While staying on a Welsh farm, I was given the task of feeding a bunch of ewes. It was the first time a sheep took notice of me
My relationship with sheep has changed. I must have encountered a million of them in my time as I strolled, rambled, ran, staggered and stomped my way around the countryside. They have always ignored me. Sometimes they would stare, utterly without interest. But, bar the odd baa, it was as if I wasn’t there. Fair enough.
I spent last week on a hill farm near Dolgellau in Snowdonia. One afternoon, the farmer sent me to feed several dozen ewes bearing twins. They were at the far side of a big field. I was told to wave the bag of feed in their direction. They didn’t even look up. Shake it and they will come, I was assured. None of them moved. Until one of them did. Then a couple fell in behind her, and soon the rest joined en masse, following like, well, sheep.
Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
