Sheep
Bye, bye Buddy
Saturday 9 October, 2010
Buddy went off to his new home today. I wasn't sad to see him go - but glad that he was going to do what he was bred to do. His new owners are really nice folk and I'm sure we'll keep in touch.
Niamh and Nova
Saturday 9 October, 2010
Dan and I had a couple of days away this week - mainly just to get a good wash. We stayed in a lovely hotel - The Crown, at Wetheral, near Carlisle. The food was delicious.
On the way down, we stopped in at Jackie and Dave Armstrong's Grindon Coloured Ryeland flock. We've bought two ewe lambs from Jackie, so we dropped the trailer off on Monday on our way to Wetheral, then picked it up, along with the lambs, on Thursday on our way home. Dave and Jackie are just lovely folk. If you fancy a self-catering break in the Northumberland National Park, they have two cottages that are just beautiful with wonderful views. They are very close to Hadrian's Wall.
Great news about Buddy!
Sunday 3 October, 2010
Buddy, our shearling Coloured Ryeland tup, has a new home. I am so glad. Because we have his sisters, we can't use him for breeding, so he's been for sale for a while. If we didn't get a buyer by the end of October, he'd have been chops.
On Thursday, I got a call from a man with a small flock of sheep that he uses for sheepdog training. Like us, he had daughters of his existing tup coming into the flock, so he needed another one to cover them and he liked the Ryelands. His existing tup is a Coloured Ryeland too, called Biffo, and he's had really good lambs from him.
Preparation for tupping
Saturday 2 October, 2010
John has done a fabulous job of fencing one of the small paddocks. It was fenced with two wires and the posts and gates were in good condition, so he's added new stock fencing. This morning, we moved the seven females into this new paddock. Oh, how happy they were. They were like kids in a sweetshop - "oooh, I'll try this", "mmm, nibble this one". The paddock they've been on is pretty bare, so hopefully this attempt at flushing will work and we'll have a good lamb crop next March.
Worm testing
Sunday 26 September, 2010
We try to use as few chemicals as possible, without compromising our stock's health. Chemical wormers are one of the things we try to avoid. We use a herbal wormer for the sheep and the poultry but we also worm test.
Last week, I did the three ponies. I use Westgate Laboratories and they've always given good service. Currently, they are doing four tests for £28, which is really good value. I sent of the samples on saturday morning and got the result emailed to me on Tuesday.
Ryeland ewe lambs
Tuesday 21 September, 2010
My original flock was three 2007 ewes; in 2009, they lambed for the first time and produced one ewe lamb so I bought another two by the same tup. This year, the three ewes again produced one ewe lamb, so I was keen to buy another two to maintain a year group of three. As well as putting my "wanted" request on TAS, it went in the Coloured Ryeland Group newsletter, which came out this week.
Yesterday, I got a call from Jackie Armstrong, who has the Grindon flock, offering twin ewe lambs for sale. She sent some photos and they're lovely, so the deal is done. We're picking then up early October. They are by Lightwater Hunky, from Sue Trimmings' flock out of Grindon ewes.
Nellie
Sunday 19 September, 2010
We weaned our only ewe lamb today. Nellie is now in Sheepfold with the ponies and Dickie, our wether, who just happens to be her brother. She and Juno bawled for a couple of hours, then were fine. Juno's much more concerned about the lack of grass than losing her lamb.
I've decided to bring the lambing period forward in 2011. I've always planned for a 1st April start date, but that was because I got school holidays and was off the first two weeks in April. I'm going to bring it back to mid March, so the tup will go in mid-October rather than 5th November. That means I have to start flushing the ewes next weekend so I'll have to get prepared this week - no pressure!
Weaning lambs and flushing ewes
Sunday 12 September, 2010
We weaned the two tup lambs last week and put them in with Buddy, Leo and Dickie in the wee paddock behind the West range. One lamb's five months and he's getting a bit frisky, so it probably was good timing. However, there's not much grass in there now and I don't want a) the tups to lose condition and b) the lambs to stop growing, so I decided that they could go into Five Acre Field this weekend.
Don't let your guard down!
Tuesday 7 September, 2010
I was grooming the ponies yesterday and thinking how nice it must be for them to be pretty much fly free now. After I turned them out, I had a look at the sheep. Luna, one of the gimmers, was switching her tail and stamping - fly strike!
I brought them all into the hurdle pen, caught her and tied her up on the halter (what a great thing that is!). I cut away the wool at the affected part and doused the area with Crovect. I cannot tell you the satisfaction I felt when the little b@stards started dying and dropping off.
Batchelor pad
Sunday 5 September, 2010
That's what our west paddock has become.
We weaned the two tup lambs today - wish we'd video'd it. Jinx lies down if you catch her and try to move her - she must teach her lambs to do it too. Her boy just flopped when we tried to walk him round to the paddock. Nothing daunted, we put him on the flat bed trolley and gave him a wee hurl. Worked fine!
