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!

Will this rain never relent? All the grazing sites even the normally dry ones have water laying on the surface after the weekend. Maybe we will have a nice dry September and October to make up for it all!
Over the past week we have had a pony and a sheep succumb; both with natural causes. The pony is from one particular herd on Exmoor which does seem to have a congenital heart defect in some of the offspring. Still very sad but at least they had a natural existence conservation grazing while they are with us.

The photo below is of some Soay sheep sheltering in the shade on one of the few hot days we have had.

Some Exmoor ponies happily munching away on Longhorsley moor between the rain showers. They are doing quite a good job at keep the undergrowth back but it could really do with 2-3 highland cattle there as well to browse and rub on the young birch saplings and keep them in check.

Well that's another season of shearling sales nearly over, the last ones will be sold next week and then there will be a break until the end of September when there will be some available again until the end of November. It has been a much easier run this year with the grass growing early in March and no heavy snowfall over winter. This meant that the shearlings were available earlier in the spring than they are some years giving a longer availability.