January 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
** Click here to go straight to newest installment **
1st January Happy New Year
A guid New Year and mony may ye see, an lang may yer lum reek wi' ither folks coal.
For the non Scots reader - A good New Year and I hope you'll have many more and long may your chimney smoke with other folks coal!
I have now uploaded December's installment if you're interested December 09
2nd January Snow snow and more flaming snow!
Scotland is indeed famous for it's weather, and often it's quipped if you don't like it wait five minutes and it will change. Not this time! We are enduring the longest snow covered period I can remember and it's not very nice when you have stock. I have been very busy indeed getting hay to all my sheep which are spread over a 170 mile round trip at the moment. Slightly easier now I've put round bales out but still a fair amount of hauling of hay needed.
3rd January Fat lambs
Today I got my biggest feeding hoggs in to see how they are faring in this bad weather. At the moment sheep need to use a lot of energy to keep warm and I was worried they might not be putting on weight fast enough for the beginning of Feb when I was hoping they'd be finished. Thankfully I needn't have worried and they are doing very well indeed. I am feeding them finishing pellets from a creep feeder, which means they have access to them 24/7. The trick with creep feeding is to never let the creep get empty and then they just nibble away throughout the day. I am really pleased they are still on target.
Ffi and Mist get them into the pen so I can handle them.
These ewes are faring better weather wise as on the coast there is no snow. The wind chill factor is about -15c tho! These ewes are all in lamb, the bigger white cross ewes are in lamb to a texel and will produce lambs similar to the ones in the photo above. The small ewes (mostly coloured) are Shetlands and they are in lamb to the Cheviot and are the mothers of the bigger ewes in this photo! The blackies (Scottish Blackface, horned with black faces and white wool) are just some old ewes I've run with the texel as they have produced good cross lambs before. I have my pure shetlands ewes else where but they will all be combined shortly when I start feeding hay to these ewes. At the moment they are holding condition well just on grass and high energy mineral tubs. I will condition score the whole flock and move any thinner ewes to less harsh conditions with supplimentary feeding. Even the cross ewes are very tough, being half shetland, this weather is nothing to them. The remainder will be given concentrates from about 6 weeks prior to lambing, weather and condition dependant. They will be lambing in April.
Shetland ewes tucking into their hay and crystalyx blocks. Crystlayx are expensive at 18.75 per block but they seem to do the job in warding off twin lamb disease. I have tried other blocks in the past like Rumevite, which are a lot cheaper but they are softer and the sheep tend to chew lumps off instead of licking them so it's false economy in the long run. The empty tubs complete with lids are quite handy too!
I have to admit to not being much of a fan of my landrover until the last few weeks. There is no where to put your right arm for instance, or your legs if you're over 5ft tall (which I am!). However it's battled it's way through snow, up and down hills, dragged creep feeders up snowy mountains and powered it's way through floods. It's not fancy, but I am in awe of it's off road abilites so I really have to love it now!
No snow here now but it's left a flooded road I couldn't have tackled in the van.
Winter wonderland.
Snow no problem when you're a pyrenean!
5th January Sheep Motorways
Today we had to errect more electric fencing as some of the sheep have taken to marauding over a frozen Loch!
If you look carefully you can see hundreds of tracks on the ice. Given that sheep walk in convoy most of the time, it shows how these 30 sheep have been back and forth countless times!
Hopefully the new fence will keep them in for a few weeks more!
7th January Escapee
I decided to bring my cross ewes in to condition score them today. As I was gathering them I noticed one cheeky ewe running along the (disused!) road next to the field. I thought if I got her pals in she would stop and I'd get her back in no problem.
However, she was on a mission and keep going along the road and onto the golf course - they really love sheep on the golf course (!).
The eagle eyed may spot her as she paused before she went over the cliff!
Meanwhile the ewes were not at all keen to go in the pen.
With a bit of gentle persuation they decided they would go in. I quickly went through them and they are holding condition well considering the bad weather. I will start feeding them hay in a couple of weeks.
I let the ewes out and went looking for the escapee but there was no sign at all. I decided to leave her to come back herself and was fairly sure she'd be in by the morning. However, by the time I'd walked back to the ewes I saw her hurrying along the beach, so she had made it home! Unfortunately at low tide the sheep can skip round the fence and despite us errecting another fence further along which stops them, people who prefer to go rock climbing than use the coastal path bend the fence down and allow the sheep to escape. Hopefully this is a one off and they will stay put for a while longer.
9th January More of the same
More snow, so more hay to haul and feeders to fill. I've got three lots of feeding hoggs which are on creep feeders which need to be kept filled.
Filled up (lid still open).
But still plenty more to be put out!
The arrival of the landrover loaded with creep feed is quite exciting! There is a creep feeder buried under here somewhere. Unfortunately I still have some old ewes in with this lot and they can fairly shovel the feed away! They are going else where on Wednesday to give the hoggs a better chance to get at the feed!
Last one filled up and Ffi and I bring a few stragglers up.
This one and the first one will be ok for a 4 days but the second one will need topped up tomorrow.
Just a dusting on the coast.
Still pretty bleak however!
10th January Several feet
More snow, and I stuck my crook in it to demonstrate how much there is now! I had to rescue some snow bound sheep as I couldn't get hay to them. We had to go through one field to get to the other one and I decided I would move off the in lamb ewes in the first field to join their pals on the coast where things are slightly better as there is no snow. This means I can move the snow bound ones into their field and they have easy access to the hay.
First things first, in lamb ewes onto the trailer.
Driving them towards the gate.
Bit reluctant to go through the gate as it wouldn't open very far with the snow!
But Ffi and Mist convince them there isn't really any choice!
Through the gate.
A long walk back up a steep hill is no problem for Ffi and Mist!
Despite having adlib hay the ewes still crave some green stuff. Plenty of evidence they can dig through a foot of snow to get to the grass.
Ewes were eagar for the off so we set off in the trailer. First problem was negotiating a very steep incline with not much space to get the landy round and onto the road because the verges are compacted with snow from the snow plough. Had a tense few minutes while I coaxed it out, couldn't get it to turn right, so had to go left, and even that was extremely difficult. I was extremely relieved to get onto the main road!
I wanted to put a mark on these ewes so I can separate them from the Shetlands who are carrying Cheviot x lambs. These ewes have pure Shetland lambs and are the least likely to have any lambing problems, so each time I go round the ewes at lambing time, I will go in order of likelyhood of problems - Cross ewes carrying Texel lambs, Shetlands carrying Cheviot lambs, then the pure Shetlands. If I was lambing hoggs (1 year old at lambing time) I would go to them first as they are the most likely to have problems.
Once the ewes had a mark on them, I let them out the pen so I could mark the top load of ewes.
They were very very excited to see green grass in the car park area, and I let them graze there while I did the other ewes.
Off they go happy in their new home. Combining the ewes will make life easier as they will require the same treatment at the same time, so only one trip with the handling system. I will soon start feeding them hay, and Mid Feb begin them on concentrates.
Being as I've got all this spare time (ha ha!) I decided to do a little experiment to prevent wastage of hay. Sheep are terrible for dragging out loads of hay and just eating some of it then lying on the rest.
The idea is they will eat the hay at the same rate round the bale and I will just tighten it up so they can get some more. Hope it works!
The next "spare time project" is this sheep scales I picked up for a mere 50 quid. Brand new they cost 600 + so I was very pleased to get this one. It's all in working order, or will be when the wheels are welded back on.
13th January Mountain goats
Today was spent putting hay out to sheep again. Just in case this is becoming a boring thing to read about, the sheep kindly put on a show of "bale-robatics" just for you! Happily the ice and snow is definitely thawing now so life should become a little easier, and I can get on with some other jobs. I want to go and worm our ewe hoggs for instance, and inject them against clostridial diseases.
14th January More snow
Had some more snow fall today. Spent the day filling up creep feeders. The hoggs are eating just over a kg a day of pellets which is about right for them being outside. Wouldn't like to add up how many kgs I am shifting in a week!
15th January Hurrah for rain
Well not really, I don't really like rain either but it has got rid of a lot of the snow. Today I went to pick up my weigh crate which has had it's wheels welded back on and copious amounts of WD40 applied to it. I decided to leave doing anything else for the Summer when it's not needed so I could get it straight into commision. Leaving the fun til last I filled the creep feeder which was almost empty so took 8 bags, cleaned out the back of the landy then heaved the weigh crate off the trailer. The hardest part was getting it into position but with some determination I got it where I wanted it, and changed my hurdles around to fit it in. Eventually I will have it in line with our Prattley mobile handling system but this was just a trial run. I sent Ffi and Mist for the fat hoggs which have unfortunatly mixed themselves with my own Shetlands. First candidate for the weigh crate was a Shetland.
Thankfully I wasn't too bothered about her weight as she managed to push the release mechanism of the exit gate and escape!
It's a clever system so you don't have to leave the back of the scales but it's needing a bit more welding done to make it work properly. Good job I know a man who can!
Result! The scales are slightly underweighing and this lamb is 38kgs already - I was hoping they would be 38kgs by the 5th of Feb so I am pleased with this. He was the top, there are a few at 35 kgs and the rest around 32, so I should get 10 around the 38kg mark by the time they go, the remainder will go a week or so after that so they have time to catch up.
.
19th January Cat flap
Actually a sheep flap! One of our fields has wicket gates for pedestrian traffic and our clever (!) sheep are brilliant at using it too.
Detective Inspector Mist examines the crime scene. Note, addition of a rope has prevented further escapes - IF people replace the rope once they've walked through the gate! Mist concluded the spring needs to be springier. Ok then...
A count of the suspects leaves 16 AWOL.
Thankfully Ffi managed to round up a few more.
22nd January Hay hay
Thankfully the snow has gone now and the pressure of feeding hay to all sheep has eased. Now I am just feeding hay to half the feeding hoggs and the in lamb ewes who are enjoying it very much!
I only put this bale in on Wednesday night and took this pic Friday morning. Good job I've got a few in reserve!
A few girls wait to greet the Landrover hoping for something exciting, sorry girls a few weeks before the feed starts coming!
23nd January Jobs done
Busy day today, decided to sort out some sheep which have been niggling me for weeks. Due to the snow our sheep had been moved to a different field and someone else's ended up in our field. The another person's were mixed up with ours too! So first I had to repatriate the first person's sheep from our field. They are mad Soay x's so Ffi had some kepping to do to stop them careering off round the field. Having convinced them there was no evading the dog, Ffi, Mist and I headed them towards the trailer.
After some persuation we got them to the mouth of the trailer. They look fairly calm but they were teetering on the edge of just panicking and taking off.
Mist held them in the pen mouth while I untied it and brought the hurdles round. With no where to go they decided to go into the trailer. Easy!
I took the trailer back up to the farm yard and reversed it in to unload these sheep. They were going into the stables until the other moving was finished.
So far so good!
Then came the problems. I'd left the majority of the hurdles for the handling system on the sheep trailer in the farm yard so I didn't have enough to make a pen to hold 71 sheep.
Luckily I have two very clever dogs and they were able to make up for the lack of equipment!
First I shed the cast ewes off from the lambs. Then the lambs went back to their field, while the ewes stayed in the pen. Then I shed the ewes again and split them into my ewes and "their" ewes!
Our cast ewes up the track.
Nearly there.
Loading themselves.
Delivered all the sheep to their new homes and then went to see the in lamb ewes and put out another bale of hay for them.
Today I went to the coast to see my ewe hoggs and vaccinate and worm them.
First we built the pen (top class volunteers included in pic).
Hoggs in the distance.
Gathering them together.
Heading for the pens.
In the pen no problems. Got them all dosed and vaccinated and...
Within three hours from arrival the pens were packed up and we were ready to go home. The hoggs have grown a bit since I saw them last and hopefully when I go back down next month the wormer will have helped them grow on a bit more.