August seems to be a pivotal month for us in our farming calendar. Lots of decisions to be made that affect our future both immediately and in the next 6 months. It also seems to be the start of the downturn into winter. Depressing I know! We haven't even really had a summer yet and I'm already banging on about winter! But that is our reality, we spend our summer preparing for winter. Before we know it, October will be upon us, the cattle will come in and then we really know its winter time!
This week we took part in #farm24, an online campaign run by the Farmers Guardian and Morrisons to give the general public a true insight into 24 hours in the life of a farmer. Gary was fantastic and provided several informative videos. He started the day off with checking the cows and introducing everyone to the 2 resident bulls on the farm, G-Force & Phoenix. Then we met the pigs and moved on to silage making and wrapping the bales. I finished the day with a little round up of the sheep. In all honesty, I have to admit that our day felt a little mundane! August is hectic to say the least, but its not full of the parts of farming I thrive on. For me, our most interesting and exciting time on the farm is February/March - lambing and calving!
But without doing our jobs now and in the coming weeks, we will be stuck in winter. So far, things seem to be good. Last year we had a terrible harvest which meant a huge shortage of straw and silage in our area. Towards the end of April, before the cattle were turned out, Gary was having to buy silage in at £48 per bale. So whilst cattle prices were good, and the calves were sold for a good price, the shine was taken off with the price of forage.
But so far this year, several of our fields have had a second cut of silage, we had a respectable yield from the winter barley and a good deal of straw has been baled. Last year we were around 300 bales short, and that can have a massive impact on the farm. The farm runs around 120 store cattle that are reared indoors, so we need a good supply of straw to keep the sheds clean throughout the year, plus silage to keep them well fed.
We also ran short of hay for the horses and straw for the donkeys. Luckily Gary has good connections and managed to secure us about 100 bales to see us through. So at this point in the year, a good batch of silage making and plenty of straw makes us breathe a little sigh of relief.
August means we also need to plan ahead with breeding. We put our tups in with the breeding ewes on 12th September. 4 weeks away! Its also the perfect date to hopefully get my first lambs on my birthday, 12th February :) That's a very short 4 weeks when you're busy. Not to mention that we currently don't own a breeding ram. Unfortunately, back in May, we lost our Ram, Roman. He passed out of the blue, and he's left behind very big shoes to fill. We have viewed a few Beltex rams, but none of them really made us smile, they just didn't float our boat. Now whilst we know the purpose of a ram is for breeding, you still have to be happy looking at your animals everyday. So we came away each time feeling a little lack lustre and like we're looking for the impossible. Every weekend without a ram is another weekend closer to tupping.
However.....
We do have 2 ram lambs at home who are his sons. They're nice boys, with good shape but they still need to be big enough to cover the ewes in a months time.
And as for breeding ewes, that's another issue. Last year my breeders were made up of cull ewes. On the whole, they were a good bunch of girls and there are many that I do not have a problem with. But unfortunately, there are some girls who have displayed really horrible traits, and they will be heading to market. One girl flat out refused to rear her ewe lamb. She took the ram lamb with no issue, but near on killed the ewe lamb, refusing to feed her and head butting her away when she tried to feed. I persevered for 5 days but in the end, for the sake of the lamb, she went to the pet pen to be reared by myself. That girl is Annie lamb, mentioned in my previous blog.
So I'm 4 weeks out with around 10 ewes to tup. We do plan to attend some pedigree sheep sales in the next couple of weeks and hopefully be able to put together a nice bunch of 50 ewes. Sheep prices are still very high though, so it will be a large investment for us. But if you're going to do it, do it right and do it well. More on that to hopefully follow.
So, to quickly introduce the boys, we have Thor and Odin.
Farming is always a balance of moving forward but keeping things possible. With our own livestock, Gary and I are tenant farmers. Essentially, we rely on other people allowing us to use their land to build our future. I must say, we are incredibly lucky with our land owners. Most are happy to have a lamb off us in return for the grazing and they are always helpful, even helping me round up a bunch of unruly lambs when Gary couldn't make it! Last week when Gary and I spent a very hot Saturday afternoon trimming feet and worming, they surprised us with ice creams and bottles of drink!
The lambs are now all grazing at our favourite farm, based in Fordham. Its our favourite because the grazing is fab, the fencing is all secure, all paddocks have auto water drinkers and the let us come and go as we please. And these little things make a huge difference when you're working full time and keeping livestock on the side.
Sadly, we can never forget we are at the mercy of our landlords though, as I recently found out a new piece of land I've been grazing is going up for sale. It's a piece of grazing that is a huge stepping stone between lambing and summer grazing. So whilst we have plans in place for buying breeding sheep, and I have use of barn to lamb in, there is the very real prospect of having nowhere to keep sheep for 2 to 3 months until the hay is cut. Decisions now have big implications in 6 months time. All I can do is keep searching, keep making connections. After all, its not what you know but who. A friend of a friend just might have that perfect 10 acres that would look fabulous with 50 ewes and their lambs at foot in the spring! Fingers crossed.
Hope you all stay dry in this beautiful British summer!
Zoe xx
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