The Shepherd's Year

Autumn

Autumn is the start of the shepherding year for us.  Before we go into the winter, we need to consider which sheep we are going to keep throughout the winter. 

Only in exceptional circumstances would we want to put a sheep to sleep before the winter; but it would be more cruel to leave them unable to feed properly, to keep warm or to leave them in pain.

The ewes all need to be in good condition (well-fed but not fat) with good feet and teeth.

We check all fences and water-troughs, and consider when to start leaving out mineral blocks.

Winter

Winter can be hard work and much depends on the weather.  A long wet winter can be miserable for sheep and shepherd alike, and long periods of snow are not uncommon.  

All the sheep get a vitamin drench to keep them healthy and ensure that they get the best out of their feeding.

General jobs include checking their feet, guarding against parasites such as liver fluke or infections such as pink-eye.  

Once winter sets in, all the sheep have access to ad-lib hay, as well as mineral buckets and hard feed in troughs.

Spring

Spring used to mean lambing for us - and it was always the hardest working part of the year.

In 2018 we decided that we would become solely a wool flock.

Lambing inevitably means the production of tup lambs (boys).  The choices available then are to castrate or wether the tups by banding versus keeping 'entire', then:

- grow them on and slaughter for meat (wethered or entire)

- grow them on  (wethered or entire) and sell at market (in which case they *will* be bought by meat-dealers)

- keep within the flock for wool-production    (wethered).

After a lot of thought (and the unexpected loss of the park that we had always used to keep our tups on), we decided to stop lambing and just keep a wool flock - predominantly female - and buy in replacements as needed.

This was a wrench!  Lambing has always been a key part of our shepherding year.  However, it does mean that we can legitimately say that we keep a slaughter-free flock.

Summer

Summer means visiting shows and holdings to see other breeders' sheep and to consider what to buy in.  Lambs are always very tempting!

New grass means we need to avoid worms in the sheep although this is much less of a problem since we stopped lambing.                                                                               

Warm weather however brings the worry of fly-strike and, as we do not dip the sheep or dose them before shearing, it is a worrying time.

Shearing usually happens mid-June into July (again depending on the weather as we have no shelter to keep the sheep dry) and we rely on friends to help us catch sheep and roll fleeces.  It is such a relief to get the fleeces off the sheep, dry and stored away.  We also have to collect fleeces in from our neighbours.

This timeless cycle connects us to generations of shepherds who have worked these hills before us, and ensures the highest quality wool for our customers.