Some of the sheepherders in Drenthe are working overtime because of the wolf. Because of the arrival of the animal, they spend more time per week on their work. And that entails headaches, for example in Anloo, where shepherd Julie Teunen is active for the Stroomdal sheep herd.
Eighteen sheep of the herd are walking on a field near the hiding place in Anloo. During the day they can graze freely, but at night they disappear behind a wolf-resistant grid in a fixed place. “So that they are safe,” Teunen explains. “A few years ago there was no night grid and it was no problem at all that they were still walking on the field at night. But that is no longer possible.”
Since the arrival of the wolf in the province of Drenthe, the shepherd has had to invest more time in the herd. “Now all the sheep have to come behind that grid in the evening. We have a fairly large area, which sometimes means that it takes an hour to an hour and a half to collect all the sheep. Or even longer. It just costs us a lot time.”
And according to her, it doesn’t stop there, because not only collecting the animals takes time. Maintaining the grid also requires a lot of attention. “Then all the animals are behind the fence, but then the electricity, for example, does not work,” says Teunen. “Then you have to see if there is a branch somewhere on one of the power wires. It’s a fairly large grid, so that just takes a lot of time.”
According to her, it differs per week how much more they have to do. “But on average we spend an extra 20 hours a week on this herd alone. That can be quite frustrating, because we already work seven days a week.”