By Paige Trendell

Senior animal science major Allie Flaherty awoke every thirty minutes to an hour to her alarm Tuesday night as she was on call for sheep births at the University of Maryland’s Campus Farm. 

Flaherty woke up to texts that Pixie Stix, one of the sheep, was going into labor. 

She said, after getting the texts, “I put my coveralls on and drove over there.”

Flaherty is one of six small ruminant interns this semester, meaning she specializes in small animals such as goats and sheep. 

The texts came from students in the class who were on night watch. They help deliver and raise lambs and baby goats, or kids, on the Campus Farm. Students sign up for at least one night watch from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., along with chores and on-call shifts. 

The class had to quickly prepare for the lamb births because of the snowstorm that canceled the first week of classes, according to veterinarian and course instructor Dr. Angela Black.  

“We only had about a week and a half to get all of those students ready for our first lambs to be born. So we have to jump right into giving birth,” she said. 

The first sheep gave birth on Feb. 9, and the last due date is March 8. The most recent birth was on Friday, Feb. 20. Dr. Black said two other sheep are expected to give birth at any time. 

Two goats are expected to give birth sometime next week, and then more sheep are due the week after, according to Dr. Black. 

Flaherty said she and the students monitored Pixie Stix while she was in labor, which is standard practice. They decided that Pixie Stix needed assistance after some time pushing with no progress. 

“All I really had to do was pull [the lamb’s] feet forward, and he came right out,” she said. 

Dr. Black only helps deliver the lambs if she is called in. “If everything goes fine, then the interns and the students take care of everything,” she said. 

She was recently called in early Tuesday morning, but the sheep ended up giving birth without assistance. 

“We called [Dr. Black] and then, of course, five minutes before she gets here, after her 30-minute drive, she pushes it out herself,” said senior animal sciences major Ava Kneale.  

Kneale and the other interns previously took sheep management, which has been offered since before Dr. Black started teaching at the university 21 years ago. 

The longstanding sheep management and more recent goat management classes were combined this semester to create the first small ruminants management course. 

Dr. Black hopes to have goat management in the fall and sheep management in the spring, which she said will be easier to manage. 

Even though the class can be a lot of work, students learn valuable skills. Junior animal science major Kayla Misko said that learning to give vaccines when she took sheep management last spring helped her prepare for her future career as a veterinarian. 

“I’ve never had to do vaccinations before, and learning how to vaccinate made me feel really, really good about myself,” she said. 

Students learn other skills such as keeping the animal’s records, conducting physical exams, and checking for parasites. Dr. Black believes the skills go beyond the classroom or the farm. 

“I find that we’re teaching a lot more than just animal management,” Dr. Black said. “They’re learning to be brave, do things that they’ve never done before. They’re learning to kind of step outside their comfort zone.”

Featured Image: Clove (left) sits with her ram (top right) and ewe (bottom middle) in their pen at the campus farm on Feb. 18, 2026. Photo by Paige Trendell.