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Winter 2009
It can be hard to explain how little the calendar means to a farmer and how much the weather and natural events influence the timing of what we do. We tend to know which day of the week it is because of going to the livestock market on Wednesday and church on Sunday, but the date is often a mystery. A mild spell in the Spring has led to a bumper crop of holly berries but the cool Autumn has resulted in very few wild mushrooms and the late flush of grass growth that puts the sheep in good condition at the beginning of Winter has been barely discernible.
One of the few dates we do take careful note of is the date the tups go in with the ewes. We'll be lambing from 14th February onwards. We borrowed a fine Badger Face Welsh Mountain ram for our Badger Face ewes in order to breed their replacements ready for when they're too old to lamb any more, although we put them to the Southdown tup when they were younger, to produce a good crossbreed sheep. This year we're using a couple of home bred ram lambs on the Southdown ewes. They are both one of twins, grew away well and have a very good conformation (shape and size) - characteristics we like to encourage in the flock. The old stock ram was run with the flock when the ram lambs had been taken out, just in case one of the ram lambs proves infertile. We hope this won't happen though, as it would make lambing a very long drawn-out affair. When the first lamb arrives we all rush out to see it but after three weeks of 17-hour days we greet the arrival of the last lamb with similar enthusiasm! The Barn will be closed for most of March while we concentrate all efforts on keeping the ewes and lambs alive.
The poultry hatched in the incubator and by broody hens over the Spring and Summer is now mature and the Laced Wyandottes have been sold at the rare breeds sale, leaving just a core breeding stock to overwinter on the farm, along with the laying hens which are often much less attractive but rather better layers. This year we shall have Barnevelders to lay dark brown eggs, Light Sussex and Black Orpingtons to lay tinted eggs and Cream Crested Legbars for blue ones.
The only thatched pub in Herefordshire has reopened near Jubilee Clump on Bringsty Common, just 25 minutes' walk from the Barn, so our Barn guests can enjoy a walk with wonderful views of the Malverns to the south and unspoilt countryside all around them and have lunch afterwards!
The Story of Doris:
Many of our Barn guests have met Doris, our Beulah Welsh Mountain ewe, and enjoyed hearing her story, so here it is for web browsers: Our neighbour across the valley was leaning on a stock pen at market, waiting for his sheep to be sold, when he felt a nose nudging his hand. He looked down to see a couple of mountain ewes looking up at him. One nudged his hand again and he looked them over to check they were sound in teeth, feet and udder and bought them.
After a few years on his farm they became too old to lamb outdoors again and to be gathered by the sheepdogs but the farmer's wife had become quite fond of them so Alice (then seven years old) asked if she could buy Doris and Speckles (as they'd acquired names) and began saving all her pocket money. She regularly asked our neighbour when she could buy them but he always came up with a good excuse as to why it was inconvenient just then. On Christmas Day that year, though, the trailer rattled up the road and out came Doris and Speckles as presents for Guy and Alice!
They each had a ram lamb that Spring, although Doris subsequently got mastitis and required a lot of care before she recovered. She's now living out her life here at Hareley Farm and has her own job as head of the little flock of weaned ewe lambs each summer, as she's trained to come to call or to the feed bucket and will bring them up the field with her.
Speckles died peacefully in her sleep a couple of years ago, but Doris proved her worth by alerting us to a ewe cast (stuck on its back - always fatal for a sheep) in her field. We rescued the ewe and next day she had twins, so Doris had saved the lives of three sheep.
She has no teeth so we have to put her in a field with fairly long grass, or feed her hay. We've no idea how old she is - probably at least 17 - but she's still fit enough to pick up a good turn of speed when trotting up the field for her evening treat of a handful of sheep mix!
Last updated: 20/12/2009
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