Good Friday Sheep Walk

[@rufuseasdale8095]

Lovely to see the lambing is going well.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Rufus Easdale Come and see them Rufus! JP

[@martinholmes4922]

Hi John, Fantastic to see the lambing going well but sorry to hear about the fox problem. Just a thought but could you get hold of one of those microphone cozy muffs the beeb and other broadcasters use to eliminate the wind?!? At times it's hard to make out what you are saying which is a shame as your comments and observations are of great interest and it is wonderful of you to share your thoughts.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

martin holmes I know Martin, it sounded a bit crap, especially when I get onto that old Airfield with only a few buildings and telegraph poles for shade! I will do something about it.

[@Dan.Whiteford]

John. Are you breeding these sheep purebred and do you have some sort of specialist market lined up for the fat lambs? You clearly have some real issues with fox problems to have lost 20 lambs to date. Are you lambing out of doors as well? I have never seen so much clover - I think you are right to consider tweaking your seed mixture by introducing more grass to off set the amount of clover to some extent. Do sheep suffer from bloat as cattle do - I simply don't know? It will be interesting to see how you get on breaking up these older leys and what the response is to the improved fertility in the following crops. As clover seed is so expensive I wondered if you had considered / tried to combine some for reseeding purposes?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Dan Whiteford At the moment we are keeping them purebred. They finished really well last year most of them achieving R3L graded at the abattoir and the ones going to local butchers went down well but they do put on fat as soon as they reach the grade. We haven't had any cases of bloat yet, but I think that you are right, the fields are too rich. Someone commented to me that if you put mules on pasture like that you could burn them out quickly as they took full advantage of the situation, but this year's scanning percentage was similar to last year's 185% and even though that is a little high, it's hopefully not at a level which is pushing them too hard but I am no expert. My feeling on the ploughing is that we have to do less, for our soils, for my bank manager (!) and because we can loose so much moisture. My feeling is that a managed approach will be the way forward, carefully assessing where we need to till and at what depth. I think that the controlled traffic farming is going to really help. We have harvested red clover seed before successfully but for the last five years have had a contractor doing our combining. We have now got our own combine again and so I think that it will be something that we will do again. I am really sure that the sheep are going to add a huge amount to our rotation and I'm getting used to having two harvests! Very best. John

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Dan Whiteford Sorry Dan, just spotted this. Yes, they are all lambed outside and so are more at risk of fox predation, so it's a balance between lower fixed costs but greater losses?

[@Dan.Whiteford]

Thats a delicate balance but shepherding must be pretty tough as a result at lambing time locating and dealing with problem ewes and lambs. Considered a plastic tunnel (or possibly an empty grain store)? - although you might not have appropriate kit to bed down and muck out with (too big to get under)/inside!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Dan Whiteford In reality 90% of the ewes give birth themselves with no problems or assistance. The time is catching the lambs and putting their EID tags in which would be earlier in a building! Last year we only had one fox attack so this year we might be unlucky. Fingers crossed.

[@mikeg306]

How about some Alpacas in the field to see off the foxes.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Mike3650 I have a friend who has some alpacas with his flock. I should think about it but I suspect that we would need quite a few!