raindrops.....

Oh... so refreshing! It rained, indeed is still raining. We are a funny bunch, complaining it's cold, then it's hot and now it's raining....... Shep ain't complaining, it was a pleasant change to have the wet stuff come out of the sky, fortunately it was mild with it which is always a help. Working in wellies and leggins again, top coat donned - a refreshing change it has to be said! Although it would be hoped it won't be a permanent fixture.

There was a down side to appreciating the mild soggieness of the day - midges! Them little monsters which so enjoy coming out to play in mild damp weather. They detest extreme temperatures, hide away on hot, cold or windy days but a day such as today was an absolute treat for them. 'Tis funny how ones memory forgets the discomfort these miniscule airborne characters cause, until....... they appear once again. A small price to pay I'm sure for being able to enjoy a refreshing showery day!

The lamb marking season is well under way. It is almost three weeks since Shep returned from over the border and many lambs have been handled since then, hopefully another ten days ought to see the job completed on the farms Shep visits.

The lambs above have been shed off their mothers, easier to handle without ewes careering around in the pen with them, they are also less likely to get hurt as the adult sheep are more than capable of running over the top of these little chaps. The lambs will find themselves caught up and held up a height on the top rail of the sheep pens. There are a number of jobs to be done to them on this their first visit through the sheep pens.

These lambs were born from the 16th April onwards and so vary from six weeks of age and less, this is their first main health check. They will indeed be marked, with a keel mark to ascertain who it is they belong to and also what sex they are for easy reference later in their lives.

Every farm varies as to the tasks required doing to their lambs, some need to give lambs a worm drench, others don't. Then there are ticks, some need to prevent infestations of ticks on their lambs and again others don't. Some farms put a lug mark on their lambs, a notch or hole cut out of the ear by means of a set of lug marking pliers, this being a permanent reference to the ownership of those particular sheep. There are such a variety of tasks from farm to farm that it can be easy for Shep to get confused, having just got the hang of one farms preferred methods before moving onto another farm with different requirements. Doesn't take much y'know to befuddle the grey cells!

Hoggs are finding themselves run off from the main flock as well, not that they are going to be lifted up onto the top rail of the pens to have bits and pieces done to them (god forbid!). No, they are starting to think it is time to be shorn......... Blimey! we're getting to that time of the year again!

Shep's been shopping - I know, women love shopping. Shep don't love shopping - never has, but this is different. A new cable for the clipping machine, the outer cable cracked towards the end of the season last year, was wrapped with tape to see the season out but now a new inner and outer cable has been acquired. Then there was the clothes shopping......... A new state of the art pair of shearing trousers, which fit! and look so nice and clean and respectable. Last years pair are still wearable, however, a lack of concentration caused a blip with the hand eye co ordination thing and a few stabs with the handpiece at the knees sees the jeans rather raggy in places - quite serviceable at the moment but I'm sure splashing out on a new pair wont hurt. After all, it is helpful to have one pair in the wash and a clean pair to put on.

The lamb marking season saw Shep back over the border for a couple of days, catching up with them there white, wild, woolly cheviots. MY lambs were looking well, it was so good to see them again although disappointing to find some were suffering from orf (watch these postings - coming soon!), on the other hand it was a relief to find others which were lame had foot scald and were not suffering from the joint ill type infection which a few lambs had gone down with towards the end of the lambing. The lambs were really thriving and weighed heavy when lifted onto the top rail of the pens to get the bits and bobs done to them, fortunately they don't have horns so injuries to the handlers were minimal. And guess what? Shep's lamb count was up on last year - now is that exciting or not? I was forever hopeful, especially with the number of twins (and triplets) which were born but I was also well aware that the Crunchylaw sheep may well have let the side down, the only cut lambed in an enclosure were the ones which suffered the most losses amongst their lambs. Fortunately for Shep the other three cuts of sheep which lambed out on the open hill brought the odds up and although not a massive increase on last years lamb count it was an increase - what a grand way to retire from a lambing!

On that note I will leave you with a picture of one of my sets of triplets (there were only three sets). This ewe off the Auld Faulds cut nursed these lambs for five days before I had the opportunity to lift one and set it onto another ewe. All three are still running around the hill but as a pair and a single and now much bigger than in the picture.

Close encounter

The day the old tups went through the pens the youngsters also found themselves having a trip around the pens. Tup hoggs, last years lambs, hopefully going to grow out and become breeding tups themselves. These fellas are spoilt somewhat, living indoors in comfort. A shed, with straw to lie on, hay to eat and sheep feed in troughs, giving them an opportunity to grow into strong adult sheep, or so it is hoped.

Once again young Kale found himself the dog of the moment, learning the ropes in the pens, teaching the hoggs how to respect a dog at the same time. He was in his element! All other dogs barred up he was having a one to one with me and close encounters with sheep. A happy young dog.

He truly did have a close encounter, this one tup hogg seemed to be intrigued by this big black hairy creature which was hanging around, the others weren't too impressed with the idea but this young guy was bolder, going where no tup has gone before!

I watched almost spell bound as I really wasn't sure what young Kales reaction would be, he has never had a tup (albeit a tup hogg) come up to him to make friends before, I have to admit I half expected him to have a mouthful of tup but no, he just stood and took it like a man.

My imagination started to wander and the more I look at this picture the more I wonder what the young sheep was saying to the young dog. Whatever it was it did the young dog the power of good, he didn't back off with fear, neither did he lurch forward to give fear, he just took the encounter in his stride. I was impressed.

Kales reward was to be asked to move the tup hoggs further up the pens, to show his authority, act like a sheepdog, go around the back of them and push them further up to the working pen. A reward which he seemed to appreciate.

clipping days

Kale is seen here surveying the view on an early morning gather, the mist is just beginning to lift and the sheep away in the distance are heading in, having been whistled of and some directed with the dogs they know what the score is and are beginning to rake themselves in to lower ground.

Once we are happy that all the sheep have set themselves in to the lower ground they are then bunched together and driven towards the steading (farmyard)being steered by dogs which are flanking either side of the sheep and some which are pushing on behind the flock.

Once in the sheep pens the flock finds itself being shed off from one another. Lambs are shed in one direction, ewes another and the gimmers (clipped hoggs) run in another direction. To do this they run up a race and hinged swinging shedding gates can change the direction the sheep have to run enabling the shepherd to seperate off whatever he wants in any of three directions. Right, left or straight on. All hill farms have shedding races, when handling big numbers of sheep you don't want to find yourself having to catch and manhandle them into different pens, that's far too time consuming, tiring and stressful on the sheep.

The lambs and gimmers find themselves left in the sheep pens, sometimes overnight depending on whether their mothers find themselves housed overnight waiting to be clipped the following day. So long as the sheep pens are sound, no broken rails or dodgy gates all will be well although the sheep must have plenty of room.

The ewes are housed in a shed waiting to be clipped, they may have had a spell in the pens letting the wind and sun dry them off before being run into the shed. Ewes housed overnight can sometimes be a little bit wriggly the next day but then there is no winning as sheep with full bellies can be equally as awkward and actually more likely to do themselves harm if they fight against the shearer with a belly full of grass.

Once the clipping gets underway the sheep run up a race with doors to catch them out of, there are a variety of devices used, this particular race is a permanent fixture in the shed. Contract shearers use clipping trailers of a variety of designs which are portable and can move from farm to farm. There is no doubt though that the most labour saving device is a race such as this where the sheep run along on the level, the trailers find sheep having to run up a steep race and they don't take to that too kindly, needing someone on hand permanently to push them up the ramp.

The shearing which Shep does is mostly clipping alongside the farmer or shepherd such as this photo depicts. Gathering, dosing, housing, clipping,keeling, taking sheep back at the end of the day, can be fairly typical. True contract shearers roll into the farmyard and expect everything ready for them, sheep waiting patiently all the shearer has to do is shear. These fellas usually like to be clocking up 200+ a day each, the logistics of which can be difficult for the farmer to handle especially if they have many sheep running in smaller groups, I guess that's where I come in useful, we clip what is manageable for us in a day bearing in mind there is often the before and after work to be done as well.

Once clipped the ewes are keeled ready to return to their cuts on the hill, this is the stock mark of that particular hill or even farm, not everyone keels after the clipping as the sheep will all be properly keeled in the back end but it can be a useful management tool to recognise your sheep very easily.

Some sheep have a long hike back home,these in this picture have a couple of miles ahead of them, their lambs are waiting at the far end in the sheep pens as they were brought to the clipping shed without their lambs, it is far easier to drive them without lambs bouncing around and getting mis mothered, it is probably kinder on lambs and ewes in the long run. Moss is standing back surveying the scene, the ewes have a steep climb up the hill and are being given their time, letting them go at their own pace so as not to tire them out too easily.

We catch up with them on the level and push them on slightly, the ones in the front went off like a rocket was behind them, desperate to return to their lambs and their home ground, some of the others were keener to graze and view the scenery so a little bit of encouragement was needed to get them on their way.

Once the ewes are adjacent to the sheep pens the lambs are let out to join them, they take no encouragement to rush out of the pens and join their mothers. The noise is phenomenal as lambs and ewes are blaaring and bleating frantically trying to make verbal contact with one another.

Ewes and lambs are reunited and rush into an enclosure where they will be held overnight prior to being set back out to the hill. They may well have been seperated for 24 hours but they soon get mothered up and are only too pleased to be able to return to their home ground where they can resume their quiet peaceful way of life without too much interference.

All of these photos were taken away out bye, the dogs and I enjoy clipping out there better than anywhere else, we get to gather, view the lambs and work away merrily. They may be long days but they are happy days. It is a far more personal approach than just rolling up in a farmyard and clipping all day.

Bright Days!

The weather picked up, sunshine became the order of the day and the shearing got into full swing.

 

On a recent gather I was surprised to see there were still some remnants of cotton grass hanging around. It seems a long time since lambing time and there was a tremendous show of cotton grass on the little bit of wet ground out on the hill which I lambed on, on returning to the North Tyne I did find the cotton grass disapointing, no where near as heavy a crop as over the border. Just last week early one morning I came across this little heap of the stuff whilst gathering, there is still some hanging on when I thought the season was over.

 

The bell heather is also flowering, it comes out earlier in the year than the heather we are accustomed too which covers our hillsides with a purple blanket in August/September time. A pleasure to see and appreciate on an early summers morning with the sun just beginning to throw it's heat at us.

The gathering was for lamb marking and drawing the hoggs off ready to be shorn. This is one of the most difficult gathers of the year as the lambs have never been disturbed in this fashion before. They are still young and this is their first experience of being gathered. A panic can set in as some of them lose their mothers (I recall when very little I lost my mother in a supermarket, I too began to panic!).

The sheep are set down from the hill and find themselves grouping up untill all the flock are held together in one big bunch, this is when the panic really begins to set in. The shepherd becomes aware of more lambs at the back of the bunch of sheep than there are ewes. These lambs may well try to break back to their hill ground, the area where they last saw their mother. They are wild, spring and bounce around and can run at one heck of a speed. The answer is to keep the pressure on them. Keep the dogs pushing the sheep on and holding them in a bunch, relax your guard and you may find many lambs broken away from the main flock, running for their lives and showing little respect for a dog. Wildlife programmes on the telly which show gazelles jumping, twisting and bounding to escape their hunters would best describe the way a lamb is capable of reacting, they can truly test the stamina and patience of the dogs.

 

The above photo shows ewes and lambs held in a bunch. These were the sheep we had been gathering. Towards the end of the gather (just as the lambs are beginning to mis mother) they had to cross a burn, in the process a number of lambs got left behind and broke away from the crowd. The best way to try and get everything reunited was to bring the sheep back to the burn and hope the lambs could be driven to them. So, the above photo is of the flock being turned back to the handful of wayward lambs on the opposite banking. It would have been ideal to have some sheep cross back over the water to help gather the lambs up, however, with two men and three dogs on the opposite bank the sheep were not going to volunteer that, the best I could do was hold them up whilst the other staff battled on with frightened lambs. Eventually all was well, lambs were reunited with the rest of the flock.

The sun was well risen, the heat was up and dogs were allowed to wallow in the burn to cool off and drink before resuming the journey towards the pens.