen constructed, about 10ft by 10ft, which we would move around as the grass was grazed down.
The grass grew considerably greener having been fertilised by the sheep!
Regards,
Mike