November 2012

We’ve never yet had an infertile ram, but unless you buy a ‘tried and tested’ ram or have the vet test a semen sample, there’s no guarantee that your shiny new ram is fit for purpose! I had no reason whatsoever to doubt the potency of our splendid new ram lamb (who we brought home from his Devon birthplace in September), but while we were fitting his new harness and raddle I couldn’t help myself wondering whether he was up to the job. He was such a polite and gentle young fellow compared to some of the obstreperous characters we’ve dealt with in the past.
Although a bit nervous about leaving the little paddock where he’d lived for the past couple of months with a pair of homebred ram lambs for company, he trotted along the lane on the halter quite willingly (despite never having been halter-trained) and through the gate leading to the ewes’ field. We released him from the halter, and he stood, looking first at the ewes and then back towards the lane.



It was certainly touch and go for a minute or two as to which way he would choose! We shooed him away towards the ewes, and as he tentatively trotted towards them he obviously caught the fancy of a few of the older ewes; within minutes he was surrounded by a trio obviously keen to make his acquaintance. You could almost read his indecision, run away – or be initiated into the world of sheepish luuurve. True to his nature, he chose the latter, and in the space of less than 15 minutes the three ewes were sporting blue backsides from the raddle crayon. The rest is best left to your imagination, but by the end of the ewes’ 17-day cycle all his ladies were marked, and ten days later we have had no returns. So, we’re fairly confident that (a) he is fertile, (b) his instincts are sound, and (c) we should have a nice tight lambing next April!



The only other memories I have of November are of rain, gales, mud, and flood. It rained, the tracks and fields all turned to mud (with the exception of the lambing paddock, that I am preserving for next year’s ewes and lambs), and our bottom yard, barn and cellar flooded. This was particularly annoying as we’d hired a digger and had all our ditches cleared just over a year ago (during the drought!) – but the sheer volume of muddy water coming off a recently harvested, and badly compacted cornfield simply swept across the lane into our yard. Nonetheless, we fared a lot better than many in this area, who, for the second time in a decade, found their homes and businesses flooded and ruined.

With the planned badger cull postponed for the present, our resident vaccinated brocks have been hogging out in readiness for the winter. Their favourite food is in abundance following the corn harvest, and we can track their route across our orchard by following the discarded cobs! All of the three entrances to the sett show recent activity, spore (footprints), recent digging, and most noticeably, they’ve been carrying lots of dried grass into the sett to make a cosy nest for winter. All around the fields are signs of digging (worms form a large part of their diet). We’ve also found the chewed-up remains of various vertebrates, mice, voles and baby rabbits, so we can be fairly confident that they are, for the time being, healthy and happy.   If only they knew about the political hiatus they’ve been at the centre of this year!

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October 2012

 
The last part of October brought some very welcome sunny days, but too late to rescue what is widely being described as one of the worst harvests on record. Despite this, the turnout for the annual Harvest Festival was as jolly as ever, and our ancient little Parish church was packed with people and produce.

St Margarets, dating from the 14^th century, and with 12^th century origins, was built by the owners of Corse Court, a half-timbered manor house beside which it still stands. Now surrounded by acres of cider apple orchards, it’s set away from any roads and accessed only by a narrow track through the orchards.

The interior is plain, which highlights the equally simple 12^th century carved stone font. The 16^th and 17^th century bells have beautiful tones, and to hear them ringing on a still summer’s evening is a delight.

The church now houses a record of the fascinating history of the Parish of Corse, and it’s place in the vision of an agrarian England, populated by communities of smallholders living and working in harmony with the land and with one another! This was the Chartist Movement, whose aims were political reform and social regeneration. ‘The People’s Charter’ was put forward in 1838, and called for various parliamentary reforms and increased democracy. Although this failed, its instigator, an Irish aristocrat called Fergus O’Connor, pursued his aim of extending land ownership to the working classes, and thus they would gain the right to vote.

His vision was to release workers from the tyranny of the factories, and settle them on the land. He described villages for 125 families, with a school, library and hospital, all managed by the National Land Company with shares allocated to the smallholders. Each family would have a cottage and between 2-4 acres, deemed to be adequate to support a family. Between 1846 and 1848 the Company bought five estates and built 250 dwellings, and two of these are within the Parish of Corse: Snig’s End and Lowbands.

Sadly, the financial and land allocation arrangements (basically a lottery) proved too complex, and the National Land Company was finally wound up in 1851. However, the legacy remains, and despite some inevitable 20^th century in-fill and the ubiquitous UPVC replacement windows, the cottages and their land remain intact.



Although social conditions today are a far cry from those in the 19^th century, there is nevertheless a growing demand for allotments, backyard chickens are de rigeur, and cottages with a few acres don’t stay on the market for long!

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September 2012

Choosing a new ram is one of the biggest decisions in the flock master’s year. In a small pedigree flock like ours, the ram contributes 50% of the flock’s genetics, so, as well as being ‘correct’ in all aspects of the breed standards, he must bring some very special qualities that will improve on what we already have. He must also be manageable and have a certain something that catches and holds the eye. It goes without saying that he must also be fit, healthy and have libido!

Before we even started searching, I had it in mind to get a ram lamb from one of the Hampshire Down breed’s high-performing flocks: Henry Derryman’s Yarcombe flock in Honiton, Devon. I’d always admired his sheep and some years ago he imported some New Zealand bloodlines, which have given them a fantastic length of body (meaning good, meaty chops!). So in late September we drove down to make our selection – and what a choice we had! Henry had brought all the rams into his stock shed for us to view, about 30 in all. My initial thought was, “They all look amazing, how on earth do we select one from this bunch?” but after a while a few started to catch my eye, so we penned the ones that I liked the look of, and then went through the bunch.

Eventually, Robin and I agreed on one outstanding ram lamb, who was born in December 2011: he was correct in every way, stood well, and… well, we liked him! His breeding and EBVs are excellent, and he was born as a twin, so likely to father twins himself. He’ll join our ewes in mid-November, and we’ll look forward to seeing his first progeny next April. Following his quarantine treatments on arrival, he’ll now be in kept in a small paddock for the next month with two of this year’s ram lambs that are destined for the freezer; although he’s the picture of health, it’s never worth taking any chances when bringing new animals into the flock.

Oh, I nearly forgot, we named him Yarcombe Maximus – a name to live up to!

At home, we’d already made some decisions about the ewe flock. This is one of the hardest jobs, as inevitably it means saying goodbye to some of the older ewes who have served us well in the past. Early autumn is the time for the final decisions to be made so that we can concentrate on getting the breeding flock fit for tupping in mid-November for mid-April lambing.

Some years ago we took a bunch of older ewes to market, but having seen the massive triple-decker livestock lorries lined up outside, we decided that we’d prefer to take them directly to our small, local abattoir, rather than abandon them to an unknown fate. An increasing number of sheep, especially older ewes, are now slaughtered by Halal or Kosher no-stun methods, whether destined for the ethnic market or not… but perhaps the ethics of modes of slaughter should be saved for another day!

Meanwhile, my attention was caught this week by a news item on the radio: the Swedish Parliament has announced its intention to initiate a cull of wolves. Once numerous, by the 1960s the wolf was believed to be extinct in Sweden – but by the 1980s the population had begun to recover, starting with individuals believed to have migrated from Finland. Now a protected species, the population has grown and farmers are loosing livestock to wolf attacks, despite having spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the construction and maintenance of predator fences.

A quick visit to the web site of the Timber Wolf Information Network revealed that France has similar plans to reduce numbers of wolves due to attacks on sheep and goats. This all sounds very familiar, with the impending badger pilot culls in England – whilst badgers obviously don’t attack livestock, there is strong evidence that they contribute to the spread of Bovine TB (bTB) in cattle, and other species, both farmed and in the wild.

In Sweden and France, as in England, there are strong opinions on both sides: those vehemently against culling wildlife, and those who deem it necessary to enable farming to continue, which it must if we are to feed our growing human populations.

Inevitably, as human populations expands into territories that were previously wild, there will be increasing conflict worldwide between man’s interests – be they farming, housing, industry or leisure – and the preservation of wildlife in its natural habitat. If it’s beyond our wit to realise how vital these thing are to our humanity, and to find a way to co-exist, then perhaps we should relinquish the right to be called Homo Sapiens.

August 2012

I’m really pleased to report that our little Light Sussex (‘Blondie’) pullet has made tremendous progress during the past month; her legs have strengthened, and she’s now holding her own in the coop alongside the six Speckled Sussex who were her ‘incubator-mates’.  At 14 weeks old, they are all pretty well fully feathered and starting to exhibit all the behaviours of adult chickens.

I find the nature vs. nurture subject particularly interesting; since none of these birds has ever seen a grown-up chicken, they have learned purely by instinct how to roost on their perches, forage for insects, and establish the coop hierarchy, or ‘pecking order’, without any tutoring from ‘mother hen’.  Instead, ‘Mother Nature’ has been their guide, as indeed she has been in all aspects of their development.  For example, all chickens are ‘dimorphic’, meaning the males and females are distinctly different from one another, with these differences becoming increasingly apparent as they mature:  the cockerels exhibiting much showier plumage, headgear and bearing than the more seemly hens.



It’s quite amusing watching the two young cockerels sizing up to one another, hackles raised as they strut around, making faux charges at one another (“Who’re you lookin’ at?” or  “You lookin’ at my bird?”) – while the hens concentrate on the much more important task of discovering how to extricate a small snail from its shell.

I suppose the next landmark will be the first egg at around 22 weeks.  I’m just hoping that it will be Blondie who lays it.



This summer has not been a good one for sheep.  The constant rain, combined with the resultant lush grass growth, has presented a great challenge to their feet, and we’ve treated more lame sheep this year than ever before.

The main problem we’ve encountered is scald, particularly in the lamb flock.  Scald is easily recognised (pink skin between the cleats, sticky exudate, but no foul smell), and easily treated if caught early (spray with oxytetracycline, keep treated animal on hard, dry surface for at least 30 minutes after treatment).  Left untreated it can quickly progress to footrot, which is a much more serious condition to treat, and in many cases leads to the premature culling of otherwise healthy sheep.

It’s commonly agreed that there are five specific foot conditions in sheep, although if you include some of the more uncommon diseases, this rises to ten – each of which requires specific attention.  There’s also the sheep that simply has a ball of mud and grass between its cleats, painful enough to cause a limp, and left alone it can rub the skin allowing bacteria to enter.

So, we’ve got into the habit of regularly ‘lameness scoring’ all our sheep individually, with a score of ‘1’ meaning the sheep is sound, and a score of ‘5’ for any animal that is acutely lame (often sitting down, kneeling to relieve weight on a forefoot, or limping heavily).  As soon as a sheep shows signs of lameness, we’ll bring her in for inspection and appropriate treatment.  By doing this we’ve managed to avoid having any chronically lame sheep on the farm, but it is very time-consuming, not to mention the back-breaking task of ‘tipping’ one of our 70-80kg ewes to facilitate diagnosis and treatment!  By keeping scores for each individual, we can identify regular ‘offenders’, and – harsh as it may seem, if they don’t respond to treatment after 3 separate occasions, they have to go.  If we kept them, they would simply be a reservoir of infection for all the other sheep and lambs.

Regular footbathing in zinc sulphate then holding the sheep on hard standing for at least 30 minutes is very helpful, and I’ve also had success with ‘tubbing’ feet in salt water (horse and dairy cow owners will be familiar with this technique), then applying a dry poultice to draw out infection and cushion the foot.  The whole foot is then carefully wrapped with a cohesive bandage.  This is repeated every 2/3 days for a week, and if there is any sign of footrot or CODD (contagious ovine digital dermatitis) present, we’ll give an appropriate antibiotic injection on our vet’s advice.

There’s a saying in the horse world: “No foot, no horse”, and that, sadly, is equally true for sheep, so it really is vital to keep on top of this aspect of shepherding.  When we were filming the section on footcare for our “Managing Your Flock for Peak Health” DVD programme, we spent a very enlightening day with Agnes Winter – an eminent vet who has specialised in sheep health, and particularly lameness in sheep.  She’s also written several books on sheep health, including the excellent “Sheep Lameness”.

And, finally, you may have wondered about our home-page advice not to eat blackberries after Michaelmas?  The date of Michaelmas is 29^th of September, the feast of St Michael the Archangel, on which night the Devil is reputed to spit or urinate on blackberries.  At any rate, whether you believe this legend or not, the date does coincide with the time that the berries are likely to start going mouldy and when the grubs of the Raspberry Beetle start to appear in the fruits, so probably best avoided!

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July 2012

In last month’s diary I wrote about our disappointment that, despite having consumed several kilos of peanuts (‘bait’), the Green Farm badgers failed to turn up on the critical evening when the traps were to be set ready for vaccination … so I’m really thrilled to be able to tell everyone that, at the beginning of July we were successful!

For some weeks they’d been going into the baited traps every night, but on the first occasion they were set to ‘trap’, they had stayed away, no doubt discouraged from their nightly roaming by the really foul weather we’d been having.  So, undeterred, we carried on baiting traps each evening for a week and throughout this time we noted a lot of signs of badger activity around the entrances to the sett when we checked every morning.

With confidence in the project renewed, we got in touch with Ken Goodwin of ITV West and Caroline Stocks, a reporter for Farmers Weekly, who had previously expressed their interest in reporting on the practicalities of vaccination and the role it can play in helping to reduce the spread of bovine TB.  We made our second 4a.m. recce and waited anxiously at the field gate while Lucy and Rosie of Brock Vaccination checked the traps.  Within minutes (and even in the gloaming we could see her big smile) Lucy waved us forward, indicating that the first 2 traps had been triggered and we were ready to vaccinate.  The sense of relief was palpable – we were in business!

The first trap contained an adult female – not the smart black & white of picture books, but a slightly grubby reddish colour from our native clay!  In the next trap close-by was a youngster, probably her cub.  Between them Lucy and Rosie checked the badgers, carefully noting their condition; then swiftly injected the BCG vaccine into the thigh and marked them with stock marker before releasing them.  We watched them scurry straight back to the sett, then we moved on to the next trap – another youngster.

There’s strong evidence that a vaccinated female (sow) will pass on a degree of ‘passive’ immunity to her future cubs, who in turn will be vaccinated themselves during the next four years that our programme runs, this will give them lifelong protection.  The cubs that were vaccinated this year will found the future of a disease–resistant sett, and by the end of the 5 years, we can be confident that all its occupants will be healthy and pose little or no risk to other farmed stock, or wild life.
See ‘March 2012 Diary’ for the reasons why we decided to embark on a badger vaccination programme on our smallholding.

July is always a busy ‘sheep’ month at Green Farm, and this year everything has seemed much harder work as we’ve been trying to fit all the outside jobs between torrential rainstorms!  I had intended to start showing our Hampshire Down sheep this year at some of the local agricultural shows, but somehow never found the time for all the lengthy preparation of washing, carding and trimming – let alone the travelling and day spent showing.  Next year, I promise!



We did, however, manage to spruce up two of our shearling ewes to display on our stand at our favourite show, SHEEP 2012, the National Sheep Association’s bi-annual show, and one of my favourite outings.  I was particularly pleased by the comment of one of the HDSBA’s top breeders “They’re a fine representation of the breed” – high praise indeed!

Our young chickens are coming along really well, and, at six weeks old we judged them sufficiently well-feathered to move them outdoors into our recycled coop and run – it’s ideal for youngsters who haven’t yet developed a strong immune system as it’s so easy to keep clean.  They’re now 8 weeks old, and – I can hardly believe our luck, it looks very much as though of the 6 Speckled Sussex chicks, 5 are hens and only one is a cockerel!  Fingers crossed that none of the ones I think are hens turn out to be late-developing cockerels, but the signs (larger size, more prominent comb) should be quite clear at this age.

Unfortunately, we’ve had less success with the Light Sussex hatch that shared the incubator with the Speckled Sussex eggs; of the six we set in the incubator, only one hatched and that was with a little help as the chick was really struggling to get out of its shell.  At first, she (“Blondie” – I really must stop naming our food!) appeared quite healthy, then, when she was about 10 days old I realised she wasn’t as steady on her feet as the other chicks.  I ruled out ‘splay legs’ – this would have been obvious sooner, but her hocks seemed almost fixed in the bent position, making it hard for her to stand upright and balance.  We considered culling her on humane grounds, but decided instead to try a bit of physiotherapy by gently stretching her legs for a short period twice a day.  Over the weeks she’s definitely steadier, but I don’t think she will ever come right.  She uses her wings to steady herself but isn’t being bullied by the others (which often happens to a weak chick) and gets around to feed quite happily.  We’ll continue to monitor her progress, and importantly, whether she will be able to have a good quality of life, or not.

June 2012

Checking my archives, I noted that this time last year I was bemoaning the lack of grass growth due to the on-going drought.  This year we certainly have no drought or shortage of grass, and our 7-acres of hay is tall, thick and ready for mowing … if only the rain would stop!  Hay needs at least 4 days of dry, hot weather to make – and with the ground totally sodden, we really need to allow a bit longer for ‘tedding’ (turning) and drying on the field.  At the time of writing, the long-range forecast is for continuing rain and cool weather, so haymaking is currently a far-off ambition …



At this point, I’d like to move on to a more cheerful subject, but instead, I’m going to share a very sad story.  In August’s Diary last year I described the various tests that our vet had carried out on a 6 year old ewe, “Meggie”, that had been loosing condition through the summer months since her lambs were weaned in mid-July.    We always put the ewes onto poorer pasture to help them ‘dry-off’ quickly after weaning – it helps prevent mastitis occurring and they usually recover condition quickly.  Meggie gained a few kilos and started to look much better, and in every other respect she appeared sound, and our vet gave her a clean bill of health with instructions to ‘flush’ her well on some good grass prior to tupping (mating) in November.  True to character, Meggie scanned for twins in February and sailed through her pregnancy with consummate ease.  Her strapping twin lambs, born in April, had a combined weight of 9.6kgs and thrived on her rich milk (ewe’s milk is more nutritious than either cow’s or goat’s) – but whilst in the lambing shed I’d noticed her ‘quidding’ – dropping partly-chewed hay from her mouth, a clear sign of a problem with her cheek teeth, meaning she was unable to chew properly.  At shearing in late April we realised just how skinny she had got – she was quite literally feeding her lambs off her back, despite a daily ration of mixed grain, beet and corn with added minerals and vitamins.  In early June I found her in the field, unable to rise and, uncharacteristically, she had little interest in feed offered.  I knew there was no way back for Meggie, and called our vet to euthanase her.



If you have ever kept animals, you’ll understand that, every once in a while, one animal catches your eye, stands out above the rest – Meggie, the only ewe in our flock to have a name – was that sheep.

Back in March I wrote about our decision to survey the badger sett on our land with a view to vaccinating the resident badgers against Bovine TB.  The vaccination programme has now been in place for some time, during which the badgers have been enjoying a regular generous peanut supper, placed by Lucy of Badger Vaccination who is undertaking the baiting, trapping and vaccination.  Every morning the peanuts have gone, and – thanks to the wet weather (!?) we can track the badgers’ paw prints around the site, giving us a fair idea of their numbers and activity.  All was going well, and ITV West wanted to do a news story about badger vaccination, so we scheduled their visit to coincide with the date the humane traps would be deployed ready to catch and vaccinate the badgers.  Following a foul wet and windy night, we all assembled at 4 a.m. on a beautiful dry late June morning, and, quiet as mice, we tiptoed our way to the traps … and every one was empty!  Don’t they know what’s good for them!



They say never work with children or animals, but we were keen to promote vaccination as an alternative option to culling to as wide a farming and countryside audience as possible, so it was disappointing not to have some real live badgers for the TV crew.  The likelihood is that the awful weather persuaded Brock and his friends to stay indoors that night.  So, the programme continues, waiting for some finer weather to entice the badgers into our traps!  By the end of our 5-year programme, we should be very familiar with the habits of the Green Farm badgers!

And finally, we have another hatch of chicks this month:  6 Speckled Sussex and just one Light Sussex; sadly, the 5 other Light Sussex eggs failed to hatch.  After leaving them in the incubator for a further 4 days after the last hatch, we broke them open to see what had happened:  one was fully developed but dead in the shell, and the other 4 were infertile.



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May 2012

Regular readers of our farm diary will recall that last month we left the lambing shed with all but one of our ewes nursing their lambs – we knew that ewe number 20, a maiden ewe, had scanned for twins, and her belly certainly looked like she was expecting twins, but her udder wasn’t ‘bagging up’ in the way that it ought to be for a ewe about to lamb.  She had obviously missed the first cycle with the ram and so would be at least another 2 weeks before she lambed, so we decided to turn all the ewes and lambs out into the field – the weather was glorious and at this time of year outdoor lambing for the final ewe should not be a problem.



Typically, the temperature suddenly dropped and strong easterly winds brought torrential rain on the night number 20 delivered her lambs.  On my late night patrol I found one strong ewe lamb whose full tummy confirmed that she’s already been sucking, and one smaller, perfect, but cold and lifeless, ram lamb.  Of course, the usual self-recriminations follow such an event, “if only I’d gone out an hour earlier”.  Sadly, each year the national average lambing losses are between 15-16% of which 24% is due to the ewe aborting (usually caused by an infection), 18% is due to the pre-parturient death of the ewe (mostly due to poor body condition at tupping or nutritional imbalance during pregnancy), and a staggering 49% is accounted for at lambing (source: EBLEX).  So, having recently been shown by our vet how to carry out a post-mortem (PM) examination, and with a copy of the latest EBLEX ‘Better Returns’ Bulletin and my favourite vet book Sheep Flock Health by Neil Sargison, I decided to see if I could find out why the lamb had failed to thrive – and to try to establish whether the lamb breathed, walked and sucked.  Don’t worry, I will spare my readers the really icky bits (though I found carrying out a PM considerably simpler than skinning, gutting and jointing a rabbit for the first time!), but the process is both interesting and informative – so here’s a clinical description of the PM and what I discovered:

Firstly, the external examination (my findings in bold):

• Birthweight? Anything under 3kgs will be less viable, and a big lamb (6kgs and over) is likely to suffer from birthing stress – this lamb weighed 3.9kgs, small for the breed, but a viable weight
• Is the lamb’s coat stained?  A yellowing would indicate the lamb expelled meconium (see photo) – the first faeces, which would suggest birthing stress – none present
• Is the head and/or tongue swollen?  Either of these could indicate birth stress, or, possibly Schmallenberg Disease (SBv) – head normal
• Is the navel swollen?  Occasionally a rupture can occur, allowing intestines to protrude (in an older lamb, you’d also check that the cord had dried properly) – navel normal
• Eyes – bloodshot?  Again, indicating birth stress – eyes normal (interestingly, I also learned that in cases of entropion, the ram is often implicated)
• Anus missing – an odd one, but more common than many people realise, and without an anus the lamb would become congested with faeces – anus normal
• Feet – lambs are born with a membrane on the soles of their feet, often called ‘slippers’ – if this is still present, it means the lamb never stood or walked – slippers present, so it’s likely that this little lamb never stood

Having got so far without finding any obvious reason for the lamb’s death, it was now time for me to steel myself, and pick up the scalpel, something I hadn’t done since dissecting rats in school biology lessons!

• With the lamb lying ‘spread-eagled’ on its back, the first four cuts are through the lamb’s armpits and groin (No's 1-4 on diagram), so that the lamb will rest on its back without the legs getting in the way.  This enabled me to inspect the ribs, feeling for any fractures that may have been caused by a difficult birth – there were none as far as I could tell.
• Next, a deep cut all along the midway of the lamb (No 5 on diagram), cutting from the pelvis, through the midribs, and up to the top of the throat so that I could see and access the internal organs.  By this stage my curiosity had banished all thoughts of this being a gruesome act.
• After a bit of searching, I found the thyroid gland in the throat – if enlarged, it would indicate iodine deficiency - although I’m not familiar with what a normal thyroid looks like, this one looked like the healthy one in my book.
• Working down to the chest, the lungs were easy to find: they should be pink and spongy – but these looked more like liver – this is a typical sign that the lamb never breathed, to be absolutely sure, I cut away the lung and placed it in a bowl of water: it sank, confirming that there was no air inside.
• Well, it looked as though I had found the reason for the lamb’s death; he’d never drawn breath.  The ewe was a maiden (a shearling ewe, we don’t lamb from ewes in their first year), so it is quite likely that she was so preoccupied with her first lamb, she’d simply ignored this one, or, perhaps the birth membrane had covered his nose and prevented him from drawing breath.  That was certainly a theory, but having gone this far, I decided to continue and try to rule out any other cause.
• ‘Brown fat’ is present in all newborn lambs; it’s found around the heart and kidneys and has a grey-white appearance – this all appeared normal in my lamb.
• The liver is just below the ribs, and I checked for any sign of bleeding from damage caused by a difficult birth – all looked well, no sign of bleeding.
• The final thing to check, though by now I was confident that the lamb was, to all intents and purposes, still-born, was the gut (specifically the abomasum, or fourth stomach) to see whether it contained any clotted milk – there was no sign, which, together with my other findings more or less confirmed that the lamb sadly didn’t breath, stand or suck.

So how does this help me prevent such deaths in the future?  Well, my first lesson is to be more vigilant with maiden, inexperienced ewes – however inconveniently late they chose to lamb!  And secondly, I learned some interesting anatomy first-hand, while at the same time overcoming my natural reticence about carrying out the post mortem procedure.



On a much brighter note, our 24 lambs are growing well, and have already had their first Heptavac-P vaccination (to protect against clostridial diseases and pasturella); a prophylactic dose of white drench as the time of year and weather conditions increased the risk of Nematodirus (resistance by this species to BZ wormers is uncommon).

The ewes are all looking well – apart from my favourite ewe, Meggie, whose lack of condition was sadly even more apparent following shearing.  If you recall from last month’s diary, I’d noticed her ‘quidding’, dropping food from her mouth as her teeth were too warn to enable her to cud satisfactorily.  However, the sheep sheared very well this year.  We sheared them (14 ewes and 3 rams – that’s the current working ram, his elderly companion and one of last year’s ram lambs) on the 25^th – a swelteringly hot day, which gives the fleeces a good ‘rise’ which helps the sheep shear well.  Following lambing, all the sheep, including lambs, were treated with a ‘pour-on’ – in this case ‘CLIK’ an IGR (insect growth regulator, that inhibits development from fly egg to maggot) and provides up to 16 weeks protection from flystrike.

And finally, following last year’s drought, which impeded grass growth, this year’s sun and rain has produced a bumper crop of grass … but it’s still raining and the forecast is … more rain!  So now we’re hoping for a few day’s of guaranteed fine weather and life at Green Farm will be perfect!

April 2012

Life at Green Farm gets a tad chaotic during April, as it’s lambing time and absolutely every other activity is governed by when and how our small flock of 14 ewes decide to bring their lambs into the world!

Kinky the ram joined the ewes on 15^th November last year, and, from our guarded observations, had ‘tupped’ all of our 14 ewes in the space of a few days.  Since the ewe’s oestrus cycle is 17 days, we’d expect the lambs to be born in roughly an equal time span, 147 days later – starting on or around the 15th April.  All the ewes are pregnancy scanned during their third month of pregnancy, so we knew what should be delivered!  So at the start of April, we swept and vacuumed and pressure-hosed the lambing shed, set up a ‘waiting area’, some ‘mothering-up’ pens and a ‘turnout’ communal area for the ewes and their lambs once they’d firmly bonded.  How organised is that!  And the weather was lovely.  So we weren’t in the slightest concerned on the morning of the 13th to find ewe number 608 in the field suckling her already boisterous triplets.  Into the shed they all came (perfect timing to miss the nasty weather that followed a few days later), and we settled into our 4-hourly check pattern – I get the 4a.m. slot, which gives me the perfect opportunity to enjoy the dawn chorus on my way back to bed again!

Since the triplets were the first born lambs, there was no opportunity to foster one of them onto another ewe with a new-born single, and 608 is a strong, milky ewe well capable of rearing 3 lambs – though we were prepared to step in with a bottle if one looked as though it was getting the short straw (ewes, of course, only have two teats).  Incidentally, the combined weight of the newborn lambs was 12.1kgs, so they weren’t exactly weaklings!

We have a simple routine for all new births:

• Lamb’s navel is dipped in iodine (to sterilise and dry the umbilical cord)
• Check lamb’s eyes (for entropion), mouth (for suck reflex), anus (it can be covered by a thin membrane), limbs (to ensure no fractures or deformities) and belly (full tummy = the lamb has sucked)
• Weigh lambs
• Check ewe’s rear end to see whether afterbirth passed or not
• Check ewe’s teats to make sure they are working

Next morning we awoke to find 609 (sister to 608) suckling her twins (5kgs and 4.2kgs), then, 3 days later my favourite ewe, 605 – Meggie, delivered her twins (4.9kgs and 4.7kgs).  The following day, a single born to 665 required a little help – not surprising as the ram lamb weighed in at a very respectable 5.5kgs.

The following day, a set of twins from 601 (4.9kgs and 4.3kgs) and 669 (4.9kgs and 5.1kgs), all twins born naturally – but the last lamb presented our first problem, a watery eye which on inspection was due to an in turned eyelid (entropion) so that the lashes were rubbing on the eye.  Left untreated, this can lead to an ulcerated eye and a lot of pain for the lamb – on this occasion I was able to gently ease the lower lid away from the eye and give it a firm pinch – just enough to cause a little swelling which would stop it turning back in again.  We noted this, so that we could keep an eye (no pun intended) on the lamb during the next few hours.

Then a quiet 3 days of twice daily feeding the ewes, strawing-down the floor to keep everything fresh and clean and making sure the hayracks and water buckets were kept topped up, leaving me with plenty of time to sit in the straw and watch the 12 lambs pinging around the shed, including the odd one that developed a weird taste for my Wellington boots!

Next to lamb was number 10, a maiden ewe who quietly delivered her twins (4.3kgs and 3.7kgs), then 621 and 917 each delivered their sets of twins (5.1kgs and 4.3kgs) and (5.1kgs and 5.2kgs) respectively, with 917 requiring a little help to deliver her lambs.

By this time, 9 days into lambing, although a bit bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, we were well into the swing of things and thoroughly enjoying the lambing season, not quite believing how well it was all going.

Following a quiet two days (but for the happy bleating from the shed), ewe number 661 gave birth to a strapping ram lamb, weighing in at 5.6kgs, and born without any assistance.  Two days later 602 delivered a pair of lunchtime twins at 5.8kgs and 4.9kgs, quickly followed by a sturdy 5.5kgs teatime single from 630, a generally lazy ewe that I had been slightly worried about due to her rather expansive waistline – a fat ewe is never a fit ewe.  Early next morning I found her lamb listless, with a damp chin and empty tummy – classic signs of Watery Mouth.  Any lamb that doesn’t suck sufficient colostrum from his mother during the first few hours of life won’t have a passive protective immunity, and so is easily overwhelmed by toxin producing bacteria, no matter how scrupulously clean the lambing pen is (and, let’s be honest, most aren’t).  The outlook is generally poor for watery mouth, but he was still warm (hypothermia can quickly kill a lamb challenged by disease) and I hoped we’d caught him early enough to stand a chance of saving him.  We gave him an antibiotic injection, and then tubed him with electrolytes and glucose for rehydration and easily absorbed energy.  An hour later he was looking brighter, so we fed artificial colostrum by stomach tube, and repeated this 4 hours later.  He’s still with us, and is now one of the more boisterous members of the lamb gang!

Day 14 in the lambing shed, and just 2 ewes left to lamb – one looking very imminent, the other … well, not looking at all imminent, despite having been scanned for twins.  Ewe 662 started digging in the straw in the early evening, classic ‘nesting’ behaviour, but 4 hours later had still not produced anything – so I did a quick investigation, all was lined up perfectly: a nose and two front feet.  Another hour passed and the poor ewe was beginning to tire.  Time to help.  The lamb was perfectly presented, but just needed a bit of a pull to drag his vast bulk into the world.  At 7.1kgs, I think this is a record for us.

There’s always a bit of controversy around the subject of tailing and castrating lambs, and justifiably so as if done incorrectly can cause a great deal of suffering to the lamb.  There are strict rules about when and how these procedures are carried out – all of this is explained in The Breeding Flock DVD.
We don’t castrate our ram lambs – they are left as nature intended and we’ve never had any problems.  They are weaned long before they reach sexual maturity (which occurs at around 5 months), and reared separately from the ewe lambs.  As a pedigree flock, we’re always hoping to produce ‘stock ram’ quality boys, and those that don’t reach this standard are generally slaughtered at around 20 weeks, though we have kept some longer and never had any ‘ram taint’ whatsoever.

We do, however, ‘tail’ all our lambs.  The Hampshire Down has a naturally long tail which, combined with a thick fleece, would provide the perfect breeding site for maggots in the spring and summer months, regardless of our efforts to protect them from flystrike (we had one case of flystrike in April last year, a full month before shearing).  We use the rubber band method about 36-48 hours after they’re born, carefully applied to ‘skirt length’, to ensure that the ewe’s vulva is well covered from flies in the summer.

Now, some of you may have noticed that I finished my ‘lambing diary’ at 13 ewes, with their 23 lambs – but we of course have 14 ewes.  We are still waiting for number 20 to produce her lambs!  She scanned for twins, but as she has yet to ‘bag up’ fully and shows no other signs of imminent lambing, I suspect she conceived on the 2^nd cycle.  Otherwise, if she does turn out to be barren, we will have to ask our vet to carry out investigations to find out why.

Apart from this one tail-ender, I think this has been our best lambing season yet.

March 2012

In Kenneth Graham’s classic children’s book “The Wind in the Willows”, Badger was the wise and paternalistic figure who advised and protected the various riverside and forest animals.  There was certainly no mention in the book of Badger getting sick, or snuffling around the cowsheds at night, or moving into a neighbouring sett, having heard that the previous badger family had suddenly disappeared.  It was a favourite childhood book of mine, and of course I realised that it wasn’t about animals at all, but was a clever allegory of human behaviour.  Even as a child I wasn’t particularly sentimental about animals, but I loved them as part of the great miracle of nature.

The announcement by Defra in January this year of the two pilot areas in which landowners and farmers may apply for licences to cull badgers brought the subject of badgers back to me in clear, sharp focus.  We appear to be slap-bang in the middle of one of the two areas (West Gloucestershire, the other is in West Somerset) – although the precise locations are still under wraps.  It is, however, likely to affect Green Farm directly, as we have a large, active badger sett at the end of our Orchard, set into a bank against an old hedgerow.  We believe our sett is healthy, as our neighbour has kept cattle in the adjoining field for some years and has never had any reactors to the regular testing for mycobacterium bovis.  This set me thinking about how a cull would work … what if some landowners denied access to their land?  What about ‘perturbation – if ‘our’ resident sett is culled, diseased badgers may move in?  Are there effective alternatives to culling?

It’s perhaps worth stating the obvious at this point:  the subject of Bovine TB and badgers is both highly complex and very sensitive.  It’s estimated that it will cost taxpayers around one billion pounds over the next 10 years if not effectively dealt with.  More painfully for farmers, the disease forced the slaughter of 25,000 cattle during 2010 alone.  So it is a serious subject for ALL concerned, and I have always stated that, if I felt a badger cull would solve the problem, I would support it.

I’d read the report of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Badger Vaccination Deployment Programme carried out last summer, which set out to demonstrate that there is an affordable, effective alternative to the proposed cull in Bovine TB ‘hotspots’.  Admittedly, it’s not a total solution (currently, there isn’t one), but it did make sense from the perspective of at least reducing the disease output from wildlife:  vaccination doesn’t cure the badger but has been shown to reduce the severity of disease in badgers as well as reducing the number of bacilli excreted.

Combating this disease has got to be a multi-pronged effort.  Farmers can improve biosecurity wherever possible, as well maximising the herd’s health to promote a strong immune system – although even herds with the highest health status can still succumb to the disease.  Scientists are working towards more effective vaccines, including a cattle vaccine that can be differentiated from the actual disease during testing.  And finally, the reservoir of disease in wildlife must be reduced to prevent the risk of transmission to cattle: very selective culling of diseased animals may have a role in this, but vaccination most definitely has a role.  Defra acknowledges that “Badger vaccination could help reduce the prevalence and severity of bovine TB in a badger population and thereby reduce the rate of transmission to cattle”.

In early March, we had ‘our’ badger sett and surrounding fields surveyed, for badger activity as well as the feasibility of carrying out a vaccination programme.  This in itself was an interesting exercise as the ‘vaccination team’ are very knowledgeable about the secret life of badgers, and I learnt more that day than I could have from any TV wildlife programme!  During the survey the team mapped setts, runs, latrines, foraging signs and interestingly, a couch (a grass nest) in an old drainage pipe!  There was evidence of plenty of badger activity, and well-used latrines.  Factors affecting the practicalities of trapping and vaccinating badgers were recorded.



Their recommendation is to vaccinate badgers (through intramuscular injection) annually for 5 years – roughly the lifespan of a badger, to ensure that all badgers of all ages are treated, which will increase the level of immunity within the badger group.  Starting with ‘trap deployment’, peanuts are placed at ‘bait points’ to accustom the badgers to a source of food.  On days 5-9, the pre-bait period, the badgers are gradually encouraged to take peanuts from an open trap, then during the next 2 days humane traps are activated and badgers are vaccinated.  There is an element of flexibility in this, depending on how cooperative the badgers are!  Trapped badgers are given a full clinical health-check, and a vet will be on-call if attention is needed.  Each badger is marked to ensure they are only vaccinated once each year; trapping and vaccination can take place from May to November, to avoid the breeding season.

So what is the cost of this exercise?  And who pays?

Essentially, the landowner is responsible for the cost, which can only be calculated following a survey.  It is not a cheap option, and the farmer must be prepared to complete the full 5 years for it to be worthwhile.  There is Defra funding – the Badger Vaccination Fund for England, up to 50% of the cost of the first year’s vaccination for land within the pilot badger cull areas or a surrounding 2km ‘ring’.   Before commencing a vaccination programme, the farmer must obtain a license from Natural England – we’re in the process of applying for our licence, and will start the programme this year.

• http://www.brockvaccination.co.uk/
• Defra - Badger Vaccine Deployment Project
• fera (The Food and Environment Research Agency) -  Badger Vaccine Deployment Project

Meanwhile, there’s the rest of our smallholding activities to worry about!  The one that is concerning me most is, for the second year running, a distinct lack of rainfall.



In a normal season, our pond looks like this …          But this year, it’s already completely dried up …

Last year our fields ended up looking more like African Savannah than the English countryside, so we’re hoping for a good drenching soon, otherwise our hay crop will fail and we’ll have to buy in a further 600 or so bales for next winter.



And finally, we’re getting ready for lambing in mid-April.  This is a lot later than most flocks, but it suits us well and means the lambs will (hopefully) go out onto good grass.  The ewes are looking exceptionally well, and, with just two weeks to go, they’re ‘bagging up’ nicely meaning a good supply of milk for their lambs.  Between 3-4 weeks before lambing we gave all the ewes a trace element and vitamin drench specifically to counteract the deficiencies that we’ve identified in our forage (see January 2012 diary), and they’re getting a daily ration of high protein feed according to the number of lambs they’ve been scanned for and their body condition score.

February 2012

February is such a difficult month for the gardener, and it’s very easy to get caught on the hop when a sunny day persuades you to get sowing in the vegetable plot, followed a few days later by a hard and frosty day that nips all your seedlings in the bud.  However, I for one cannot resist the call of spring, and during the last week of February in went my rows of carrots, peas, parsnips and beetroot.  Ever hopeful!  The greenhouse (ours is unheated, but a bit of bubble wrap helps our more tender shoots) comes into its own at this time too, and is now stuffed with pots and trays of seedlings:  cabbages, tomatoes, broad beans, onions, and lots of different herbs.  Fingers crossed!

From my various discussions with smallholders about their sheep flocks, lameness is the subject that is most often raised as being a troublesome aspect of husbandry.  Not surprisingly, as it’s probably the most visible sign that the sheep has a problem, and all good shepherds will know that the most important thing you can do for a lame sheep is to treat it immediately you spot a problem.  In fact, it’s good practise to regularly locomotion score your flock (on a scale of 1-5) and to immediately treat any that are footsore.  ‘Nipping it in the bud’ is the best way of preventing mild scald, for example, from progressing into full-blown footrot and infecting the rest of the flock at the same time.  If lameness is a problem you have with your flock, look out for our forthcoming “Spotlight on Lameness” article, or register here to be alerted when it’s posted.



February is the month that we have our ewes pregnancy scanned, and as the news of Schmallenberg Disease was breaking, we were justifiably anxious about what the results might be – at the time, little if anything was known about the disease, except that it might cause foetal re-absorption, abortion and deformed lambs.

As it turned out, we’re very pleased with our scanning results this year, at 179% our flock is 2% up on last year, with a 19% improvement on 2010.  It’s a good indicator that this aspect of our ‘flock improvement’ measures is working.  So, for the record, we’re expecting one set of triplets, 10 sets of twins, and 3 singles – a fact that is graphically displayed by a series of spray-paint dots on the ewes’ sides!

 

Interesting Agricultural Fact of the Month!

For those of you who like to discuss interesting farming facts in your local pub of an evening, I’ve decided to add a little postscript to the monthly farm diary to provide you with some provocative subject matter!  So, for March, here’s a bit of interesting info about ‘Peak Phosphorous’.
Phosphorous, as all good gardeners will know, is one of the essential elements for all plant growth – it’s the ‘P’ in the N:P:K tests that you should be doing on your garden soil, so that you can correct any nutritional imbalances or deficiencies.  In mammals, it’s essential for bone development, muscle function, and energy production.  So, when you buy your bag of fertiliser (and remember, farmers worldwide buy millions of tonnes of the stuff each year), where does the phosphorous bit come from?
About 90% of the world’s reserves are to be found in phosphate-bearing rock in just five countries: the Western Sahara, Jordan, South Africa, China and the USA, and it’s been estimated that we have about 30-40 years’ worth left.  Of course, there may be other deposits that we have yet to exploit (the sea-bed may provide a rich source), but on the other hand, our demand is growing as populations around the world westernise their diets to include more meat, which means more plant growth to feed the animals.  China, apparently, have been buying mountains (literally) in various parts of the world with the intention of extracting the essential elements required for agriculture.
Before you ask, no, there is no artificial substitute for phosphorus. But we could attempt to recycle it.  Currently, literally tonnes of the stuff is flushed away annually, unfortunately, in our chemical-ridden age, much human waste also contains other less welcome chemicals (antibiotics and hormones for starters) that if applied directly to the crops we eat could eventually contribute to antibiotic-resistance and who-knows-what trans-gender problems.


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January 2012

I have to admit to being a bit of a ‘junkie’ when it comes to attending ‘Farmer’s Events’, especially anything organised by the National Sheep Association or EBLEX, (the English Beef & Lamb Executive).  Over the past few years I’ve been to some really excellent meetings, and learned a great deal about various aspects of rearing livestock from conception to sale or slaughter, different approaches to managing the flock, and marketing produce.  Obviously, a lot of the information is aimed at large-scale commercial farmers, but there is a great deal that is relevant to even the smallest flock-keeper.  Perhaps the best things about these meetings are the brilliant expert speakers, and the opportunity to talk to both experts and other livestock keepers after the formal presentations.



At this point, I should make a confession, or two.  When I went to my first meeting, I felt incredibly shy – how could I possibly hold a conversation with any of the farmers with years of experience, an agricultural college qualification and a ‘proper’ farm to run?  What’s more, I often struggled to understand many aspects of the presentation, in particular the intricacies of ewe nutrition, and the complex lifecycle of a liver fluke!  But I persevered, went to more meetings, read some very thick veterinary books, talked to more experts, and now I feel more confident (note the qualified ‘more’) and much better informed.  So, if you get the opportunity to attend any local farmer or smallholder meetings or training sessions, don’t hesitate – your increased knowledge will build your confidence and help you manage your land and livestock much more efficiently!

Now to state the obvious:  knowledge is of no use unless you put it into practice!  So, in the knowledge that one of the most important aspects of a successful lambing is ewe nutrition, I sent a sample of our hay away for analysis.  As hay is the basic winter forage we feed our ewes during their pregnancy, I wanted find out whether it lacks any micro-nutrients that are essential to both maintain a healthy pregnancy, and produce bouncing lambs with the least intervention from me!  In past years we’ve provided the ewes with ‘mineral buckets’ from flushing through to lambing as an ‘insurance’ against any shortages, and we’ve also used mineral and trace element drenches to good effect – but this is an expensive and quite possibly wasteful strategy!



Many feed and supplement companies offer a free forage analysis service (for hay, haylage and silage) – on the basis that most forage lacks some essential elements which you will have to supplement by buying their products!  So it’s worth asking if they offer a service – and even if you do have to pay for an analysis, it can quickly pay you back.  If your forage is really good quality, you will be able to feed less concentrates, and with the price of bagged feed (and mineral buckets) rising all the time, this can result in a considerable saving.
Last month I wrote about the results of our soil analysis, and you might think that having had the soil tested it’s not worth testing the forage, as surely this will reflect what’s in the soil (if you make your own forage).  Unfortunately, this isn’t the case as some elements have an ‘antagonistic’ effect on others, an interactive effect that locks up certain trace elements so they are not available to grazing animals.  Additionally, some elements will be unavailable to shallow roots, which is why adding deep-rooting forages such as plantain and chicory to your grazing pastures can make a very economical difference!



The results of our hay analysis were quite an eye-opener – every single essential mineral and trace element (except the antagonists, highlighted) was below the guidelines for ruminants, and some were significantly lacking:

Mineral / Trace Element	%age of requirement	Nutritional Role
Sodium	50%	Palatability; electrolytic effect – hydration; bone development; muscle function
Phosphorus	30%	Bone development; muscle function; energy production
Calcium	60%	Bone development; muscle function; has a role in absorption of zinc
Magnesium	80%	Bone development; muscle function; activates enzymes
Selenium	20%	Ewe fertility; lamb survival (immunity to disease and vigour)/birth weight; DNA function; male fertility; helps metabolise iodine to protect muscles from damage (‘white muscle disease’) in lambs; aids ‘cleansing’ and milk yield in ewes;
Iodine	30%	Formation of hormones (eg. thyroxine); essential for newborn lamb to maintain body temperature
Cobalt	50%	Implantation & early foetal development; lamb vigour/appetite; used in the rumen to produce vitamin B12 which promotes wool growth (deficiency is called ‘Pine’)
Copper	20%	A tricky one with sheep, as an under-supply can cause swayback in lambs, while an over-supply can be toxic (especially in Texels and North Ronaldsay); influences effect of iron in haemoglobin synthesis
Zinc	40%	Essential for skin and hoof growth; helps prevent mastitis
Manganese	70%	Anti-oxidant; essential for carbohydrate and lipid synthesis – lamb growth & vigour

 

ANTAGONISTS

Iron	130%	An excess will reduce availability of copper
Potassium	90%	Bone development; muscle function
Sulphur	110%	Reduces availability of copper, but essential for bone development & muscle function
Molybdenum	190%	Reduces availability of copper; in excessive amounts can cause diarrhoea, infertility, low birth weight, retarded growth

So, I obviously need to supplement the fodder to supply all the micronutrients needed by my ewes in the run up to lambing in mid-April.  Watch this space!

December 2011

Although Green Farm is not registered organic, we try as far as possible to ensure that all our activities follow organic principles, especially in the rearing of our lambs.  Apart from a small amount of creep feed at weaning, to counteract the stress of being separated from their dams, lambs are reared on forage alone.  This means our grassland (from which we also cut hay to provide conserved forage through the winter months) has to provide all the nutrients that are essential for strong growth.  Importantly, we want to ensure that most of our lambs intended for slaughter will be finished within 20 weeks to ensure we don’t put pressure on our limited pastures beyond the summer growing season.  So, our grass is very important to us and during the seven years since we came to the farm, we’ve added quite a lot of ‘alternative’ forages to improve our existing species-rich permanent pastures.  These include:

• White clover – for its nitrogen-fixing ability which adds fertility to the soil, and its root structure that makes it both drought-tolerant and improves the structure of the soil (red clover is also useful, but it produces oestrogens that can interfere with a ewe’s fertility, so should be avoided on pastures used for ‘flushing’);
• Chicory (Puna II variety) – with a very long tap-root, chicory is not only drought tolerant, but also provides a rich source of minerals that aren’t available to shallower-rooting plants, combined with a leafy, high protein forage which also has proven anthelmintic qualities, meaning a significant reduction in our use of chemical wormers;
• Plantain – good drought tolerance, highly palatable and provides a good source of minerals and trace elements.

Images courtesy of Cotswold Seeds

As regular readers of this diary will be very well aware, we have had exceptionally low rainfall for the past two years, which severely restricted grass growth during the summer months.  But, I wondered, is it only the lack of moisture that is inhibiting growth, or are there perhaps other factors involved?  More specifically, is our soil structure and composition able to provide the essential elements for grass growth: namely air, moisture and a complex cocktail of minerals and trace elements?

I know from having dug our vegetable plot single-handedly that our soil texture is variously heavy clay with a good mix of riverbed silt (I found loads of smooth riverbed pebbles and softer mudstone with embedded fossils), and its structure is quite ‘blocky’, meaning that it’s naturally quite stable – good so far.  However, if the ground becomes compacted, and clay soils are the ones most likely to do so, it means there will be less space between the blocks for air, water and root development.

So, under the guidance of Ray, our Consultant Agronomist, we carried out a compaction test on three fields that I had identified as performing less well than they might … this involved some pretty technical kit, namely a spade and a penetrometer!  A clod of earth was dug from each field, and here is a brief summary of the results (the full report was 10 pages!):

RICKYARD Closest to house, sheep & horse grazing	Red, loamy topsoil, well-rooted and friable to 5cm with a good number of worms observed, below this zone soil increasingly structured with limited root penetration; vertical cracking increases water holding capacity
FAR ORCHARD Sheep & horse grazing	Red brown loamy topsoil, deep (10cm) and well-rooted; moderate earthworm activity
SEED PIECE Sheep grazing & hayfield (so traversed by heavy equipment), muck spread annually in Spring	Sward in good condition, dark brown loamy topsoil loose, well-rooted and friable, root growth observed to 25cms (of the 3, this field is the only one that we spread FYM – farmyard manures – onto, which explains the high level of organic matter in the soil)

Essentially, his recommendations included regular assessment of soil (which, as we are in an NVZ – nitrate vulnerable zone – we have to do annually), aerating specific areas in Rickyard and Far Orchard, and removing livestock in wet conditions (not easy with limited acreage!), all of which would potentially improve grass production by up to 30%.  Finally, as an interesting aside, he calculated that our flock of 35 sheep and 2 large horses would between them produce 105m³ of muck annually, with an estimated commercial value in the region of £400.  I don’t feel so bad about buying that new bridle now, paid for by poo!

Next is the science bit, which all you good gardeners will be sagely nodding at!

Ray set off on a hike around the fields with his sampling auger to collect a number of soil samples for laboratory analysis.  A couple of weeks later we all sat around the kitchen table while he patiently explained the Analytical Report.  Starting with the easy bit, the soil acidity, or pH value that, in an ideal field, will be between pH6– pH6.5 (with 1 being very acidic, 7 being neutral and 14 being very alkaline).  Ours is slightly acid, ranging from pH6.21to pH6.4, so far so good!

Potassium or Potash (K) enables the plant to efficiently transport nutrients from root to leaf.  It’s an expensive element, so I was pleased to note that in all but one part of our hayfield, we have relatively high amounts in our soil (Index 3).  Too high a level, which will cause lush grass growth, can interfere with a ruminant’s ability to absorb magnesium and cause fatal ‘staggers’ at or around lambing and calving, so if you need to apply K, don’t do it at this time.

Next, we looked at some rather surprising Phosphorus (P) results.  Phosphorus (or phosphate) is essential for plant root development and thus the efficient use of nitrogen in the soil, so it’s one of the most important elements in plant growth, but as with all elements, you can have too much or too little of a good thing.  In our case it is considerably too little (Indices 1-2), but this is to some extent mitigated by our slightly acid soil, which means that what P there is, is readily available to the plants that need it.  Alkaline soils can create a ‘lock-up’ or ‘antagonistic’ effect meaning that P is not available to plants.   Too much P can also create an environmental problem as it can leach into waterways and cause toxic algal blooms.

But the real surprise came with the Magnesium (Mg) results, which were right at the top of the scale (Index 7).  Oh good, I thought, that means our sheep won’t suffer from Magnesium Staggers.  Wrong again … on the ‘too much of a good thing’ principle.  Too much Mg reduces the availability of K and N, and locks up calcium in the soil making it ‘claggy’ and hard to cultivate.  In fact, our K and Mg levels are completely the wrong way around!  Ours are on a ratio of 1:1.5 and the ideal would be 3:1.

Finally we looked at Nitrogen (N) and Sulphur (S), both major nutrients necessary for plant growth, and existing in our soil at moderate levels (with the N at very good levels where we have high proportions of clover in the grass sward) which need to be topped up in the correct amount, from the right source, at the right time.

All of this left me thinking I wish I’d paid more attention in my Chemistry lessons at school, and I would recommend that anyone considering a career on the land studies this subject seriously – it’s the ‘building blocks’ of all growth, plant and animal!  Thankfully for me, people like Ray exist, and the over- and under-supplies of nutrients can be quite simply, cheaply (and organically) remedied.  On his advice, in addition to our regular muck spreading and harrowing in the spring, we will also be adding gypsum (Calcium Sulphate) every 4/5 years, which will both help our soil structure through a process known as flocculation, as well as helping mitigate the high levels of Magnesium.

There’s just one other factor that we need to consider, and that is to recognise that haymaking removes considerable amounts of nutrients from the field, whereas fields used for grazing animals don’t suffer this depletion effect as the animals recycle the elements in their dung and urine.
So, that’s my version of agronomy; not an easy subject, but one that is really important.  By having the most nutritious grazing in front of them, we ensure that our livestock flourish – and by making sure that they have access to vital nutrients from our grassland, we make sure that our lambs grow on unchecked.