Now the weather is warming up and the grass is growing some of the sheep can get dirty around their back end this can lead to fly strike in early summer especially if we get a few warm day. This can be prevented by trimming the wool around their tails, it is much easier to do before they get mucky and are still clean. Today with the help of some volunteers from the Wildlife Trust we rounded up, wormed and trimmed out the first batch.

A volunteer gets to grips with one of the sheep under the watchful eye of Jess and they are all still smiling at the end!

This jobs full of surprises! While routinely going through and checking some of our Soay sheep we discovered that some where in lamb. When we bought them back in December I asked if they had been near a ram and was assured that they hadn't........someone has obviously been sneaking around after lights out!

Normally these type of sheep are not lambed until they are fully grown at 2 years old, these are only 1 year old and quite small and so they have been moved to some better pasture where I can keep a closer eye on them.

One of the St Georges volunteers after a successful roundup.

In transit

and into their new home where they are closely inspected by the Shetland ewes already in residence!

Spring must be here! We had our first Shetland lamb this morning he/she was happily trotting around after its mum when I arrived this morning to collect 2 rams to take to market. New life replacing old. We don't have many ewes due to lamb as most of our flock is made up of wethers but it is always nice to see young lambs running around in the sunshine.

I moved some Manx loaghtans to new grazing this morning and they are starting to shed their fleeces. it always amazes me how early some of these primitive breeds start to lose their coats certainly long before it feels warm enough to me!

Water water everywhere! I don't think there is a field in the county that doesn't have standing water laying across part of it. All the animals are fine apart from perhaps wishing it would stop raining, like the rest of us. I have heard reports that in some local areas over 6 inches of rain has been recorded over the last 48 hours.
The Highlands at Prestwick are perhaps the most vulnerable but they are happily grazing away on the higher ground that runs along one side of the fields. Even in dry weather they seem to spend a lot of their time wading up to the tummies in water, just like they do in parts of Scotland really.

Had a tour around all the stock today in the rain, fortunately, unlike us, it doesn't particularly bother them although I am sure they prefer dry sunny days as well! The picture is of some Soay sheep grazing on a Northumbrian water site that Mark kindly took for us. As you can see he is smart enough to go when the sun is shining!

You'll be pleased to hear that Jess is now fully recovered from her op and is now happily terrorising the Labradors again. Every now and the you here a yelp where she has been over enthusiastic and nipped their ears. She is starting to show some 'eye' for the sheep and so it won't be long before she can start training. I think maybe I'll let her update you as to how she is getting on.........I'm sure it will be different to what I think!

Been out having a look at some heather cutting and checking on the Exmoor ponies on one of our larger sites today. These lovely little ponies are an important part of our grazing programme. They thrive on the larger and 'wilder' areas that require a low level of grazing. They live a semi-wild herds roaming around grazing down the rougher grasses and browsing on the unwanted scrub keeping it in check. They have very thick coats that keep them warm in the winter and are quite happy digging down through the snow to find grazing in bad weather. They are inquisitive little creatures and always come across to see what I am doing when I am there.

As well as the sheep we use cattle and ponies to graze some of the reserves. This picture is of one of the Highland cattle. It was taken on a frosty morning last week. Now who is going to blink first?
Being non selective grazers the cattle add a different dimension to the grazing. They work really well on some of the tougher old grass opening up the sward to let other less vigorous species germinate.