Premature celebrations

Thursday 16th August was the day, one Shep had been looking forward to for quite some while- the last days clipping! Outdoor clipping no less, the night previous had been a wet one, now there's a surprise! but the morning blew out and by 11a.m sheep were dry and clipping commenced. There was a canny air (wind) and sunshine, all seemed well on the home front, we even stopped for lunch, opening our bait (sandwich) boxes to see what goodies were hiding there, quite a relaxed last days clipping it seemed.

Then it rained.

Now Shep ain't gonna give in that easily, although I did raise my head and noted that the skies were black and foreboding away across the valley, they were definitely having something of a downpour. Time to try and clip faster I thought as I felt spots of wet stuff landing om my back.

A few more woolly bodies were clipped, the spots of rain continued to land cool and wet on my back but sheep weren't getting too wet. Once again I looked up and away across the valley to see the downpour was moving, it seemed to be travelling in an arc around us. I couldn't help but grin to myself - the last days clipping and the weather was still being it's usual un co-operative self, but not to worry, the numbers of sheep to clip were getting down and nothing was gonna stop Shep in her quest to hang up the machine for the year.

I did consider stopping and donning waterproofs as the spots started to land heavier upon my back, but then I would just end up hot and sweaty so really I would be no better off than being wet with rain, anyhow, it would also waste time and after all there weren't many left to clip now. Fortunately clipping off a battery machine rigged up to my car battery meant I wasn't going to fear being electrocuted so all was well really.

We were fortunate, the rain, which I believe was indeed heavy, did continue to arc around us, we were just getting the few stray drops on the outside edge, by the time the sheep were all bared off and clipped out the rain had ceased, sun had come out and you couldn't help wonder what all the hassle had been about. So bloody typical though of this years clipping season, but hey! it was over for another year - time to celebrate!

Courtesy of a local artist who had pitched up for the duration to do arty things farmer and myself found ourselves being invited for a quick pint down the pub. Now farmer was acting slightly more conscientious than I was as I was quick to take up the offer, however, it took little to encourage him to come and join us.

So, down the pub we went, mid afternoon on a Thursday we found ourselves sitting outside enjoying a pint and watching the world go by whilst soaking up the sunshine, a slight give away to the fact we weren't tourists would have been our dress code, smell and unkempt appearance as there had been no time to wash and change. My logic is there are plenty who go out for a drink after work donned in their suits, don't see why we should be any different covered in sheep shit.

Glasses were raised to the succesful conclusion of the shearing season and not before time. Fraught doesn't seem to have had a look in this year, it is fair to say it has been the most difficult season to organise in my living memory, but hey! we got through it, finished far later than ought to have done but finished was the important issue this day.

It was something of a bummer when I received a 'phone call the following day to see how things were going from a farmer I work for and who's son clips their sheep. Of course I couldn't help but relay the good news that at long last, after what could only be described as a marathon I had eventually got the clipping over for another year................

"That's good, we've still got 700 to do, could you give us a hand?" was the reply.

It is fair to say my heart sank, but always trying to be as accommodating as possible I agreed to head over once Falstone Show had been and gone. Thank the lord we have an excuse for an annual day off - Falstone Show was a life saver!

Wednesday is dawning, it is 22nd August, an early start to gather hill ewes and then commence clipping for another day. The farmers son and I have already had a day or two at the job, much gathering, shedding off lambs, housing sheep, clipping, neither of us seem to be in the right frame of mind for the job but we are getting through, later this morning we anticipate we will be gathering 3 - 400 sheep - the final gather, which will hopefully see us finished clipping by Friday at the latest if the weather will allow, after that should the 'phone ring the answer will be a definite NO. Spaening (weaning), dipping, gathering are all on the books, clipping will definitely be over for another year. Will I raise a glass again? Now that may just be tempting providence, maybe I'll just celebrate in a non committal fashion just to be on the safe side!

Clipping (shearing) season 2012

Just incase some of you aren't aware it has been somewhat unseasonal this summer, yes, I know we live on an island which throws a variety of weather our way but........... not rain ALL the time. It would seem it has become a permanent feature, that wet stuff in what ever form it fancies. There has been wet, piss wet, very wet, wetter than wet then the wets we daren't mention in case children are listening, sometimes there has been the not so wets or even just the damp wetness. It is quite safe to say though that in a 24 hour period there has indeed been some form of wetness. Unless that is you live in the Western Isles of Scotland, now those poor souls are suffering a drought and yet they live in an area I always believed was a wet one - nowt like the idiosyncrasies of the good ol' British weather is there?

All this wetness has been causing grief, those that work outdoors, tend to stock are sick to the back teeth of wearing wellies and waterproofs day in day out. Stock are also getting sick of being wet all the time. The grass is growing BUT it also needs harvesting, again a problem when ground is waterlogged. Sheep need clipping, their coats need removing, a job which is preferable to do when the fleece is dry, packing it into wool sheets when wet will encourage it to mould and the price received for the product will be less should the product be damaged.

 

The good news is sheep have been queuing up

Blackies and Cheviots have been waiting patiently for their annual haircut. Probably held in fields for longer than usual waiting for a break in the weather to allow them to be housed dry or dryish.

Patience pays off and clipping commences.

It has to be said that the season has been a slow one, desperation has lead to sheep being clipped wet, many have been clipped damp and there are many, many more still waiting to get clipped. Here we are in the middle of July and Shep is 1,000 sheep behind on last year, they're still out there, they are still carrying their full fleeces, it just hasn't been possible to attend to their needs yet. Organisation has gone out of the window this year, whoever gets sheep housed first seems to be the ones who get their sheep shorn.

Quite arty I think - 'washing lines' full of fleeces, that's the way forward, dry the wool off the sheeps back!

Unfortunately a great deal of room is needed to hang a few fleeces up and some fleeces such as those off a cheviot or texel tend not to hold their shape like these fleeces off a blackie and are not suitable for hanging off a line, they just fall to pieces which is a tad inconvenient of them on a year such as this. Shep is mightly relieved that she doesn't clip the number of sheep she used to do, planning and organisation is a nightmare as it is with out the added complication of a good few thousand to clip. But regardless, we are getting there, it may be a long shearing season but they will all get done eventually.

Pink Wool

This posting has nothing to do with blooming sheep. Actually, most of the postings have something to do with 'blooming' sheep! What I mean is the title - Pink Wool - has nothing to do with the blooming or colouring of fleeces which occurs for shows and sales, although it has been known for things to go wrong when colouring sheep for sale and I'm sure pink sheep may well have inadvertently come out at the other end of the process. I recall once seeing some mule ewe lambs which had ended up some putrid pea green colour - different!

For quite a number of years now I have noticed sheep with a pink cast to their wool, these observations are generally made at clipping time, when I suppose the wool is at the front of your mind and in my case right under my nose all day.

 

Over the years I have asked a number of farmers I've been working for what they think causes the pink wool on their sheep. Many have asked "what pink wool" and one farmer in particular was determined I was taking the piss (pulling his leg), until I dragged him along, told him to put his specs on and have a closer look, the reply was "well! I've never seen that before" (obviously!)

 

Not all sheep and their fleeces have this pink tinge to the wool. You can have a group of sheep forward to clip and none may show the pinkness, in another group there may only be a handful whereas another group again may have many with a hint of pink on the ends of the wool.

So, for quite a number of years I have been querying this throughout the Tarset valley, most of the flocks I deal with throughout the year and so am aware of any treatments the farmers use. Some plunge dip whilst others don't, some use a pour on and others don't. There just never seemed to be a common denominator as to one management practice which involved the sheeps clothing which could be linked to every farm and result in pink wool.

My imagination began to run riot, could it be the rain? Acid rain? some peculiar pink fall out from the sky? That's it! a fallout from the sky - Mars is exfoliating and dropping dust on our sheep !!

As I have muttered on over the years it has got the farmers themselves thinking, a mineral deficiency seemed the most probable explanation, as mineral deficiences can affect some sheep more than others, depending on their metabolism and ability to maximise the minerals they ingest, that could explain why some sheep have a pink tinge when others don't. Although not rule of thumb a sheep with a pink tinge on the wool may also have been a lame sheep or something less thriven than others, however many perfectly healthy sheep would also show the pinkish hue on their fleeces so again this seemed to rule out that particular train of thought.

I have to say that for the past couple of years I had almost forgotten about my quest to ascertain where pink wool came from. Until this year, when it came to the fore once again. There was much crack (conversation) at the time regarding pink wool, some thought there seemed to be more sheep affected than on other years, that the colour saturation was probably even denser - more noticeable.

I was away clipping over the border and couldn't help but ask a retired shepherd, a gent in his 80's and hugely knowledgeable about sheep whether or not he knew the cause of pink wool. He had to admit he had never given it any thought and really couldn't think what the answer may be, but before I could feel deflated I heard the answer from behind me "It's the grasses"

The shepherd on the farm, who admittedly isn't as old as the gentleman I had asked but who is close to retiring and again highly knowledgeable about all matters sheep had come up with a possible explanation. Before long I was presented with a bouquet, not quite the sort you'd have in mind but a bouquet consisting of a variety of grasses.

 

Indeed many of these grasses have a red/pink seed head. The shepherd went on to explain that it was these grasses which 'dyed' the wool. "But why is it only the backs of the sheep which are pink?" the sides of the fleeces are getting washed off as they walk through the grasses or bracken, the long stalks of the grass are closer to back height anyhow. Lame things or something not as well thriven are likely to appear pinker due to the fact they will be lying down for longer spells. Not all sheep are going to show the colour on their coats as they all have slightly different foraging routes and also different coats, some may be more susceptible than others to holding the colour than others.

Do you know? Years of wondering, questioning, perusing, concluding had never drawn me to this fairly obvious answer. I don't know that it is correct but it is the most logical explanation that I have come upon yet.

This year the grass has grown like it's never grown before (probably a slight exaggeration there), we have had one of the grassiest years I can recollect for a long time. The grasses grow tall and carry their seed heads through the early summer months, once the clipping season is over there are very few coloured grass heads to be found, most of them having dried out ready to seed and the colour has been lost, which might explain why the colouration on the sheep is more obvious when they are in full fleece.

I don't know, I'm not a scientist. I do however have a lot of time and respect for those who have been in the trade for a long time, men who have grown up amongst sheep, worked and lived with them for a lifetime know far more than many of the rest of us. Until someone can prove otherwise I am going with this explanation I received this summer. Pink wool is caused by grass pollen.

Maybe someone out there has another take on the idea, feel free to leave a comment as none of us are too old to learn.

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.

An update - July

Shep bought some milk yesterday, the sell by date was the 2nd of August. August! where the hell did July go?? It appears I have managed to overlook the fact that July has been and is about to leave for another year, how could I possibly miss a month? - a summer month at that!

I guess it boils down to having been busy, the last 30 something days has seen Shep just having two off from working, they were described in my diary as 'piss wet' with the added word 'housework' - my god, the weather must have been bad!

The summer hasn't been tremendous although we have had windows allowing a few days good weather followed by showery days or even wet ones. Invariably on the days when the conditions were poorer the evenings would get out good and sheep would get dried and housed in sheds overnight ready to clip the following day, thus allowing Shep to be kept busy.

I recall a few extremely hot days at the beginning of July, hot and humid, so hot in fact that sweat was dripping off every part of my anatomy that gravity would allow it to drip off. Now there is a saying that men sweat, pigs perspire and women glow - umm.......... Shep was definitely sweating, no doubt I was probably glowing also but sweat was the order of the day. Much to my dismay and utter disbelief it doesn't seem to matter how many sheep I clip or how much sweat is lost the bathroom scales refuse to tell me I have lost any weight. This phenomenon is not just bothering me but also the shepherd from out bye whom I have clipped alongside on a number of days. Between us we have concluded that muscle weighs heavier than fat, therefore we are burning off our fat during the day and producing more muscle and so our bodies are refusing to 'melt away'. This conclusion suits us and we will be sticking to it!

July has been a very busy month, not only shearing and gathering but also my 16 year old nephew came to stop for three weeks. Having just sat his GCSE exams he found himself idle and decided to escape and stop with us.

He has learnt much during his 'vacation'. His Aunty doesn't possess a great deal of patience,'I've told you once, I'll tell you twice but god help you if I have to tell you three times' also you have to get up in the mornings, work hard and return home tired. He has also learnt that if you don't work hard you may get chastised. But most of all he has learnt how to cook frozen pizza, how to find food when you're hungry and how to throw back as good as you get (verbally not food fights).

In many ways he deserved a medal for coping for three weeks, he did however earn a fair bit of money wrapping wool which would probably take some of the 'pain' out of the situations he found himself in. A great learning curve which I'm sure will set him onto greater things in life as he will have learnt what happens to you if you don't stick in at school and get a 'good' job!

Shep had a birthday sometime during the month of July, I would have missed it had I not recieved cards and goodies. My birthday morning dawned and saw me up at 5am and away by 5.30, heading off to gather out bye. What a cracking morning it was. What a great way to spend your birthday. I could almost imagine there wasn't another soul on the planet as dogs and I headed out to gather sheep out on the hills, mist burning off as we set away and the sun warming our backs as the morning drew on. I felt so fortunate to be able to enjoy the occasion. Mid morning saw me heading back down the valley and being reunited with the nephew to clip sheep on another farm. Those sheep were flying clipping, a pleasure to clip and once again I found myself thankful of such a pleasant way to spend my birthday.

There has been much hard work and much busying during the month of July but it has been a very sociable month, moving from farm to farm and getting fresh crack (conversation), much banter and quite a few jovial moments. There has been leg pulling and laughter which always helps the time to pass.

I bought myself one of those little cameras, the sort that fits into your back pocket with no view finder, you have to hold it at arms length an look at the screen at the back of the camera, it has taken a bit of getting used to but I have been playing with it this clipping season and received some strange looks from those I've been working alongside, especially when taking the following two pictures.

 

I took these to give you an insight into what I see for most of the day, a self portrait of me ready to clip a sheep. I am on that picture honest! You can just make out my legs and my feet are under the sheeps wool.

 

Then you have the finished article - a wool less and apparently headless sheep! A view I know only too well as day in day out I have been bending over surveying this scene - fascinating!

There is much to report on if I could find the time and energy, hopefully I'll get there and share it with you eventually. I have actually finished my clipping for the season but am now shearing alongside another shearer, someone who hasn't been as fortunate as myself and has found themselves held up with the weather. That magical figure of 3,000 sheep is history and where the total will end up I don't know. I do know that I enjoyed some peace and quiet last night. It was a cracking summers evening and I had to head away out bye to feed the shepherds dogs and the likes as he was away for a couple of days.

I let his dogs out of their kennels and along with mine we strolled down to the burn, it was 7.30pm and there was still heat in the sun preventing the midges from spoiling the occasion. I found myself sitting on the waters edge just enjoying the peace and quiet, the gentle bubbling of the water, birdsong and dragonflies flying by

 

After the hubbub of a shearing shed, noisy machines, sheep blaaring, people talking, gates clattering it was sheer bliss, time to myself to sit and enjoy a summers evening.

 

I wasn't the only one enjoying the experience the pack of dogs which were in my company also enjoyed the water but in a different manner to myself.