November 2011

I was very interested to receive the latest copy of ‘Business Pointers’ from EBLEX (the English Beef & Lamb Executive), particularly as it dropped on my doormat the very day after I’d been reading its much earlier counterpart, “THE FARM AS A BUSINESS – Aids to Management – SHEEP”, published in 1963 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

MAFF, (before it was renamed Defra in 2001 following the devastating Foot & Mouth outbreak in that year), published a range of booklets to help sheep farmers benchmark their businesses against the average results gained by a cross-section of farmers in their sector, and to analyse their own farm data for forward budgeting and planning.  And what fascinating reading it makes!  There are a couple of points that are worthy of note: firstly, the Government of the day guaranteed minimum prices to farmers for their lambs, hoggets, other clean sheep and fleeces (no free market in those days!), and secondly, the lambing percentages achieved then and now:

Type of Sheep Enterprise	1963	2011
Lowland Sheep – early fat lambs (born by end of December)	120	151
Lowland Sheep – fat lambs (born mid-March onwards)	140	169
Upland Sheep (LFA)	120	164

Of course there are numerous differences between sheep farming then and now, but I selected the lambing percentages, as they are a clear indication of the improvement there has been in sheep husbandry, management and genetics in the past 50 years.  Obviously this is driven by commercial imperatives, but there is no reason why the smallholder flock-keeper can’t also take advantage of all the advances in sheep production to create a healthier, happier and more productive flock.



I find that the weather is a recurring theme of this diary, and this month will be no exception!  On the final Sunday of November, I checked the thermometer as I do every day, and recorded it in my ‘farm book’ (a rather muddled but oh so useful record of everything that goes on around the smallholding).  I then compared it to the temperature on the same day last year.  There was a 23^oC difference between the two.  And there are dog roses flowering in the hedgerows all along the lane!