August 2013

Not a drop of rain fell on Green Farm (now renamed “The Savannah”) during July and August, but thankfully, in the three weeks following haymaking the aftermath had grown considerably so we were able to wean our ewe lambs onto this. Not only is the aftermath the best clean grazing, but some years ago we used a disc harrow on the field, then broadcast white and red clover seed: not only are clovers deep-rooted and therefore relatively drought-resistant, but it’s also a great source of protein to promote good growth in the young lambs.

We weaned the lambs at 16 weeks, which is quite close to puberty for sheep (around 5 months is typical) so the ram lambs were separated from the ewe lambs, and went to join our stock ram and his companion in the only other paddock with any decent grass. While the ewe lambs quietly settled for some steady grazing, the boys indulged in some quite flagrant boy-on-boy sex play for the first couple of days, before they got hungry enough to settle down and appreciate the grass. Thankfully, none of the lambs seemed to notice the lack of their mothers, and we heard hardly any plaintive bleats from either quarter.

Mid-month found me, rubber-gloved, diligently following lambs around their respective paddocks, pouncing to the ground whenever one defecated. I then delivered the random collection of poo samples to our vet, and by 4p.m. on the same day had the results, together with the vet’s recommendation: “90 epg., still a low count. How are they looking? If growing well and dry/no scour suggest re-check in 2 weeks”. For me, this service is probably the most valuable growth promoting and money saving tool in the shepherd’s kit-box. Last month I wrote about the impressive DLG (Daily Liveweight Gain) that our lambs achieved in their first 8 weeks of life. Weaning is a stressful time and coincides with increasing pasture contamination by gut worms, so I’m pleased to say that they’ve maintained their excellent growth rates since weaning. This is due partly to having fit ewes with a good supply of milk to give them a good start in life, partly to inherited genetics from their performance-recorded sire, and partly to our clover-rich pastures – but that’s not all! By regularly monitoring their internal parasite burden and treating when, and only when, the results of a faecal egg count indicates a need, we ensure that our lambs don’t experience any check in their growth, as well as reducing the use of anthelmintics (wormers) and delaying the onset of drug-resistant parasites developing on our farm. In this matter we are very lucky to have a vet who is not only a sheep farmer herself, but is also pro-active in making sure the practice focuses on the needs of sheep farmers, both large and small.

The long, hot summer has seen another sheep pest, the blowfly, having a very successful time. Although we use a ‘pour-on’ IGR – Insect Growth Regulator – on all the stock, a couple of our lambs have been ‘struck’, meaning the flies have laid their eggs on the lamb’s wool (they usually go for lambs with dirty backsides), then when they hatch the maggots will start to burrow into the lamb’s flesh. Thankfully, we spotted two lambs that were scouring slightly (and there are many reasons for this, so don’t always assume it’s due to gut worms!) and were able to clean the just-hatching maggots off the lambs before any harm was done.

Meanwhile, the gaggle of goslings whose progress we have been following are growing up fast, and are now spending their days on rich Somerset pastures. At 5 weeks, they’ve mostly lost their yellow downy baby-fluff, but aren’t quite fully feathered, so this is their ‘transition’ stage, where they still need to come in at night for warmth and for protection from predators. Good husbandry has minimised losses through their most vulnerable stage, and our soon to be released DVD, Poultry on Your Smallholding, will explain how to successfully rear these handsome and profitable birds.

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.

It’s also been a bumper year in our fruit and vegetable garden, and we have a remarkable crop of Butternut Squash to squirrel away for winter. Our vintage perry pear orchard is groaning with fruit, and we’ve come to a very amicable arrangement with a local perry-maker that should keep us full of cheer through the autumn and winter evenings ahead!


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