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I would not profess to being a Sheep farmer I…

I would not profess to being a Sheep farmer, I can trim their feet and do general sheep husbandry, all the other jobs like sheering etc, I leave to the professionals, who we pay. I only keep sheep to improve the pasture after the Horses have grazed the fields and paddocks. Horses are fussy eaters, the Sheep mop up what they have left. Over the winter months the Sheep are left out to eat all the rough grass, giving a new start to the spring growth. Their droppings also fertilise the fields.

By now the Sheep should be off of the hay and grazing fields, so that it can grow without the sheep grazing it. We have fenced off a fields up the valley, that has a lot of rough grazing, it is ideal for the sheep. If they eat a lot of the new spring growth grass, it tends to give them the runs.

Today we tried to move the Sheep to the new field. The easiest way would be with a sheep Dog, that we have not got. A good Dog would have got them to where we wanted, in a very short time. Most Sheep at one time or the other would have been fed with a Sheep feed, it is normally put out into troughs or even on the ground straight from the bag, if this is the case, then the Sheep will come to, or follow a bag, in the hope that the bag contains feed. Seeing all the Sheep with their lambs in the field, we decided that it would be a good time to try to move them onto the new field. It all went great first of all, ten or so started to come to the bag straight away, most the Texels with their lambs joined the group, only one stayed where it was with a couple of lambs, with one of us pushing on from behind, we were gathering a lot of the Sheep into a moving flock, then one of the Texel started to run back to the one we had left behind, she had left one of her lambs behind, the other Texels joined her. Not a disaster we could move them tomorrow, if need be by fencing them in, and taking them to the field with the quad and trailer.

We had got to a narrow part of the field, that led into a small paddock, with all but six of the Sheep, just before our destination, when two of last years Portland Ram Lambs decided to join us, unexspectantly coming out from the wood. No sooner than they got into the flock, they decided to fight, charging at each other. They hit themselves so hard, that one was dazed and really groggy on its feet, it must have been near to being knocked out. Of course the fight spooked the flock, on of the Ewes made a dash for it, then another, and that was the end of moving them, for they all ran back in the direction that we started from. Once they break it is not worth trying to gather them, you have got to start again. That we will leave until tomorrow. We will give it one more try, if that fails we will have to fence them in, and move them with the quad and trailer.

Before we moved to Denbury, when I last had Sheep, about twelve years back, a friend let us borrow his Sheep dog, named Ben. Ben’s owner never allowed him in the house, he was left out in all weather, either in one of their barns or a kennel. He was never fed a proper meal, given only the left overs after they had eaten, if there was any left overs. Many days he had nothing to eat. When he was loaned to us he was allowed in the home and fed every day. even then three times he ran back to his home, some four miles away, with a motorway in between. I dont know how they find their way.

Ben knew his job, you would tell him to go around. That is all that was really needed, he would know exactly what to do. When ever I gave him any instructions he would mostly ignore me, when he did take notice, it all went wrong, I would get annoyed blaming Ben, when of course it was my fault. Its a pity that we did not have a Ben with us today.

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