Still awaiting summer

Well - way too long since I posted, but after both a successful lambing and much easier calving than last year, plus a massive summer flood, all we need now is for some decent weather to make some winter fodder. We have a show team of Shetland sheep - Cumberland Show saw a second for Toddy in the ram class and a second for Toffee and third for Agnes in the ewe class. Skelton show was then cancelled due to the weather, but we had a day out at North Lonsdale near Ulverston last week, and although we won no prizes in the minority breeds section, we had a lovely time.
New for next year, we will have only two rooms for B&B - the en-suite as it is now, and the current twin room which will have private use of the bathroom. This room will be available as either twin, or king size double. These alterations will take place in November, ready for our February re-opening.

Tups fighting!

All the boys have been in the shed now for over ten days and we have been keeping them penned up quite tight to try and avoid big fights. So today, out came the trailer, all loaded in and up to the field behind the house. Several serious bouts of headbutting later, some chasing about, some bloodshed (especially Jarvis because he takes such a long run up to a butt) and now it is dark so we just have to hope they have sorted the pecking order out and no serious damage is caused overnight. Fingers' crossed.

At a farm sale yesterday, we managed to pick up a bale sledge to make haytime easier, as this deposits the small bales in heaps around the field instead of one by one all over, and a calf restraining crate to make tagging easier.

We have had to haul a couple of windblown trees out of the river just below High Stocks Bridge caused by the storms, but the weather has been lovely the last few days so lets hope it continues.

Only seven and a half weeks until lambing, so lots to do!!

High Winds

Well it is windy today, but not as bad as the south of Scotland. It was lovely yesterday, the kind of day that makes you start planning lots of 'spring' jobs but back to normal today with the river on the verge of flooding and the wind blowing like a good un! At least it has given me a chance to clear up after the festivities, only the Christmas trees to take down now so that will be tomorrows job as even more rain is forecast.
Looking to get the hall and landing decorated before we open for spring so need to get on with that and also on farm, need to try and get sheds ready for lambing time, not easy when they are fairly constantly full of sheltering animals.

Well - two wet and windy months later and I can happily update that after scanning just over 100 ewes today all the tups have done well, and Toddy has four sets of twins and four singles due so far, with five more shetlands to scan in early February, though he has also been running with eleven of our smaller ewe lambs too, in the hope of giving them a small lamb for an easy first lambing.
Over fifty ewes have been housed for three weeks now, as we battled constantly with muddy fields and the threat of flooding. The remainder have constant access to a shed with haylage feeders and it is amazing how much they use it. It makes all the difference to them to be able to lie down somewhere dry.
A lot of our sheep have suffered a terrible eye infection known as 'pink eye', caused largely by the wind and rain (storm blindness) - we treat with various different antibiotics, creams and sprays, and in the worst cases long acting antibiotic injection. Some really struggle to fight it off and need extra special care - but we are good at that here, so our vet says anyway!!

Todhill Singleton

At the Rare Breeds sale at Carlisle in September, we bought a shetland ram to run with our ever increasing number of pedigree shetland ewes. He is black and polled, which means he is naturally without horns. Hopefully we will be able to show him and one or two of the ewes. We have done a little bit of halter training but will do more when they come in for lambing next spring.

Autumn update

After a very wet August and September, the early part of October had a very warm spell which gave the grass another growth spurt so although the fields are still very soggy there is a bit of grass about for the various groups of ewes, some running with tups since 13th October. The cows and calves are in now but the in-calf heifers are still out, and the blue greys are still on their scabious marsh field. A trip to Newcastleton in Scotland has resulted in six new additions to the cattle herd, three heifers the same age as the fen group, and three babies, only six months old.

On a brighter note......

The Blue Grey heifers are doing really well, grazing a rough pasture at the far end of the farm. This pasture has quite a lot of Devil's Bit Scabious, a host plant for Marsh Fritillary butterflies, and Natural England are keen for us to manage this pasture in such a way as to maximise both the plant and the butterfly. This involves grazing with a small number of cattle over a long period of time to create a mosaic of different lengths of grass, flowers and other desirable species. Top photo is Tinkerbelle, bottom one is Breeze.