Sheep, Sheep, and wait....more sheep

About 3 weeks ago I had the opportunity to witness how traditional sheep herding is done here in Iceland. Being your typical naive girl from the 'burbs, I was amazed by the whole process. So sheep meat and wool is big business here in Iceland, but unlike in the US where we have plenty of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs - basically the definition of evil) Icelandic farmers allow their sheep to graze freely. If your skeptical about the increased economic costs involved with free grazing, just take one bite out of some rosemary cured lamb chops. One bite will make you wish that your beef and chicken grazed freely in your own backyard.
The lamb here in Iceland literally melts in your mouth. Topped with just a little garlic sauce, you'll think you died and went to heaven in just one bite. Enough with the food though, that's a whole other blog post.
But anyway Icelandic farmers let their sheep graze freely for the entire summer. The end of summer means herding in all your the sheep. Now this is not an easy task considering the small group of rogue sheep that every farmer owns. The difficult process of herding first involves trained dogs and horses. Once farmers manage to collect all the sheep from remote mountain locations, the sheep are herded into one giant pen. The next day is consumed with sorting sheep amongst farm owners. I was present to watch this laborious process take place. At first dogs and farmers go into the large pen to herd together about half of the large group of sheep. Watching the farmers this first step did not seem like an easy task, and I can tell you watching wasn't very easy either. I could tell that the sheep were frightened. You can't really blame them. I mean after a wonderful summer vacation I sure as hell would be a little confused if ferocious dogs were trying to chase me into a small confined space. Anyway most of the sheep followed the herd and ran in the correct direction, however some did not fare so well. Some got legs trampled on, and one was even trampled to death before my very own eyes. In the stampede I also saw one of the sheep have their horn broken, resulting in a gushing stream of blood.
Eventually though the scene calmed down, once half of the sheep group were herded into another smaller pen. This smaller pen was circular and had smaller rectangular pens jutting from the center circle pen, sort of like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. Once the sheep were secured in the circular pen, the farmers went in. Since each farmer's sheep are branded on their outer ear, the farmers had to locate their sheep one at a time, and then drag them to their allotted rectangular pen on the outside of the circular pen. After watching for half an hour I was convinced that the sheep were reproducing asexually. It didn't matter how many sheep were in the farmer's individual rectangular pens, there were still so many in the center circular pen. It seemed like the farmers efforts weren't even making a dent. After another hour though, all the sheep from the circular pen were in their designated rectangular pens. We left shortly after the first half of the sheep had been sorted. But the farmers still had to sort the other half of the sheep still in the large pen nearby. Apparently the entire process takes about a half a day to complete. Later that night the farmers were supposed to throw a really big party celebrating the end of sheep herding and summer - unfortunately no partying for us.
But overall I must say that the morning of sheep herding was definitely a unique cultural experience. I got to see farm animals for the second time in my life, and I got to witness an event that has been taking place for centuries. Not only do I have a new found appreciation for sheep, and their delicious hindquarters, but I also have come to admire the farmer. I could never be one - but I am sure thankful that someone is cutout for this laborious job because without the Icelandic farmer I would never have had the chance to scarf down two lamb chops in under 10 minutes.