Well its been a busy few months since I last had time to sit down and write a blog post! The cattle are in, the rams are out and the temperature has dropped again!
We finished tupping 2 weeks ago after leaving the rams in for 9 weeks. The main bulk of girls were tupped in the 4th week, but as its a new flock to us, and a complete change of climate for the sheep, we decided to give them a bit of extra time to try and has as much success as possible. It seems we may of had a couple of girls cross from one colour to another, and sadly 1 girl who cycled through every colour, so this would indicate she's more then likely not in lamb. Not ideal for a young ewe, but we hope she took on the last cycle. We will scan mid December and find out for sure, but fingers crossed until then!
Farming is an industry in which every day truly can be a school day, especially being able
to connect to some many other farmers and livestock keepers over social media. One thing we did discuss with the owner of a flock from which we purchased most of our ewes from was the right time to put the tups in. Normal tupping date for us is 12th September, but we were warned this might be a bit early for these girls to start cycling properly. That became evident when most girls cycled and were tupped a month after the boys went in. So for next year, we will probably hold off for 3 weeks to have a tighter lambing window.
The boys are now relaxing in their bachelor paddock, their hard work done for the year!
Another major event for us was sending our pigs off! We had a bit of a hectic weekend due to the fact that we were going on holiday! Yes, a real holiday! But when you have livestock, its a marathon to even get there, and that was certainly the case. To reduce the workload for family manning the animals in our absence, we sent 14 lambs, a ewe and 11 pigs to the abattoir the Sunday before we left. The pigs of course wouldn't load on the trailer, and inevitably I got pushed over into the mud! So we had to call my brother and sister in law for back up! But after wed got everyone sorted, and the trailer cleaned out, it was back home before we headed to the Norfolk Broads for a week away on a boat!
Holidays for us are few and far between, but its so important to take a break for your own sanity. We love our way of life and that it entails, but its hard relentless graft, and you have to make time to take a breather.
After we got back from holiday, we had a mad weekend restocking our meat freezers with pork, beef, mutton and lamb! We grass reared 2 Dexter Steers over the summer, and after hanging for 21 days, that was delivered to us the day we got home. And it was the first time having back our own pork. Were so pleased with all the meat we've had back and have had great reviews from our customers! (Check out our stock lists on the website if you'd like to try some for yourself!)
Jobs on the farm have increased now that the cattle have all come inside. Some in calf
heifers went off to their new home last week, so they were bolused and wormed before leaving us. Plus, we took our annual trip to wales to buy calves for the farm. We accompanied the farm owner to the Sennybridge weaned beef calf sale with him later returning to attend Talybont sale, bring home a total of 72 calves.
After they had settled, they also needed and MOT - shaving the backs and faces and vaccinating any who hadn't been done pre sale.
All in all its been a busy time for us but were so looking forward to the next couple of months. Other big news on the sheep front is confirmation that we have been accepted by the NCC Society, and can officially say we are the Stour Mill Flock of Pedigree North Country Cheviots! We've made some really great friends with fellow cheviot owners in the last couple of months, and are super proud of our flock, so we cant wait to get our first crop of lambs on the ground and potentially even selling some ewe lambs at Monmouth next year!
The cold weather is coming, so stay warm and don't forget to take a break!
Zoe x
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