Sheep Maintenance - A Farmer's Work is Never Done

Whilst Brian is still employed full time, our weekends are always full of farming maintenance jobs. Never ask a part time farmer out to lunch on a Sunday, or expect us to commit to anything.

Saturdays and Sundays are when we are head down, bottoms up!

There's an almighty long list of all the jobs to be done over the coming weekends, and that's just my list. His list is probably just as long. 

Oh if only it were possible to work a four day week, we might actually get on top of things.

We brought the young ewes in for crutching (trimming wool from the breach area) and wigging (trimming wool away from the eyes).

All of our sheep will be shorn in October when the weather is warmer; Brian will be taking some annual leave.

Feet are trimmed while they are in the shed and getting a once over.

We usually use a natural mixture of seaweed, apple cider vinegar, aloe, minerals and herbs to manage worms and internal parasites, whilst boosting the animal's immune system at the same time. However, upon close inspection of the droppings, which all stock owners should do regularly, we found some worm eggs. A sample was sent off to the lab to determine which parasites we needed to treat, and a commercial worming preparation was purchased from the local Stock and Agriculture outlet.
The use of commercial chemical wormers should never be routinely administered to livestock (sheep, cattle, goats, poultry). This is what farmers had been doing over the last sixty, or so years and it is why stock have developed a resistance to them.  New, more powerful preparations are always coming onto the market but soon they will run out of ways to make an effective wormer for when we really need to eradicate harmful parasites.

These two dogs are worth two farmhands, but are much cheaper to feed, super loyal and lovable, and never argue the point. Where would we be without them?  Oh and the bloke is rather useful to have around too.

Can you guess what this is?

A serendipitous find a couple of weeks ago, which prompted one of those "Start the car" moments.

I'll tell you about it next time.

A very dry July, we have had frosts for the past two mornings, but thankfully, the hay crops are hanging in and still putting on growth. Rain is forecast and Brian's dowsing apparatus tells him we're in for a nice few drops over the coming days.

This afternoon I'll bring up a couple of extra wheelbarrow loads of firewood from the wood heap down the back and fill the kindling bucket to keep me going with dry wood for starting the fires. 

I hope there is some rain coming your way too if you're in one of the many places that is in dire need.

Until next time when I share the story of the mystery object,

See you!

Sally XXX