Twicey Show (Roman Wall Show) 9th June 2012

A day off! Or ought I say a day off which was pre planned. Everyone I worked for knew that Saturday 9th June was going to be a day off; no one would have dared suggest Shep changed her mind. It was time to head away and catch up with some crack, view some decent sheep and basically enjoy a leisurely day at the Twicey show. Which was exactly what I did.

Once again old Glen and myself disappeared off for the day and headed away for our annual trip to Hadrians Wall and it's annual sheep show.

 

A beautiful setting for a show, even when the weather is somewhat anti social as it was on Saturday.

 

The weather was threatening as these clipped tup hoggs were showing themselves off in the ring, it must feel strange to get the rain on your backs when a good covering of wool had been the norm for the preceding months, but they aren't the only ones bare, Shep has already clipped ewe hoggs on a couple of farms and there are many more to do.

 

By the time the Blackfaced tup lambs were being judged the weather had indeed broken. It didn't just rain, it poured down, like a thunder spate, all that was missing was the rumble of thunder itself. A true cloudburst which seemed to be relentless.

 

There are some wiser than myself, these two retired shepherds took me by surprise when an umbrella surfaced. I had been enjoying their company and crack but there wasn't room for me under there as well, I took shelter behind them instead. Two very sound sheep men from which much can be learnt if you take heed. They did inform me that they thought the umbrella ought to be fitted with down spouts - just shows how wet it was!

 

The mule men seemed to hold off judging their lambs until the downpour subsided, the sun even came out! As did the midges!

 

The rain held off whilst the blackfaced championship was judged, all the first prize winners from the various classes, both male and female were in the ring together before the judge decided which one he deemed the best of the lot, this year it went to a ewe lamb from Wanwood Hill. The mule ewe lamb championship was won by Carry House.

 

There was a good turnout of sheep on the day and of a high standard too, although there may have been slightly fewer entries in the classes than previous years, the weather may have been responsible for this or maybes the change of date for the Cumberland show may have had a slight affect on the show, regardless there was still plenty of sheep for the judges to scrutinize.

 

It would seem this Swaledale tup collected more than one rosette, in actual fact there was more than one sheep in the pen, I just zoomed in!

I had decided upon arrival at the show not to show old Glen, he got out of the car and seemed a bit lame and wobbly, he is 12 year old now and suffering badly from arthritis so it was asking a bit much, however, a friend suggested I really ought to, so I got him out of the car and took him onto the field, he really perked up when poddling around meeting other dogs and children who wanted to stroke him.

 

He seemed quite cheerful when he met this pack of Border terriers, showing his best side and trying to woo the girls amongst them! Anyhow, to cut a long story short, somehow we missed the judging. It must have been meant to be is all I can say! He has won there for the past two years by sheer luck and now, even older and wobblier, it was really asking a bit much, so we were saved the embarrassment of not being chosen by actually not even competing - a fine way to bow out I would say! (I have since met the judge of the day on the road and had a crack with him, the first thing he asked was why I hadn't shown old Glen! Oops!!)

 

The day came to an end. It had been a most enjoyable day off. Fortunately I had been wise enough not to park on the field upon arrival and there is no doubt my car would not have got off it at night without this sort of assistance. The day was rounded off nicely by calling on a long standing and very dear friend whom I hadn't seen for a couple of years, supper was offered and accepted with the result Shep didn't arrive home 'til bed time - that's the way to enjoy a day off!

Raddling

Funny old word. Raddle. 'Tis a man thing y'know. If you're a sheep that is.

Raddle is applied to the tups brisket. Basically a coloured slop which is spread onto his brisket and surrounding wool.

 

Not the best of descriptive shots of raddle on this blue faced leicester tup, but you can get the jist by the fact he looks a 'bloody' mess on his front legs. Not blood though (thankfully) but raddle. I screeched to a halt on the roadside to get these pictures to try to explain where 'tartan wool' comes from, it is not that common on the farms I work on to raddle their tups so I took the opportunity when I came upon this guy.

 

Slightly better angle.

The idea of raddling tups is that you can see which ewes they have tupped. Except that is in itself a lie, all you can actually see is which ewes he has jumped upon and attempted to tup, coloured backsides are not a guarantee of lambs in the belly. Just as with humans, not everything conceives first time.

 

Having found himself a receptive female he gears himself up (almost looks to me that she is telling him to get on with the job).

 

Job completed! There is no doubt in anyones mind that he definitely gave her a 'cuddle'.

So why raddle tups if it doesn't tell you that they are in lamb? It is usually a management tool. The colour of the raddle gets changed during tupping time. Some may change the colour after 17 days, enabling them to tell which tup was used for the first 17 days and which was used for the remaining duration. Others change the colour more regularly, every week or ten days, enabling them to batch sheep at lambing time.

God help a tup whose colour gets covered by a darker colour (odd ones are permissable), that can mean only one thing - he went through the motions but achieved nowt- not a good place to be if you're a tup.

A darker colour? That is generally how the raddling sequence works, light colours to begin with, darker colours following, should a sheep be covered twice (or even thrice) you need a colour darker than the original raddle otherwise it will not show up on the sheeps backside.

I have lambed sheep which were raddled. The first ten days no raddle was applied to the tup, then yellow for ten days, red for ten days and finally blue. The sheep were housed for lambing time in a shed, only being brought into the shed as their particular colour was due to lamb. When there are many sheep to go through a lambing shed this is a very useful management tool, saving them from all being crammed indoors at the offset.

So what exactly is raddle? It's a coloured powder which is then mixed with oil before being slopped onto the tup. It is necessary to re apply the raddle every few days (as it keeps getting wiped off on ewes backsides), so it is always hoped the tup likes sheep cake and will trot up for the bucket whilst more gunk is applied to his brisket. I know of one farmer who saved the soot from his chimney when it was cleaned and mixed that with oil to produce a raddle, only draw back being there isn't another colour darker than black!

Shep hasn't had a great deal of involvement with raddling tups, it often tends to be more of an in-bye habit, although occasionally if wishing to try out a few tup lambs over a 17 day period they have found themselves raddled to enable correct identification of the fathers at lambing time.

Tup harnesses are also used. Straps around the chest and shoulders which hold a crayon in place on the tups brisket, a crayon which can be removed and replaced with a different colour. Some day I'll try and track down someone using harnesses, our hill tups tend not to be hassled with such things.

pennymuir show 2011

The week after Bellingham Show Shep headed north and trotted off for an hour or two at Pennymuir Show. Just over the border it has been long recognised as one of THE sheep shows. A tiny little show, smaller even than Falstone but one which is well supported by those who enjoy showing sheep.

There are classes for South Country Cheviots, North Country Cheviots, Scotch Blackfaces and an 'any variety' sheep class as well as young handlers classes. The usual industrial and produce classes and also dogs and hounds. A true traditional hill mans show.

All classes of sheep were of a high quality and good numbers of entries per class. The above is the South Country Cheviot ewe class (or was it the gimmer class?)Oops! lack of concentration there!

The judge has finally chosen the five he likes the look of the best and commences handling them, checking mouths, wool, conformation before making his final decision.

The blackface classes were also fiercely contested as in fact were all the classes, there were huge entries for the north country (hill type) cheviots but I didn't watch them being judged, can't be everywhere at once y'know.

The young handlers classes were the highlight of the show, these kids are the future of farming, they hold the destination of our sheep shows in their hands and it was great to see so many youngsters enjoying themselves. Not just the youngsters but the Dads seemed to be having a jolly time as well.

For once it wasn't necessarily going to be the sheep which won the prize tickets but the person handling the sheep. The judge was meticulous, speaking to each handler in turn, giving them all encouragement in their task. The young lass handling the leicester in this photo was the winner but by rights all the kids were winners on the day, their faces glowing with pride as they clung onto their sheep, enjoying the moment and hopefully heading home inspired and looking forward to the next time they can show sheep.

The future of farming in the form of these little ones were out in force, it was a great sight to see and a grand way to round off my day as I needed to head back south and attend local events. I didn't manage a full day at Pennymuir Show but I thoroughly enjoyed viewing a tremendous show of sheep, had a good crack with a few I knew and many I didn't and travelled home with a feeling of relief that hopefully I had seen a glimpse of the future of hill farming in that area.

Check out this other posting for the show http://johnm55.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/pennymuir-show/ and the local newspaper report here http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/community/farming/hownam_success_at_pennymuir_1_1831379

Bellingham Show

Seems an eternity away now since Bellingham Show, guess it's really only a week or two since. The last Saturday in August is the date, the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend sees Bellingham hosting it's annual show.

The day before was wet, very wet. Shep had actually been working in Cumbria and was very surprised to find out just quite how wet it had been in the North Tyne Valley, we'd had quite canny weather but the burns (streams) in Tarset and its environs were boiling which gave cause for those involved in organising Bellingham Show reason for a sleepless night.

Would the show be able to go ahead? Would there have to be a last minute cancellation as happened in 2008 and if so would the show be able to survive the financial losses?

Folks of the North Tyne are tough and the show went ahead, stock turned up and supporters arrived on the show field. The rain throughout the day previous and the night prior to show day finally ran out of steam and a relatively dry day followed.

 

Tractors were on hand to enable stock boxes to get onto the show field and unload their stock at the sheep pens.

 

Some decided it was easier to carry their sheep up to the sheep pens, has to be said though that these are shetland sheep (a minority breed often kept by smallholders), shetland sheep are small and light in comparison with the normal sheep shown at our local shows, there aren't many that would like to carry their blackfaced/swaledale or leicester sheep to the pens.

 

There was a variety of silverware to be contested for in the sheep lines by a variety of breeds of sheep.

 

Judging got under way with all judges studying the sheep set in front of them looking for the 'perfect' beast, the one which would quite literally catch the judges eye on the day. These are blackfaced ewe lambs being judged with the following being the swaledale championship being judged. The breed championship is every first prize sheep within that breed competing against each other to find out which one is the best of the best - the champion!

 

Once every breed represented on the day has had it's champion chosen the breeds find themselves going head to head to find out which will be crowned Overall Champion.

 

The above photo was taken during the judging of the Overall Championship, the line up in the foreground shows Swaledale, North of England Blackface, Mule lamb and finally Bluefaced Leicester. The Overall Champion of Bellingham Show went to the Bluefaced Leicester tup lamb shown by Martin Archer of Carry House. It beat every breed on the day to take home the ultimate silverware.

 

The pipe band were a pleasure to hear on the day, the photo shows you what they look like, men in kilts and playing bagpipes, unfortunately you'll just have to imagine how they sounded but it was a pleasure to listen to - take my word!

The day flew by, the wet weather held off, unfortunately there seemed to be fewer people around on the day as previous years but this seems to have been the norm this year, gate numbers at our local shows seem to have been down; visitors and tourists maybes aren't visiting, the recession may be biting hard, whatever the reason there have been less people at our shows than usual.

 

Home time. It took one tractor to tow vehicles onto the showfield in the morning, it was seemingly taking two tractors to tow stock vehicles off in the evening but at least the show had gone ahead and competitors had competed.