[Jackie]

We went back to NK as stated last Tuesday and picked up my new lambs and piglets. BUT, I'm not amused by the choice the guy made for us, this time I didn't get to choose the stock and I'm not so pleased with them, AT ALL!!

He had sorted 7 Texel lambs for us, they were cade lambs so are very tame. Several were wethers and when I saw them I said I'm not paying £50 each for those as they look like they need a good feed (apparently all sheep are suffering cos of no grass with the heat) so he dropped the price by £10 each. Some of the lambs still have tails which I find quite odd. I wonder if its the wethers that still have the tails??? Ive up ended two to see but I cant tell! Duh! I'm a great farmer I cant even tell the sex of the sheep!!!
I have sprayed the new lambs for fly strike and need to buy some more 'stuff' (crocovet?)for my others as they are due again this week. I must inject the new ones this week too.

Now I'm mad about the piglets and feel as though we have been 'done' but felt I had no option but to take them.
Both the lambs and the piglets were already in his stock trailer ready for us to load into ours so we had no choice.
I looked at the 7 piglets he had sorted for us, (I actually asked for 6 but hey!!) and the mix wasn't so good this time as 4 are commercial looking pink pigs. Anyway I looked and they were very, very small and I asked how old they were and he replied 4 to 5 weeks! I then asked if they were weaned and he said yes. He charged us £30 each for them.

We backed our stock trailer up to his and loaded the animals into ours and bedded them down in deep straw for the journey.

As we were completing the paperwork I forgot my CPH number and said I would phone it through later, I still haven't done it!! Note to self, I must do that today.
Hubby then asked about buying a cow and the farmer said 'You need a Jersey cow in calf for a house cow that is used to people and being handled. It will probably cost £1000.00."
Hubby broke out into a cold sweat and said "Perhaps not this year then."
Farmer then replied "If theres one at a good price maybe then? Ill look around." Les/hubby actually went wobbly at that but nodded.

I don't want a cow this year but I'm really pleased to say that my chatting (nagging?)about cows and all the milk and cheese we could have has filtered through and he is seriously thinking about having one. Now all I have to buy is a milkind stool. lol

It was a clear run up to NK and the animals slept most of the way and were still curled up asleep when we arrived. 
When I saw the size of the piglets I phoned ahead for Martyn and Smiley to prepare the puppy kennel with straw and water for them as I wanted to assess them properly before they went out into the pig pen assigned for them.

One by one we carried the lambs down to their pen and fed them some creep with lots of water and they were skittish but OK. My other lambs didn't think much of them so it looked like I had 2 separate mini flocks.

Martyn went in the stock trailer and picked up the piglets by their hind legs to pass them out to Les and Smiley to carry them to the puppy pen. I had controll of the stock trailer gate so had to open the gate as a piglet was passed through.
We had passed though 4 piglets when one panicked and got through Martyn's legs I quickly shut the gates and trapped Martyn's hand as he was reaching for the piglet that was disappearing under the side panel of the trailer. Martyn managed to grab one leg and I said "Hang on tight Martyn I'm coming round to get the other leg."
Martyn was wearing gloves and I was an inch away from grabbing the piglets leg when he lost his grip (it was very hot and Martyn's hands were sweaty inside the gloves) The piglet hared off up the yard with all of us in hot persuite but he/she has 4 legs and we only have 2. The last we saw of it was in next doors field.
We couldn't catch the piglet and we still don't know where it is. We took our dogs out as trackers and looked for 3 days solid but no sign of it anywhere.

I was hoping that the sound of our other pigs would draw it in and have left water and food in several places around the farm but nothing!
In my dreams I'm hoping the little pig has survived by eating roots in the woods near us and we will hear about the feral pig when its grown up but the realistic side of me says that a fox will have had it by now.

How the hell am I going to tell DEFRA about that!! Its bad enough that I buried a cade lamb and didn't take the tag off because I didn't know what to do and it doesn't say in the paperwork what to do.

Anyway after 3 days of being reassured that the piglets were eating properly we decided to put them outside but get them in a shed at night until they are big enough to fight off a fox, which I hear every night trying to get my chickens and geese.
We had to move Princess and Ozi the boar to a new pig pen cos I wanted the babies near the house so I could keep a very close eye on them.

Well, I got a bucket of food and slices of bread to walk in front of Princess but she was interested in everything else on the way to the new pig pen but not my food. lol We sort of herded her with a beach windbreak, very slowly so as not to start her running and it worked fine. Two of us behind her with this windbreak and me walking in front with the bucket and 2 on some stock netting in front barring her way leaving her no option but to go into the new pen.
We repeated the process with Ozi and he was much easier to move as he liked my bread.
Once they were installed I filled up the wallow with water and Princess actually dived into it with a satisfied sigh, Ozi looking on jealously as Princess wouldn't let him in the wallow.

Now the 'old' pig pen was free Les and the lads put some stock fencing along the wooden fence as the babies would get through the wooden fence and its right next to our other pigs.

The babies settled in 'reet nice' and started rooting straight away which gave me time to really look at them and assess them. We have 3 boars and 3 gilts.
The 3 boars are a big black boar we now call Big Boy, a smaller black boar which has pink front legs we now call Boots and a very small pink boar that is so odd looking I just call him Runt. This piglet has no fat on him anywhere and I can see his muscles plus he has a fat/pot belly. He obviously needs worming which I will do this week.

The gilts are a cross GOS which I call Dapple, it was called Muldoon, as in Spotty Muldoon until I saw it was a gilt. lol The other 2 gilts look like commercial pink pigs but one does look like Babe as it looks at you from the corner of its eye as if assessing you, so thats what its called and funnily enough after naming it we turned around and saw a spider web in the corner of the pig shed, very Charlotte's Web!

Now it seems that the babies are cleverer than us as the big pigs have been digging one side of the fence and the babies the other and two of the babies regularly visit the big pigs!
Its Big Boy and Dapple that visit and they walk around the edge of the big pigs pen and squeak and run back under the fence if the big ones come over to them. Les is going to put scaff boards along the bottom of the fence to stop them.

Oh I haven't said yet but we have another worker on the farm his name is Nin (Nin works for us in Melton on our houses there) and he comes complete with his Labrador bitch, a very sweet little thing who is gun trained as they often work beating at shoots. My Sheps hate her so we are juggling the dogs all the time.

[Wizard]

Oh dear Jackie that don't sound good. Shall send you an Email Will Les relay it?

[Helencus]

Oh dear not so good Jackie. Why is it when they get a whiff of inexperience some folk totally take advantage. Well look on the positive side, with a bit of grub in them lambs and pigglets may well do fine, you won't ever get stock from him again so his loss in the end (assume so). Also you learned a valuable lesson when contacting someone about stock insist on picking for yourself. All lessons learned make valuable experience so chin up  lastly sharing your experiences helps us learn too so thanks 

[Jackie]

Hi George Send the e mail to me please, Ill pass on any info to Les.

Hi Helencus  Yes it seems as though this time the farmer figured out we were new at this and took advantage as last time we got to pick our own, I thought we would pick our own this time too. And yes its his loss in the long run.

[Jackie]

As we had 4 grown men now needing to eat properly I took back with us a George Forman grill and chip pan, and a slow cooker to make good filling meals for them.
We already have a double oven installed but no hob.
I decided to finally try one of our chickens and the lads said they wanted a roast dinner but I wimped out of killing it this time and asked Smiley to kill it as he had worked at a chicken place before.
Remember I was worried about the last chicken being in pain so I asked Les to tighten the Humane Killer so when Smiley pulled the leaver this time the whole head came off! Smiley was shocked so he dropped the chicken and it ran around litterally like a headless chicken. Now theres blood all over the barn!

I put the chicken in very hot water then plucked and cleaned it. It was huge and not the biggest by far in the hen house so I weighed it and it was 8.5 lbs. It tasted great!

Last week Martyn and Les got in the geese at night but didn't count them as they went in the house but just assumed tjhat as they flock so much that they were all together, they werent and they left one out and a fox got it.
To be fair half the pen the geese are in is a wooded area so if the geese are in the trees and undergrowth they are not easy to see but I still told Les and Martyn off.

Geese are dirty creatures and mess in their own food and water and the shed needs cleaning everyday!
I have a builders trug with water for them and they drink it all.

Remember I wormed the feral cats last week and when I went back to NK the oldest cat was looking very, very skinny so I 'upped' the food they had but he was still getting thinner.
Then on Sunday the cat didn't eat solid food so I put some milk out for it and hunched down nearby (as near as he would allow as hes feral) and watched it lap then I noticed green gunge from its nose and his abdomen was swollen. I was obvious that his kidneys and liver had failed and there was fluid in his abdomen so I called a woman (Janet) in the village who used to be involved with HARA to loan me a cat cage to take it to the vet.
Janet brought the cat gage and with one flick of her wrist got the cat into the cage. It was a crusher cage so the cat could be pulled close to the wire for the vet to inject it. Janet took it to the vet and he affirmed that its liver and kidneys had failed but took a blood test in case it had been poisoned, then put the cat to sleep.

Now I am worrying that the worming stuff I gave it could have made its kidneys and liver fail although it was the right doseage for the cat. The other cat is fine and he was wormed too!

Oh Ive just noticed that Smiffy has said she now has some piglets, Ill contact her later about them as hers are going to be my pedigree breeders.

We now have 5 bedrooms in the house and the plasterers have been so now we have to put back the skirting board and paint the rooms.
I have chosen the doors for the house to fit in with its age. They are 4 panelled white, Victorian design doors, the doors downstairs will have glass in the top two panels but upstairs they wont.

The windows over most of the house only have an opening light at the top of the frame so you cant get out in case of fire, these windows are illegal if put in now cos of fire regs, however, we have put in a new window in Martyn's room with an opening light we can climb through and will have a fire door (guaranteed 30 Min's fire proof) on that room so we can escape if there is a fire. Les is going to build a shed under the window to jump down onto if needed.
The only bedroom that will be completely finished by the time we move in will be Mums as we don't want to move her more than necessary. We can move everyone else around into various rooms whilst we paint and finish the rooms off.

[Hilarysmum]

hi Jacky may I respectfully suggest you give that "breeder" a very wide birth, piglets should never be weaned before 6 weeks min. and he should have made damn sure they were wormed as well.  He obviously does not value either his customers or his reputation.

The little escapee may well survive quite well, may well be holed up not far from the other pigs.    I speak from experience here 

[Jackie]

Oh yes Hillarysmum Im certainly not going back there again and what makes it worse I actually think he went to Melton Cattle Market and bought the stock in to sell to us as he was dressed up in a clean shirt and trousers as if he went to the market and not been working on the farm. Melton market is on Tuesday.

I asked if the animals had been wormed and he replied "Yes once." Id take bets they havent.
Now I have to worm ALL the animals plus inject the lambs cos I cant trust they have been done.

You lost a piglet? Did you get it back?

[Hilarysmum]

Yes, 2 months later, having alerted the local Mayor (its what you do if anything goes wrong here) and the hunt and my neighbours.  I thought he would have been in someone's freezer the same day.  2 months later he was seen about 200 metres away in a field.   He had survived very well on whatever was growing in the area, and had been living on the edge of a field of oil seed rape.  He must have been within 2 metres of home at times as the stream which would have supplied his water is at the bottom of our boundary.

Dont give up hope, keep leaving small amounts of food around and water.  Piglet will probably be attracted by the other pigs.  If as you think it had come from a market as well, it must have had a spectacularly traumatic day.  I hope that farmer tries to pull the same trick on someone else gives him what he truly deserves !!!

At least now the piglets have a really decent home.   

[Jackie]

Im glad you got the piglet back safe and sound.

 I havent informed anyone about the piglet but telling the neighbours is a good idea.
I really hope we get ours back cos I worry about it all the time. Poor little thing!

Im a true believer in what goes around, comes around and that farmer will get his eventually.

[Wizard]

I don't know Jackie there some about that it seems to me a long time coming

[Jackie]

Yes a 12 bore and kneecaps is much quicker I agree. 

[Wizard]

Not sure about shot guns Jackie they do make an awful mess used up close.Still I wouldn't be cleaning up after.

[Jackie]

Whilst I was at NK last week I approached a supermarket to get some out of date fruit and veg and they said "Its against the rules." I asked which rules and they didnt know so today I have phoned DEFRA, the Food Standard Agency and am now awaiting a call back from our local on call vet at Animal Health.

In the Grimsby paper last week there was a councillor drinking orange juice stating that it was made from out of date oranges in the spirit of recylcing and green issues. This was the supermarket that I approached and they said that he BOUGHT IN DATE ORANGES, so he lied!!!!!!

Ill let you know the outcome.

[Wizard]

Oh Jackie You are going to get a nasty shock if and when DEFRA reply it is absolutely ridiculous. You can have it for your dinner but you cannot legally give the leftovers to your pigs.

[Jackie]

No George you are quite wrong this time I can indeed feed the pigs with out of date fruit and veg from the local supermarkets as there is no legislation saying I cant, according to the Animal Health guy. With the proviso that it must be 'fit for purpose' (his quote not mine)  and not rotten otherwise that comes under animal abuse

 He is sending me a letter to say that so I can again aproach the supermarket.

This is the run around I got today trying to sort this out;

Food Standards Agency -- DEFRA -- Food Standards Agency -- DEFRA -- Leeds Animal Health --  Lincolnshire Animal Health on call vet --North Lincolnshire council Animal Health -- Answer at last!!!