August 2010
Lambing Blogs: April 08* April 08 Part 2* May 08
June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08
January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 December 09
January 10 February 2010 March 2010 April 10 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010
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13th August Every day ends in a Y
The saying "Every day ends in a y" is quite apt for anyone involved in agriculture. It means that the work has to be done every day, or that every day is the same. For me, being a recovering workaholic, it is certainly true. Whatever the day, if a job needs done, I will just do it. Seeing as I am trying to stop being such a workaholic I have been on holiday, hence no blog updates. I have also been at the Scottish National. Mist who has been lame after a shoulder injury has been on rest for months. She ran like a train and wouldn't stop but I was pleased with how she was at hand losing nothing off the pen and only 2 off the shed. The less said about the rest the better, and I ran out of time trying to get the single. Ffi on the other hand went quite well, let down as usual by me. I got the fetch gate, turned them just inside the drive gate and got the x drive gate, and was online at least some of the time! We were retired at the shed. They were hard to shed as they wanted to stick together. I was pleased with her and just wish I had run her better.
(Photo by Kim Gibson)
Meanwhile work has been going on as usual. Lambs to be dosed, footbathed and so on.
Sheep on the golf course!
Thankfully they are meant to be there as they are grazing out the roughs on this ancient golf course which was grazed all over by sheep in its youth. The sheep are electric fenced on the roughs however.
I had to move them to another enclosure which always gives the groundkeepers something to worry about in case they dance over the greens en route but Ffi and I managed to keep them on the edge...
... and into their new enclosure.
21st August It's all good
I've been pushing my young dogs on quite a bit recently. Silk is only 7 months old and has only been in regular training for a few weeks, so I am working on getting her balancing on both hands and keeping an equal distance from the sheep on a circle, which will become her flanks and outrun in the future. I am also encouraging her to walk nicely onto the sheep. Cloud is doing all of that already, and I am now trying to firm up her commands and finish her training. The ground work is there, now I need to put the discipline on her. Below are a couple of short videos of them both.
Silk
Cloud
Few more pics of Ffi at the Scottish National all by Kim Gibson.
26th August Cattle wrangling
My work life is quite complicated and shall we say "full". Just to further complicate matters I encouraged the purchase of some cattle. There are four of them and they all have names. Sally is a 2 year old heifer and is an Aberdeen Angus x Shetland (she was meant to be a pure Shetland but her mother prefered the AA bull!), Runty a 5 year old castrated bullock (he was a BOGOF with Sally!) also a Shetland x. Then there are Kirsty and Fleur who are pedigree Shetlands. Sally was purchased because she is halter trained and like a big pony she is so tame. Runty was hand reared so he is also tame although he isn't halter trained. Kirsty and Fleur are heifer calves just a year old and are quite friendly and will hopefully be halter trained by me over the winter. I don't intend to dog th cattle because they have all been specifically used to ignoring dogs running around their legs. I have two dogs which work cattle, but it would take quite a bit of breaking to get them to respect the dog so at this point it's not worth it.
In the pen and ready to load!
Shutting the gate before they change their mind.
Fleur in her new home.
Kirsty.
Sally on the left and Runty on the right.
The lambs are well grown now and it's time to spean (wean) them. This pair of texel crosses are out of a Chexiot x Shetland ewe and a crackers.
I have separated some of the ewes and lambs with the remainder being done on Monday. Then it will be yet more footbathing and dosing the lambs for worms. I will also sort the replacement ewe lambs and the Shetland wethers from all the tex x and chev x wether lambs.
They will all be gone before the worst of the winter this year, unlike last year when I returned to work after maternity leave, in December, to find nothing had been sold nor was ready for sale. They needed 5 months on pellets and hay over the worst winter we've had in thirty years, to get them finished. This years lambs will be far more cost effective having attained the same weights in 5 months with the correct management. The only lambs I will be carrying this winter will be the pure Shetland wethers which will take a lot longer to finish and will be on grass over the winter, and the replacement ewe lambs. A far better state of affairs as this leaves more grazing available and less hay to find and haul for me!