Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Jess is starting to work well now here she is having successfully gathered up some of last years shearlings most of which are now ready to sell to make way for those lambs born this spring. We tend to only keep the sheep until they are up to 2 years old. If we keep them too long we tend to find that they take more looking after and can have more problems with lameness etc. Because the quality of the grazing on many of the conservation areas is quite poor it is best use animals which are in their prime.


The weekend saw me collecting the first of this season lambs on Saturday.These are some Manx Loaghtans and a few Hebrideans form a breeder at Tow Law. These rare breed sheep will be used for some specialist grazing on Holy Island later this autumn.
My camera unfortunatley had a flat battery when I went to use it but some images can be viewed on this link.
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=manx+loaghtan+sheep&rlz=1R2ADBR_enGB329&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=UeR8TOCMJtO7jAeD7M3xDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQsAQwAw&biw=1003&bih=539

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Another damp August morning, even the cows are taking it easy. I think they feel that if everyone else is taking it easy and having holidays why should they rush around grazing!

Monday, 16 August 2010

I dropped in and had a look at the Soays on Powhill this morning. They are looking really well and settled there. I am not sure yet if they are having any impact on the bracken but there are signs that they are browsing the birch in places. It could do with a few more sheep on there but getting the balance right to ensure they have enough grazing when the site has as much bracken on is tricky. I will maybe add some more as the season progresses.

Monday, 2 August 2010

Jess is coming along well with her training. She has got the basics pretty well and can get the sheep all gathered up and into the mobile pen. Fortunately although she takes her work seriously she knows how to relax and doesn't take her work home with her!!