At last grass. Although we like many, had no grass until the last few days of August, the sheep have survived well, with lambs growing well through the summer. Clearly Blue Tongue has been a major concern. We vaccinated everything in the last week of August. AlthoughBT has been in evidence in Derbyshire and Staffordshire,
Near perfect spring and early summer weather. A couple of weeks ago, I was interested to hear an Australian beef farmer talking about the necessity of sharply reducing heard sizes in advance of the droughts that the El Nino will bring. Presumably Australian sheep farmers will be doing the same. Taken with the higher price
Like many other farmers this years lambing had two sides to it. Sun on the backs of the ewes and lambs enabled lambs to bask in the sun, rather than drinking/eating to stay warm. This is certainly reflected in our 8 week weights. However the flip side of this has been the paucity of grass,
Breed for CH4nge – Breeding for Low Methane Sheep We have been actively involved in research into worm resistance in sheep for over 7 years. For the last 3 years we have participated in research that has honed down to using Serum IgA. By quantifying IGA concentrations, farmers can identify sheep with high IGA levels,
We had a little rain last night but this June is looking like a relay of last year. We still have good grass and the lambs are growing well. We will shortly be taking 8 week weights, so will see how the dry weather is impacting milk. We start shearing this week, initially the hogs