Sheep notes, by Rose Penna
Notes from Spring
We've just returned from a brief visit to Wales and drove up through the centre to Snowdonia. Every field and hill and mountainside seemed to be covered with new born lambs and when we walked up a mountain the air was filled with the distinctive sound of ewes and lambs calling each other. Normally we would have about twenty lambs from our own small flock by this time of year and be wasting a lot of time watching their mad antics as they dash about in a frenzy. This would be the brief period in their lives of irresponsibility before their life-long and constant search for food begins. However, this year we decided to give them (and us) a rest from lambing and hence all is peaceful, but also a bit sad. We would also have had plenty to talk about as the drama of lambing comes to an end and the ewes settle into feeding their offspring and trying to keep them in order.
So what`s happening with our flock? The main news is that the grass has now started to grow with higher ground temperatures and a top dressing of 20:10:10. The ewes are off supplementary rations and feeding solely on grass. This would not be the case if they were feeding lambs, however – they would be having daily supplies of concentrate. Apart from regular feet trimming there is little maintenance needed at this time of year.
Our fields are well drained and tend to dry out in the latter part of summer. Have we had enough rain to delay the onset of this? We don`t think so – it seems to have been a dry winter and spring. We always struggle with having enough grass as we are stocked at a fairly high level and have had to supplement with a lot of hay and concentrate this winter, made worse by the snow. If our flock is swelled with lambs, lack of good grass can become critical if the weather is against grass growth. At least this season the pressure will be off with no lambs to compete with the ewes. We do have the use of borrowed fields away from home and at present they are in a neighbour's field. While it is good to have this as a reserve there are always risks with having sheep in fields with less than perfect fencing.
The next important job in the calendar is shearing, which we usually do in the second half of May unless the weather turns really warm before that.
Notes from summer
As we feared our grass almost disappeared by the beginning of June through lack of early rain. We became really concerned about the situation. As always the deep rooted weed plants that the animals don`t eat still thrived and the booming rabbit population continued to take its ration of grass. The fields became dotted with nettles, bracken and thistles. While we top the fields when the sheep move on we are reluctant to use selective weedkillers. This is because our fields are small and surrounded by young trees which can be severely damaged by drift.
We were relieved that this year we gave lambing a miss as we were stretched to keep the ewes fed on what grass remained. There is always a delicate balancing act needed under these circumstances to avoid poaching. Take too much grass off and recovery later becomes much slower while at the same time the weeds are given a greater advantage.
However as we now know the rain came just in time for all of us and saved the situation. The fields greened up quickly and the sheep clearly enjoyed some new grass. Our friend Dave Scott from Sark managed to get over in spite of the rough sea, and gave our girls a good hair cut. Having had their wool cut off left them vulnerable to flies, so once their wool started growing (about a week) we re-applied Vetrazin, a product used to protect sheep.
Now it has been said that sheep are a little thick, a bit slow to get the message, so to speak; not ours!! We have a shop steward, BETTY!! You can disguise the Vetrazin any way you like. Up your jumper! In a bucket! Yes she knows it’s not for consumption so the battle ensues! Once we get the girls into Bunker Meadow where we keep the run and roll over crate, it will be a piece of cake.
Getting them to co-operate isn`t easy when one woolly Banshee wants to take them another way. However, we get them into the run and then into the roll over crate and check their feet, cut their nails and worm them. Hey Presto! MOT done for a couple of weeks. We have just bought a fourteen week Jacob/Dorset cross ewe, very pretty; called her Susie!
October time we will be hoping to borrow a ram from someone, six wives on offer but of course Betty will have to give the OK. So far so good; it would appear that the Blue Tongue midge hasn`t found its way to Guernsey yet, nor Jersey for that matter.
Robin and Rose Penna
We've just returned from a brief visit to Wales and drove up through the centre to Snowdonia. Every field and hill and mountainside seemed to be covered with new born lambs and when we walked up a mountain the air was filled with the distinctive sound of ewes and lambs calling each other. Normally we would have about twenty lambs from our own small flock by this time of year and be wasting a lot of time watching their mad antics as they dash about in a frenzy. This would be the brief period in their lives of irresponsibility before their life-long and constant search for food begins. However, this year we decided to give them (and us) a rest from lambing and hence all is peaceful, but also a bit sad. We would also have had plenty to talk about as the drama of lambing comes to an end and the ewes settle into feeding their offspring and trying to keep them in order.
So what`s happening with our flock? The main news is that the grass has now started to grow with higher ground temperatures and a top dressing of 20:10:10. The ewes are off supplementary rations and feeding solely on grass. This would not be the case if they were feeding lambs, however – they would be having daily supplies of concentrate. Apart from regular feet trimming there is little maintenance needed at this time of year.
Our fields are well drained and tend to dry out in the latter part of summer. Have we had enough rain to delay the onset of this? We don`t think so – it seems to have been a dry winter and spring. We always struggle with having enough grass as we are stocked at a fairly high level and have had to supplement with a lot of hay and concentrate this winter, made worse by the snow. If our flock is swelled with lambs, lack of good grass can become critical if the weather is against grass growth. At least this season the pressure will be off with no lambs to compete with the ewes. We do have the use of borrowed fields away from home and at present they are in a neighbour's field. While it is good to have this as a reserve there are always risks with having sheep in fields with less than perfect fencing.
The next important job in the calendar is shearing, which we usually do in the second half of May unless the weather turns really warm before that.
Notes from summer
As we feared our grass almost disappeared by the beginning of June through lack of early rain. We became really concerned about the situation. As always the deep rooted weed plants that the animals don`t eat still thrived and the booming rabbit population continued to take its ration of grass. The fields became dotted with nettles, bracken and thistles. While we top the fields when the sheep move on we are reluctant to use selective weedkillers. This is because our fields are small and surrounded by young trees which can be severely damaged by drift.
We were relieved that this year we gave lambing a miss as we were stretched to keep the ewes fed on what grass remained. There is always a delicate balancing act needed under these circumstances to avoid poaching. Take too much grass off and recovery later becomes much slower while at the same time the weeds are given a greater advantage.
However as we now know the rain came just in time for all of us and saved the situation. The fields greened up quickly and the sheep clearly enjoyed some new grass. Our friend Dave Scott from Sark managed to get over in spite of the rough sea, and gave our girls a good hair cut. Having had their wool cut off left them vulnerable to flies, so once their wool started growing (about a week) we re-applied Vetrazin, a product used to protect sheep.
Now it has been said that sheep are a little thick, a bit slow to get the message, so to speak; not ours!! We have a shop steward, BETTY!! You can disguise the Vetrazin any way you like. Up your jumper! In a bucket! Yes she knows it’s not for consumption so the battle ensues! Once we get the girls into Bunker Meadow where we keep the run and roll over crate, it will be a piece of cake.
Getting them to co-operate isn`t easy when one woolly Banshee wants to take them another way. However, we get them into the run and then into the roll over crate and check their feet, cut their nails and worm them. Hey Presto! MOT done for a couple of weeks. We have just bought a fourteen week Jacob/Dorset cross ewe, very pretty; called her Susie!
October time we will be hoping to borrow a ram from someone, six wives on offer but of course Betty will have to give the OK. So far so good; it would appear that the Blue Tongue midge hasn`t found its way to Guernsey yet, nor Jersey for that matter.
Robin and Rose Penna