August 2018 We continue to look with increasing anxiety at the weather maps like everyone else, but increasingly hopeful that the worst of the drought is behind us. We are on heavy land, so we are not completely barren. All the fields were either topped or cut for haylage or hay by early July.
We were thankful that shearing was completed prior to the onset of this hot weather. Another year and again only one ewe with any sign of fly strike. Hopefully enough good haylage has been made earlier this month and (slowly) some regrowth is now coming through. Lets hope for a “normal” winter, although
I recall making a worrying prediction about the lambing weather in early March. Well we largely dodged that snow bullet, with very little collateral damage. Very few mastitis cases – under 2%, and most of those out in the field, a couple of weeks after lambing. Apart from those “casualties”, lambing went remarkably smoothly. I
The last week was a little brutal for everyone. We are still a few weeks off lambing, so like everyone else, hope that it will start to warm up before too long. A long cold spring means limited grass and an almost certain uptick in mastitis. Over the years mastitis post lambing seems to be