Another dry summer. Although most of us were able to take advantage of the periods of rain at the end of May and early June to cut sufficient haylage/hay for this winter. A change on last year. With the school holidays about to start, a move to more changeable weather is probably around the corner.
At last a little rain and the big blocking high seems to have moved. Fields are starting to green up, but a long way to go. Thankfully we are not milking cows. We weaned last week, and lambs are continuing to do well. Certainly the worm burden should have been reduced during this drought. We
Lambing finished quietly at the end of April, with over 90% within the first cycle which is consistent with previous years. Lambing through April this year helped us avoid the horrors witnessed by so many others lambing through this extreme wet spring. Swamp was a common discretion of people’s experiences almost everywhere. Additionally, we luckily
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
July 1st 2016 Lambing is now well behind us, having finished in mid April. I was reasonably pleased with a live lambing ratio (post 2 days after lambing) of a shade under 180%. Sheep were brought in very early in early January due to the atrocious wet weather. I was concerned that the