November 2014

The beautiful autumn colours hung on through most of November in our corner of Gloucestershire, looking slightly incongruous against the summer flowers that were still in bloom. But it was nice to be out in the garden in shirtsleeves, in this, the warmest November on record.

Dino the tup spent just under 3 weeks with the ewes, during which time he enthusiastically marked each one. At the end of the first 9 days we changed his raddle colour from red to green (always a fun job, separating an amorous ram from his ewes!), so some of the ewes – those that didn’t ‘take’ during the early part of their first cycle – are now sporting very colourful rear ends. The plan is to change the raddle colour at the end of their first cycle, at 17 days, then one further time, and any ewes that are marked for a third time are more than likely barren – or we will have some annoyingly late lambs. All this is explained in our Expert Article by Chris Lewis, so if you are in any confusion – this is where to go for clarification!

We’ll have the ewes pregnancy scanned between 80-90 days (you can scan as early as 40 days). There are a number of good management reasons that make it very worthwhile taking the guesswork out of lambing, and these are all covered in the Sheep on Your Smallholding series in Programme 3 – “The Breeding Flock”.

Pregnancy scanning can also alert you to flock infertility or abortion problems if a high proportion scan as barren. We’ve never had a problem with ewes aborting *touch wood* and a couple of years ago had the flock blood-tested for Toxoplasmosis (all clear). We keep a ‘closed-flock’ so the risk of Enzootic abortion is minimised, but, as domestic cats can transmit Toxo, all flocks are potentially as risk.

Most of this year’s spring-born lambs have gone off for slaughter by now, apart from the ones we’ve ear-marked to join our breeding flock next year. We have to be very realistic as a pedigree breeder, unless they are exceptional, they won’t find a buyer. Sadly, although we had some really super ram lambs, they’re just not up to ‘champion’ standard, which means a trip to the abattoir.

I’ve had many discussions about keeping entire ram lambs destined for meat production, and the question of ‘ram taint’ is often raised. We’ve never castrated our ram lambs. It requires careful management – separating them from the ewe lambs at weaning, making sure we have good fencing, and sending them for slaughter within 12 months of birth, or before they show obvious signs of sexual maturity. We’ve never had any problem with rams fighting, or with ‘ram taint’. In fact, “a significant proportion of male lambs slaughtered in the UK are entire”, according to the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), who in their 2008 Report on the Implications of Castration and Tail Docking for the Welfare of Lambs, recommend that, where management standards are sufficiently high, male lambs are left entire on welfare grounds.

It’s been a good year for growing lambs this year (lots of grass and sunshine) so the lambs that have gone for slaughter have been more or less spot on our target liveweight of 42kg, which gives a carcass weight (deadweight) of around 18kg (ie. less head, entrails, skin, etc.). A couple of years ago I went on an EBLEX (www.eblex.org.uk) ‘Live to Dead’ event organised for farmers. The day started with an assessment of lambs ‘on the hoof’, graded by the ‘EUROP’ scale, which judges conformation and depth of fat. This is critically important for farmers producing commercial lambs, and very interesting for anyone aiming to produce good quality eating lamb. Later, we were given the opportunity to assess the finished carcass, and see how accurate our original grading was – very interesting and worthwhile!

If you’re planning to produce lamb, it’s essential to know how to select a good lamb for slaughter, nice and meaty without too much fat (and by the way, be firm but gentle or you will bruise the carcass):

• Feel around the base of the tail (dock) – you should be able to feel the individual vertebrae (bones) using moderate pressure
• Feel across the loin (where the body narrows in front of the hip bones) – you’ll feel the spine at the top and the transverse processes, which project sideways from the spine, about a hand’s width to either side – have a picture of two nicely covered loin chops side by side in your mind, and you’ll get the idea!
• The ribs will have a soft covering of fat, but you should be able to feel them individually
• Check the brisket (breast) – it should be firm with no more than a finger’s pinch of fat

And finally, if you want to maximise your income from your lamb enterprise, our new DVD release “A Guide to Sheep Butchery” gives you a complete step-by-step guide from selection to plate!

Carole Youngs of The Smallholder Series has written a thought-provoking article for the winter edition of Practical Sheep, Goats & Alpacas magazine, about how to breed and manage sheep in the most environmentally friendly way.

October 2014

My Scary Halloween: I’m sitting at my computer in a T-shirt. The heating hasn’t been turned on since last winter. The grass is still growing well ahead of the sheep and horses and there are more summer flowers in bloom in my garden than I had in July. It’s 23˚C outside and several peacock butterflies are sunbathing on the buddleia, catching the warm rays of the sun. How lovely! BUT, and it’s a big ‘but’, if this glorious but unseasonable weather is due to ‘global warming’, there is inevitably another, more sinister side to the climatic coin: the threat from seasonal pests and diseases in livestock will persist beyond their traditional timescale.

Just over a week ago we experienced the worst case of fly-strike on a ram lamb that I’ve ever seen. For several years now our ‘fly management’ regime has been 100% effective: we treat all the sheep and lambs immediately after shearing in mid-May with ‘Clik’ pour-on, an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) that prevents blowfly eggs hatching into maggots and gives 16 week protection, taking us up to mid-September, by which time the threat from blowfly is waning. We also use ‘Red Top’ fly traps to reduce the blowfly population in the area, and finally, but most importantly, we check the sheep twice a day – morning and evening, as it takes less than 24 hours for eggs laid on the sheep’s wool to develop into maggots. On this particular evening I noticed a ram lamb separated from the flock, laying down; as I got closer to him I could see a dirty brown patch on his side, and his fleece looked ‘blown’ – lifted away from his side. The maggots covered about a third of his visible flank and spread across his back. A sheep that is affected this badly will often die of toxic shock.

Clik will not treat a sheep affected by maggots; a product that kills already developed maggots is required. I cut the fleece away from the affected area – in fact a lot of it just fell away where it had been chewed by the maggots – and applied an appropriate insecticide. The skin was severely damaged: maggots secrete enzymes that liquefy and digest skin tissue, allowing secondary infections, decomposing tissue then releases toxins that are absorbed into the bloodstream, causing systemic illness and ultimately, death.

I was determined to save this little fellow, so once the live maggots had been dealt with, I gave him a shot of antibiotic to help him fight off infection, an anti-inflammatory to soothe the pain, and then applied “Summer Cream”, an anti-bacterial cream with a sun-screen to protect the damaged skin and promote healing. Ten days later he’s loosing more fleece as a result of the shock to his system, but he’s alive, lively and doing well – and his new fleece is starting to grow through … but he’ll never win a beauty contest!

The forecast is that our Indian summer will soon give way to autumn, and the signs so far is that it will be a spectacularly colourful one.

And finally, Carole Youngs of The Smallholder Series has written a thought-provoking article for the winter edition of Practical Sheep, Goats & Alpacas magazine, about how to breed and manage sheep in the most environmentally friendly way.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk

September 2014

There’s nothing more satisfying than selling top quality pedigree livestock that will go on to establish new flocks, and this month our Hampshire Downs have travelled to new homes in Worcestershire and Monmouthshire

In the first case, a very well-grown ram lamb, who will initially be tupping cross-bred ewes on a commercial farm owned by a young couple just starting their own farming business – I understand that the ram is to be called Gorgeous (which is our flock name) Gordon (which reflects the new owners sense of humour!). Interestingly, the purchasers, both from farming backgrounds and both having studied agriculture at college, selected their chosen ram not only on his evident good looks, but also on a thorough examination of his pedigree and his EBVs, or Estimated Breeding Values. Firstly, they specifically wanted a ram that was born as one of twins, as this would make him more likely to father twins himself – a very good production trait for a commercial farm. Next, they carefully studied his growth rates, which we record from birth to maturity and from these we can calculate his Daily Liveweight Gain (DLG). Ideally, a commercial sheep breeder wants to fatten lambs as quickly as possible – the longer they stay on the farm the more feed and grass they eat, the more likely they are to be affected by parasites (which will slow their growth rate), and the more likely they are to need various treatments with expensive pharmaceuticals! In addition to these outlays, there is the farmer’s labour to take into account. Adding all these factors together, it’s easy to see how useful it is to keep specific records.

Our next purchasers, smallholders with a lovely small farm on the Welsh Borders, had done their homework carefully and decided on Hampshire Downs on the basis of looks, temperament and, very importantly, their eating quality as they wanted to start a small-scale business selling lamb through a box-scheme. Having done their research, Hamps came out top for the flavour and succulence of their meat! As they were starting the flock from scratch, we suggested that, instead of buying ewe lambs (which are always better if left to their second year before being bred from themselves), they choose 4 shearling ewes, which we could put to our tup so they wouldn’t need to buy their own ram in their first year. So they chose 4 lovely ewes, and 3 lambs to look at in the meantime!

Mid-month we brought our own ewes in to give them a complete check-over, and make sure they were all fit to go to the ram – we checked:

• FEET – ewes need to be sound or they may be reluctant to mate, will feed less so may lose condition which will lower their fertility
• UDDERS – older ewes may have damaged teats, or have lost the function of one or both ‘quarters’ due to infections, such as mastitis
• TEETH – older ewes especially may have missing teeth, and although they may be in good condition following a summer’s grazing, they may struggle during a bad winter
• CONDITION – if the ewes are poor now, after the lush grass of the summer, they won’t gain sufficient condition to rear a pair of twins
• WORM COUNT – we select ewes that have resistance to internal parasites, so a faecal egg count will identify any ewes that are highly susceptible

Thankfully, all my favourite ewes passed this examination with flying colours, and will be put to the ram on 5^th of November, for lambing to start from the 1^st of April.

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And finally, Carole Youngs of The Smallholder Series has written a comprehensive guide to ram selection and management for the autumn edition of Practical Sheep, Goats & Alpacas magazine, which is currently on sale in all good newsagents.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk

August 2014

Having now lived and farmed at Green Farm since 2005, I’ve come to the conclusion that any problem, of any kind, is best dealt with sooner rather than later – and I firmly believe in the old adage that Prevention is always better than cure! So at the start of the month I arranged a visit from the vet to take blood samples from a selection or our ewes to determine whether our two lambing losses earlier this year were caused by an infectious disease that could be pinpointed. I was thinking specifically of Toxoplasmosis, or Enzootic Abortion, and our vet also suggested the possibility of Campylobacter.

While the vet was here, it also made economic sense to gather some faecal samples from the lambs for him to take back to the lab for Worm Egg Counts!
Our basic handling system comes into its own on these occasions, enabling us to gather the flock and separate specific animals for inspection or treatments in a calm, quiet manner – a far-cry from our early days of ‘sheep-grabbing’ which was frustrating for us and inevitably stressful for the sheep.

The test results from the vet confirmed that none of our ewes carried any disease or infection that might cause barrenness or abortion. Based on this, we’ve decided to remove one ewe from the flock as she’d had problems 2 years running, but all the others were fit to breed – depending on their condition pre-tupping.

Since we’d gathered the flock, it made sense to wean the lambs; at 15 weeks some of the ram lambs were getting frisky and we certainly didn’t want any unexpected Christmas lambs! Two days of pitiful bleating followed, but the plentiful, clover-rich pasture soon distracted them.
We’re really pleased to have sold some of our best lambs for breeding this year.

As a pedigree breeder, there is nothing more rewarding than selling good quality breeding stock, especially rams, to commercial farmers; their choice has to be based on sound business criteria, so it’s particularly satisfying for us to sell rams that will join a commercial flock of ewes, especially when the same farmer returns for more in subsequent years!

Conversely, our poultry-breeding this year has not been as successful! Our spring hatch turned out to be 75% cockerels – I would expect the odds to be roughly 50:50 male to female ratio, so this is rather a disappointment as we’d hoped to add to our laying flock. However, the cockerels are extremely handsome, especially the Red Dorkings – quite rare, with exquisite plumage – but, unless something happens to Eric, our Welsummer cock, they will all end up in the pot! At least the breeds, New Hampshire Reds as well as the Dorkings, are both large so will at least make a good family meal!

The end of August marks another transition: that from summer to autumn, and the signs of the changing seasons are all around us. Our summer visitors, the swallows, have had an exceptional breeding year here, and the numbers that gather each evening have filled the skies like I’ve never seen before; it’s a fantastic sight to watch them performing graceful aerobatics to catch the flies and midges against the amazing sunsets that the waning summer has brought this year.

Carole Youngs of The Smallholder Series has written a comprehensive guide to TAKING STOCK OF YOUR FLOCK for the autumn edition of Practical Sheep, Goats & Alpacas magazine, which is currently on sale in all good newsagents – or, better still, take out an annual subscription and receive a FREE copy of “Establishing Your Flock”, the first of four titles in the “Sheep on Your Smallholding” DVD set presented by Adam Henson.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk

July 2014

We don’t keep a large flock of chickens at Green Farm, usually just around a dozen to provide eggs for us, and, depending on the time of year, a surplus to give to friends and neighbours. I love sharing excess produce and, with our nearest neighbour some distance along the lane, it’s a great excuse to pop round with a trug-full of beans and courgettes to be welcomed with a cup of coffee and a jar of honey (it’s a seasonal thing, come autumn it’ll be squashes and screw-top jars of hedgerow jellies).



At haymaking, we share tractors and trailers, and at various times of the year, we share sheep remedies, horsy experiences and chicken wisdom! The readiness of country folk to ‘pitch-in’ and help one another out is the thing that bonds a geographically spread-out population and provides the ‘glue’ that creates sustainable rural communities.

Haymaking – I’ll spare you my seasonal angst that this brings each year, suffice to say, we have a full barn full of sweet, fragrant hay, and a nearby dressage yard where a certain Olympian trains, has another barn-full – so our hay could be feeding the next equestrian superstar!

This month we carried out our third year of vaccinating the Green Farm badgers, and it has been our most successful year to date, with 2 adults and 4 well-grown juveniles trapped and vaccinated. All were in good condition, healthy and very lively!






One of the sights I particularly dislike at this time of year is a field full of ragwort. I know it’s the essential food-source for the Cinnabar Moth, but it’s also deadly poisonous to livestock, particularly horses who will unwittingly eat it once it’s been trampled and looses its bitter taste. Unfortunately, we have a small patch of wasteland next to our orchard waist high with ragwort and thistles that are never removed (unless I climb the fence and clear it, which, of course, I do).


With the start of the sheep-breeding season fast approaching, we went shopping for a new pedigree Hampshire Down ram this month. We’d drawn up our ‘Wish List’ of attributes he should bring to further improve our flock – these were our criteria:

• From a high-health status flock which observes good biosecurity, including MV Accreditation
• EBVs in the top end of the overall breed scale
• Conforms to the Hampshire Down breed standard – this is based on attributes that are vital for a healthy sheep, as well as some more ‘cosmetic’ elements
• Born as a twin, since prolificacy is hereditable
• Good feet and legs – vital for a ram that must be able to stand on tiptoe!
• Visually pleasing appearance, although we don’t show our flock, it’s nonetheless important that he looks right – if a ram doesn’t please the eye, it invariably means there’s something subtly amiss with his conformation
• Raised on a forage diet, not bulked up on cereals
• Kind temperament; as I often have to handle him alone, the last thing I want to deal with is a bad-tempered ram (bearing in mind that he’ll weigh around 120kgs, which is more than twice my weight!)
• And last but of primary importance, all his ‘bits’ must obviously be in good working order!

Allow me to introduce you to Court Dynamo, a shearling ram who is, as my very personal inspection revealed, correct in every way. He already answers to ‘Dino’, and is quickly making friends with his little friend Roger, a very small bottle-fed ram lamb, now elevated to the post of ‘Ram Companion’.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk

June 2014

Each year, usually starting around mid-June, I find myself spending an excessive amount of time looking at long-term weather forecasts, wondering whether we will have a good window of time in which to get the hay in. Not having all the equipment to do the job ourselves, we are reliant on our contractor. He’s never let us down, and the sweet hay has always been mowed, turned, rowed and baled to perfection. But that doesn’t stop me loosing sleep over it!

I simply cannot imagine what it must be like to have a valuable crop of ripening grain in the fields, watching every day for kind or inclement weather, checking for any one of the multitude of pests and diseases that might attack the crop, and carefully monitoring each stage of growth, levels of moisture and numerous other variables – all of which have to be spot-on before harvesting can commence. We have just 7 acres shut up for hay, and that stand of grass occupies a hugely disproportionate amount of my waking hours at this time of year!

We got very close, but a change in the weather brought heavy rain, and we postponed haymaking. I console myself with the thought that July hay is generally better quality; June hay is inherently ‘wetter’ and unless really baked by the sun for several days, can start to ‘sweat’ once baled, leading to the growth of moulds. So, I shall have to suffer another month of fretting about the weather and our, as yet, empty hay barn.

The early June weather was, however, perfect for another filming project we’ve been working on, that took us to firstly to the rolling hills of Devon in the South West, then onto the rugged hills of Northumberland in the North East to interview farmers about the criteria they use when selecting rams for their flocks. Increasingly, rams are selected for their figures (!) – based on ultrasound or CT scans which are fed into the Signet Breeding Services system to produce accurate EBVs, or Estimated Breeding Values. These give an increasingly accurate forecast of the qualities that the rams will pass onto their progeny, such as the depth of muscle over the loin, and the growth rates of their lambs – essential information for farmers needing to produce grass-fed, fast-growing lambs, that will meet the retail buyer’s carcase specification.

I recently had an interesting exchange with a fellow “Tweeter”, which as those of you who are Twitter users will know, can be an interesting experience, with just 140 characters to express your thoughts! The assertion was that farmers who rely on ‘subsidies’ to survive, such as hill farmers, should be allowed to go under, like any other business that doesn’t show a profit, rather than be supported by Single Farm Payments (SFP) and Environmental Stewardship payments, or in other words, the British taxpayer via the EU. In effect, farming is a business that should succeed or fail, just like any other – but is it? And why should a special financial case be made for farmers?

At this point, I reach for my copy of the snappily titled publication: “Complementary Role of Sheep in Less Favoured Areas”, published in 2012 by the National Sheep Association, possibly with the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, due in 2015, in mind. In 25 carefully-crafted chapters, it describes “the many hidden benefits that sheep production and grazing delivers”, and even as someone familiar with lowland sheep farming, I was amazed at the scope and breadth of benefits that sheep farming brings to Hill and Upland communities, and has done for many generations. Here are just a few, selected at random:

• Sustainable, healthy food production (extensively-reared, grass-fed meat is higher in Omega 3 and lower in Omega 6 – the ideal balance for a healthy diet)
• Wool production (renewable, biodegradable, sustainable, beautiful, versatile)
• Grazing helps maintain biodiversity by preventing scrub encroachment, as well as helping prevent wildfire damage to peat bogs which act as carbon stores
• Grazing sheep help limit the spread of toxic bracken, which harbours disease-carrying ticks
• Upland sheep farming maintains the social fabric and creates viable working communities that use local schools, transport, health services, shops and businesses – all supporting the local economy, traditional skills and knowledge
• Tourism – the wide, open spaces created by grazing animals are a draw for walkers, and the variety of traditional breeds in the hills are a great attraction

Many of the farmers who work in these hills may not make a living wage, but their contribution to the rural economy is immeasurable. The SFP is coming to an end in 2015, with as yet fairly vague proposals as to the system that will replace it. Let’s hope that it will support the farmers and the communities that have helped create some of the wonderful, living landscapes that we love to visit.

And finally, this has undoubtedly been the year for lush grass; perfect for growing lambs, and our not-so-little Hampshire Downs have been no exception, growing at unprecedented rates and looking very fine indeed. At just 8 weeks of age, the average weight was over 30kgs, with the heaviest at a staggering 42kgs! So here’s a collection of photos of our lambs, now aged between 12-14 weeks old.

May 2014

Last month we finished our scheduled lambing, and we’re pleased to have lambed all the ewes within a fortnight, and with a lovely, lively bunch of lambs. I say ‘scheduled’ lambing as we have one ewe that we had decided not to breed from due to her lack of condition last Autumn, but she had other ideas and enticed the ram to leap two fences to join her several weeks after the start of our ‘official’ tupping period. Obviously my assessment of her condition was mis-judged – she was apparently plenty fit enough and had her night of passion with Max the ram!

As a result, our final pair of inconvenient twins was born on the 4^th May, fully 5 weeks later than the main flock. Thankfully, due to the ewe having the luxury of a comfy shed and 2 good feeds a day during the last few weeks of her pregnancy, she was in good condition and her two ewe lambs were fit and bonny, weighing in at 5.1 and 4.3kgs – and we were pleased to have two ewe lambs to balance the bias of the other ewes having produced mostly ram lambs this year!



We have an abundance of grass this year. The ground has held much of last winter’s moisture and, combined with the glorious warm Spring weather, has produced more of the green stuff than we can feasibly cope with! We’ve shut up the hayfield earlier than usual, but I suspect that we shall still be getting the topper out in the next week or so on some of the other paddocks to avoid losing the lambs in a jungle of grass!
This situation typifies what happens on many farms and smallholdings, and the shocking truth is that often as little as 50% of the available grass is utilised by the animals it was grown for in the first place – how wasteful!


I recently went on a very intensive, one-day EBLEX Feed Planning Workshop led by Livestock Scientist, Dr Liz Genever. I hoped to come away with ideas on how to match grass supply & demand through the year for the benefit of the sheep at each stage of production – and ideas I got a-plenty! Gone are the days of turning a flock of sheep (or herd of cattle) out onto a field of grass and hoping that would ‘do’ them for the season (‘set stocking’); these days grass is measured and matched to the needs of the type and number of stock, and the time of year. Stock is grazed on grass that is at the optimum height (which is at the 3^rd new leaf stage), and then – often within a day or two – are moved onto fresh pasture. This system (called ‘paddock-grazing’) is not new, but recent research and methods of accurately matching supply to demand have given the farmer the tools needed to translate the theory into practice, with considerable production benefits. A reliable electric fence system is essential!

The day covered the science of growing and feeding grass in fascinating detail, and each of the participating farmers (students for the day!) had the opportunity to share their experiences and ask questions pertinent to their farming situation. I came away with the knowledge of how to calculate my flock’s grazing requirement, and how to manage the grazing to fulfil this; allowances must obviously be made to take account of the season, the weather, altitude, and type of stock (amongst other variables!) – but the study day gave me the tools to at least make a better job of things in future. For me, improvement is a good start – perfection will no doubt be achieved with a little more experience!

It was a long, but very worthwhile day, and if you would like to find out more about planning grazing strategies – give the nice people at EBLEX a call and ask for a copy of their really useful guide: “Planning Grazing Strategies for Better Returns”

May is always a busy month with the flock – as soon as the ewes and lambs are out at grass we have to have a plan in place not only for optimising the grazing, but also for protecting them from internal parasites, taking account of the grazing history of the paddocks, the weather and parasite forecasts. At turnout, the ewes have their annual drench with a Group 3 wormer that has a persistent effect (Cydectin), meaning that they won’t contaminate the pastures where their lambs are grazing for some considerable time.
The three main concerns for the lambs are:

1. Coccidiosis (caused by a protozoon parasite, can affect lambs as early as 2 weeks)
2. Nematodirosis (caused by a soil-borne parasite, which hatches in large numbers when temperatures rise to around 10^oC) – due to its life-cycle, this parasite cannot always be detected by a Faecal Egg Count (FEC)
3. PGE (parasitic gastroenteritis – caused by a number of soil-borne parasitic organisms, or ‘worms’, that are ingested by the lamb; once present they damage their host’s gut, causing scouring, ill-thrift and sometimes death of the lamb) – these parasites can be identified by carrying out an FEC, so this procedure is an essential element in our parasite control programme

With the very warm, early spring, there was every chance that our lambs could become infected, and we started by giving them all a prophylactic drench of coccidiostat (on the basis that prevention is certainly better than cure in this case, as often the damage is done before any physical signs are apparent). Based on the ‘Parasite Forecasts’ issued by NADIS, this treatment was followed a few days later by a further oral drench containing Albendazole – one of the older compounds that is effective against nematodirus, but has limited efficacy on many farms against the organisms that cause PGE. By using this regime, we are hopefully preserving the efficacy of the newer compounds against some of the nastier parasites that the lambs will encounter as they become full-time grazers.

From this point on, all our ‘worming’ treatments for the lambs will be guided by the results of an FEC: we collect samples from a random selection of lambs, deliver these to our vet who invariably phones or emails us the same day with the results and advice for treatment (often “none required”, so saving the cost of a worming treatment) and future management strategies for the flock.


We anticipated that the next couple of weeks, until shearing, would be rather quiet with the ewes and lambs all getting fat on our lush grass. Mid-month we were still giving the ewes a little feed, as well as creep-feeding the growing lambs. They were looking great, and I was very happy that, at this stage, there’s a lot less for me to do each day! Such complacency always seems to come back and bite you on the derrière, and indeed it did when, on my morning rounds I spotted a ewe, separate from the flock, standing, but weak and in obvious pain. Six weeks after lambing, her udder was swollen and hot. The milk I drew from one side of her udder was thin and slightly blood-stained, the other ‘quarter’ appeared to be okay, but this is a situation that requires immediate treatment to save not only the affected quarter, but also the ewe’s life. An intensive treatment regime of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, oral rehydration and nutrition for five days saved her life, but it is likely that she will lose the affected quarter and not be a productive member of the flock again.

In a small pedigree flock such as ours, each ewe is an individual; we know their breeding, their lambing history and their value. In this case, the ewe had excellent breeding, and a laudable record of producing top-quality offspring. She was very definitely one of our top-performing ewes. Following her illness, we will not breed from her again, but she will have the satisfaction of seeing her bonny lambs grow through the summer ahead.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk

April 2014

April is the best month for blossom. Starting with sparkling white blackthorn early in the month quickly followed by more bride-white pear (so early they can easily succumb to late frosts), then rosy-pink apple and sweet-smelling lilac, and by the end of the month, may-blossom, cherry, damson, quince and plum.

All of this free nectar and pollen tempt the honeybees out, and the orchard-hives have been buzzing with their frenetic activity. In the woods, there are carpets of tiny, nodding wild daffodils, while under the orchard trees and all along the lane violets and cowslips, celandine and daisy take their turns to delight.

Not to be outdone, the birds don their finest plumage and sing their hearts out to attract a mate, and the swallows end their long journey from Africa in our barns. Whether or not it’s as a result of the wettest winter on record I couldn’t say, but this spring has been quite the most spectacular I can remember.



April also means lambing here at Green Farm, and – spot on cue; our first three (twins and a single, all ram lambs) arrived conveniently at 8 and 9 o’clock on the morning of the first – my little April Fools! My lambing notes read as follows:

Did 4a.m. lambing shed check this morning, ewes 10 and 20 doing a bit of ‘nesting’. At 8a.m. 10 had given birth to twins … and as she was nursing one, 20 decided to steal the other, licking it furiously and looking very pleased with herself! Retrieved 10’s lambs and put them all in a pen. At 9a.m. 20’s lamb showing – a nose and two tiny trotters; shortly after she delivered a very good-sized lamb. Penned up. Tally so far: 3 excellent ram lambs 

I find keeping detailed notes like this really helpful; I know which ewes are good mothers and which might need help. Ultimately, it informs my decisions about which ewes, and which of their daughters to keep in the flock.



Apart from one case of mastitis, which we successfully treated with a course of antibiotics (but have been bottle-feeding her twin lambs), we’ve had a pretty good lambing this year. The ewes and lambs are now all out in the field on some of the best grass we’ve ever grown, and it’s a lovely sight to watch the ewes cudding while the ‘lamb gangs’ hurtle about – no gentle ‘gambolling’ here, they do everything at top speed!
Interestingly, we’ve had strong gender theme with our lambing this year; of the 21 lambs born, only 5 are ewe lambs!


To keep the ‘spring’ theme going, we’ve also hatched some chicks; not as many as I would have liked – of the 14 eggs we put into the incubator only 4 turned out to be fertile, so I shall not be using that source again! However, the four we have are all robust little things, and, at a week old, are beginning to feather up well. The two lighter chicks are New Hampshire Reds, and the two darker ones are Cuckoo Dorkings, one of which we know is a cockerel as the breed is sex-linked – meaning the early plumage is different in males and females.

Cuckoo Dorking chick



New Hampshire Reds

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March 2014

Contrary to folklore, this year March came in like a lion and went out like a lamb, and – oh – how good it was to welcome the end of the wettest, warmest winter on record! I haven’t really taken stock of the damage done to the fields as a result of months of continuous rainfall, but as the grass is now getting off to a very good start, I think we can safely assume that nature is already in the process of her amazing regeneration trick!

We’re always busy at the start of March getting the ewes vaccinated, treating any lame ones (a few this year, mainly due to the mud and wet ground), twice daily feeding and ‘crutching’ ready for lambing. As we’d also decided at the end of March to bring them into the lambing shed early to get them off the wet fields, we had additional work filling hayracks and bedding them down night and morning. The main benefit of this is that the ewes become much more used to our presence, resulting in a much calmer lambing shed and ewes that are more accepting of help, if help is required at lambing.

As we have an Entry Level Stewardship agreement, we only cut our hedges every two years and deliberately keep them fairly tall and thick to provide lots of habitat for birds, insects and small mammals. However, the wet weather had prevented us getting any heavy machinery anywhere near the fields last autumn, and leaving more than two year’s growth can make it almost impossible to cut, so I was really pleased to see Geoff, our ‘Really Helpful Contractor’, bowl up in his big red tractor on the 8^th – just as the ground firmed up and well before any birds would start to think about nesting.

The arrival of a bit of sunshine was all I needed to get out onto the vegetable plot and start sowing seeds – so, in the greenhouse we have butternut squash, cucumber, salad leaves and 3 types of tomato, and in the raised beds the broad beans, cabbage, beetroot, carrots, leeks and parsnips – all starting to sprout nicely. We’re still harvesting last year’s crops of purple-sprouting broccoli, onions and garlic fresh from the garden, as well as squashes, potatoes and onions stored from last year.
Our hens are now all in full lay, and this is the ideal time to pop a few eggs into the incubator with a view to continuing the supply of eggs in late autumn when the older birds go off-lay. I’ve always liked the traditional breeds, so decided to hatch 6 Dorkings (one of the oldest breeds, white eggs) and 6 New Hampshire Reds (rare breed, tinted eggs) – then just as I was about the set the incubator I popped in another few from our Speckled Sussex hens, hoping they will be fertile from the Welsummer (-type) cockerel: could be an interesting mixture!





As we’re at last getting into gear with our ‘Poultry on Your Smallholding’ series, I’ve recently attended a specialist poultry health-training day with Minster Vets in Leominster. The course was designed for vets who are seeing more and more poultry in their surgeries, and covered poultry health, production and disease in-depth. It was a fascinating day, the highlight of which had to be the practical chicken post-mortem session – a real eye-opener and a really useful way to gain a good understanding of chicken physiology.







And finally, April Fool’s day dawned with the birth of our first lambs this year! I knew from my 4 a.m. visit to the lambing shed that lambing was imminent, but was slightly thrown to find one ewe nursing a big ram lamb, and another ewe (who was in the early stages of birth but had obviously not had a lamb yet) nursing its sibling! Thankfully neither ewe seemed put out by the mis-mothering and mother and son were happily reunited while the temporary foster-mother got on with the job of delivering her own whopping ram lamb! A happy outcome, and a lovely start to this year’s lambing!

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February 2014

December and January were wet and windy enough, but February brought even more heavy rain and gales, reducing our fields to something akin to paddy fields – more suited to growing rice than grass. Even now, as the first tentative signs of an early spring are showing, a walk across any of our fields feels like walking through treacle, and the paddock that we designated for ‘sacrifice’ to the horses’ hooves looks like it’s been used for artillery practice.

Although the grass has been growing through much of the winter (grass will continue to grow, albeit slowly, whenever the temperature reaches around 5°C) all but 3 of our fields are in pretty poor shape. So I’ve been looking at the most cost-effective way of restoring both the visible sward as well as the underlying soil structure, which will have undoubtedly suffered through water logging and compaction.

It’s impossible to write about our relatively mild woes without sparing a thought for the farmers on the Somerset Levels, many of whose fields have been under water since before Christmas. By this time, the grass will have died-off and the land contaminated with who knows what. I’ve been impressed by the generosity of the farming community countrywide which has organised convoys of tractors and lorries to ferry straw and fodder to the Somerset farmers, as well as the various marts who have offered their premises as collection and distribution centres. Let’s hope the floods retreat soon and appropriate management is undertaken to prevent our increasingly haywire climate causing more losses and heartache in the future.

So, back to my plans for the ‘re-greening’ of Green Farm: for the past few years I’ve been regularly taking soil samples for analysis from various parts of the farm. The results are noted on a simple map (updated annually), alongside which I also note when we apply farmyard manure (FYM) or lime to specific fields. The FYM comprises the contents of the lambing shed after it’s rotted down for a few months, plus the generous contribution made by our two horses. This enables us to spread muck on about one third of our fields in rotation. In the interim years, we spread lime, without which the land would become too acidic, ‘locking-in’ many soil nutrients and making them inaccessible to plants and therefore grazing livestock. Lime is possibly one of the most overlooked aspects of pasture management, particularly by smallholders who, with relatively few acres, only need small quantities and don’t have suitable machinery to spread it. We’ve come to a very friendly arrangement with a neighbouring farmer, who lets us know when he’s liming his land – and we open our gates so he can do ours too!

Our poor ewes are really not enjoying the wet weather, and I find it quite depressing to watch them paddling about on a muddy pasture, or lying down in a sea of mud, creating an unsightly ‘tidemark’. I know everyone’s in the same boat, but I cannot help feeling that I am a BAD shepherd! For this reason (and, of course, for the comfort of the sheep!) at the end of February I decided that the ewes should come into the shed and spend the rest of their pregnancy indoors, being waited upon by me, who would then be a GOOD shepherd!

TOP-TIP: Never house wet sheep; it would create an unhealthily damp atmosphere and may cause pneumonia.

Having the ewes indoors will also enable me to clip the fleece from their bellies and back ends, which will both stop them from getting too hot, and be much more hygienic for lambing – and, of course, the young lambs won’t be trying to suck on a bit of dirty wool. And for me, the bonus is it’ll also mean I won’t have to go out to the fields in all weathers to watch and feed them. That’s what I call ‘win-win’!
These last few weeks, the third trimester, of their pregnancy is a very critical time for the ewes and their unborn lambs. Foetal development is rapid during this period, and the ewes’ udders are developing in readiness to feed their lambs. Feeding is critical at this time, and for our c.70kg Hampshire Downs, we’ll be feeding the triplet-bearing ewes up to 1kg of feed per day.
Here are some useful resources as lambing approaches:
Ewe Feeding Chart
Lambing equipment list

I also thought a few sheepy-lambing facts would be of interest to readers who are just starting out with sheep, or just thinking about farming sheep – so here are my Top Ten Lambing Facts:

1. The ewe’s acquired immunity to gut worms is reduced around lambing time, meaning she could pose a threat to her lambs at turnout
2. Ewe’s colostrum (first milk) contains 20% more energy than a cow’s
3. A 5kg lamb will need a litre or more of colostrum during its first 15 hours of life
4. Hypothermia is the greatest cause of death of newborn lambs
5. If a lamb doesn’t stand and suck successfully within 2 hours of birth, you should check its teperature: 39-40˚C is normal
6. Never heat a limp lamb that is over 5 hours old, as its low blood glucose level would cause a hypoglycaemic fit
7. An intraperitoneal injection can be a lifesaver for a cold lamb; ask your vet to show you how to do this
8. Lambs depend solely on their mothers for nutrition during their first 3 weeks
9. Lambs can be offered creep feed from 2-3 weeks of age; lambs convert feed to muscle very efficiently at this age
10. Lambs between 3-8 weeks of age are at greatest risk from Coccidiosis, especially if raised intensively indoors, or if they follow older lambs onto pasture

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January 2014

Pregnancy scanning is one of the key indicators of our flock performance for the year: it informs us how well our sheep are performing, both the ram and ewes, as well as how effective our flock management is. It’s not just a snapshot in time, as conception rates depend on so many influencing factors throughout the year, including the weather, the individual’s nutritional status, as well as their general level of fitness. But the key factor is management – my job!

For a full-time farmer, whose livelihood depends on the next crop of lambs, a good or bad scanning result means the difference between making a profit or a loss for the year. For us, our flock makes a good contribution to the household income, but we don’t have enough land to run a flock of a size that would provide a living.   Nevertheless, we try to employ ‘best practice’ in all we do, and aim for our flock to be at least as productive as any commercial farmer would wish for. So this year’s scanning result of 162% was quite a disappointment – and an indication that our flock management was failing to achieve the results we would wish for – although of the 13 ewes, only one was ‘empty’. By comparison, in previous years we have achieved between 177-200%.

It didn’t take too much navel-gazing to arrive at the reason. Although all the ewes were in good condition – BCS3 – 3.5 at tupping, full-mouthed and with sound udders and feet, it has to be admitted that some are getting a little long in the tooth. All our current ewes are homebred, with fresh genes brought in by a new ram every two years, but our older ewes are now in their eighth year and there is a great deal of evidence that a ewe’s fertility, as well as her ability to rear lambs, peaks at around the age of 3, and declines thereafter. Keeping older ewes not only means fewer lambs, it can also mean more problems in the lambing shed; so why, I hear you asking, keep the older ewes?!

Certainly an element of sentimentality, but – in my defence, they were fit, tried and tested ewes … who may have been ‘around the block’ perhaps once too often.

So, self-recriminations aside, here are our scanning results, with last year’s alongside:

EWE (age)	2014 SCAN RESULT	2013 LAMBING
601 (8)	TWINS	TWINS
602 (8)	TWINS	TRIPLETS
608 (8)	SINGLE	SINGLE
609 (8)	TRIPLETS	TRIPLETS
665 (6)	SINGLE	SINGLE
669 (6)	SINGLE	TRIPLETS
917 (5)	TWINS	SINGLE
10 (4)	TWINS	SINGLE
20 (4)	SINGLE	SINGLE
42 (3)	TWINS	SINGLE
44 (3)	EMPTY	TWINS
52 (3)	TWINS	TWINS
54 (3)	SINGLE	SINGLE

Interestingly, it is still our older ewes that are proving to be just as prolific as the younger ones – but, as every shepherd knows, you don’t count your lambs before they’re safely out in the field eating grass!

The poet Frederick Langbridge once wrote, “Two men look out through the same bars: one sees the mud, and one the stars.” Well, for the past six months I have been seeing the mud and I think it’s about time the rain stopped and gave us all a glimpse of the stars!

Meanwhile, rather than allow our energetic (and in the case of Jamesey, ‘The Destroyer’, downright destructive) horses trash all our deeply muddy fields, we decided to sacrifice our 3-acre Rickyard paddock. It now resembles the Somme, which is appropriate in this Great War centenary year.

I’m planning to read my way through the works of the Dymock Poets from this period: Robert Frost, Lascelles Abercrombie, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Wilson-Gibson and John Drinkwater. Dymock is a lovely, small village not far from here that has become famous through the deeply moving war poems of these young men – as well as its meadows of tiny native daffodils that turn the local fields into a sea of gold each Spring.

Photo: thedaffodilsociety.com

And finally, amidst the gloom of late December, I found all these little beauties blooming in our garden!


Wintersweet, Jasmine, Cyclamen, Snow Drop

 

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