Sitting here keeping out of the rain working out the logistics of all the stock movements that need to be done over the next few weeks. It is always tricky at this time of year with the new intake of sheep arriving from the hill farms. We are looking to buy nearly 200 this year to bring the numbers back up to around 300.
With groups of last years animals to move onto the sites with poor quality grazing we have to do some careful planning to ensure that no movement standstills are accidentally broken. It all usually goes smoothly unless there are unplanned for delays, for example there is one bunch that cannot be moved at present as the access routes are underwater. Only an inconvenience but does mean that jobs can keep being pushed back.

Jess and I took some sheep down to the woolly event at Tyne Riverside Country Park a couple of Sundays ago on one of the few sunny days this summer.
The 2 sheep are different breeds, one being a Shetland and the other a Manx Loaghtan.
They drew a lot of attention as did Jess who divided her time between being petted by the numerous visit and keeping an eye on any other dogs passing by.

Some shetland sheep which have been grazing on Prestwick Carr. They take a bit of finding in the 60 acres of woodland but we eventually tracked them down and got them out to the fence. Note Jess in the background making sure they didn't disappear again!

The autumn grazing programme is starting to get underway with a few Highland cattle and some Exmoor ponies out on site already.
We set up an electric fence in the corner of a field the other day in order to train the sheep which will making the pilgrimage to graze on Holy island late this autumn. It is important that they learn to respect an electric fence before they go otherwise they could get out and wander wherever they like including back across the causeway. May be we should teach them to read tide tables as well!