Salutation Farm : Hampshire Down Sheep

Blood, sweat and shears

glynis — Sun, 05 May 2013 21:22:51 +0000

It’s been a busy week with the sheep.

We had our 6 shearlings (4 Hamps and 2 Lleyns) sheared on Tuesday evening after work and they have over wintered well.

Martyn and I took a day off work on Friday as the sheep were blood tested for Maedi Visna. The vet also put back a prolapse on one of the Lleyns.

We spent Saturday gathering up the lambs and sheep for sale as we expected buyers coming to collect lambs on Sunday morning and another potential buyer viewing stock on Sunday afternoon.

Just as I was settling down to watch Casualty Martyn shouted to say one of the Lleyn shearlings had a wobbly leg.

The Lleyn had jumped out of it’s pen and had broken a back leg. A quick browse through the internet detailed how to pack, splint and bandage the injury. A visit to the vets today for plaster bandage seems to have stabilised the leg.

Rive Malik arrived early this morning from Nottinghamshire to collect his 3 ewe lambs. Rive is 15 years old and after sitting his A levels is considering a career in agriculture.

Another young man Joseph Watkinson arrived with his Dad this afternoon and have purchased 6 ewe lambs to start a flock.

We are pleased that these two young people are keen to keep livestock and will offer them as much support as we possibly can.

Having a snack

glynis — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:16:05 +0000

We have finished lambing and the ewes and lambs are now outside. Martyn was in danger of being knocked off his feet when he was trying to feed the sheep so we have invested in a sheep snacker. After much deliberation we have bought a basic machine that drops feed in piles. It is only the second time we have used it today but the sheep now know the routine.

End in sight

glynis — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:36:18 +0000

Only four lleyns to lamb thank goodness.

We started on the 8th March and with any luck should be finished soon. It’s been really cold – even in the barn. We purchased extra heat lamps to give the newborns a chance. They only get about 24 hours worth of heat before they are needed for the next lambs but at least it helps to keep the chill off them.

We are looking for a trained sheepdog to help us with the sheep- as Martyn says”Glynis can’t run as fast these days.”

Patiently waiting

glynis — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:58:04 +0000

We are still waiting for 3 Hampshires to lamb. It seems a long time since we lambed most of the ewes in December.

One of the lleyn ewes who is expecting triplets has been coming down when Martyn feeds them but she has not been eating any food. We contacted the vet and gave her a large dose of calcium and a sheep drench to treat ketosis and acetonemia. Within a few hours she was eating again and is looking much happier. It would have been so easy to have missed this if Martyn hadn’t spent some time observing the sheep.

Busy Day

glynis — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:04:07 +0000

We have Heptavaced the Lleyns and mule ewes who are due to lamb in March. The December born lambs also had a jab and a dose of Vecoxan.

Martyn is off to the beef shorthorn sale at Stirling on Monday. He’s not taking the trailer but has made arrangements for haulage should he be successful in purchasing.

Food Glorious Food

glynis — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:38:20 +0000

Martyn’s days seem to be spent feeding the sheep and cows. We are feeding ewe nuts to the sheep outside and have bought pre-lambing tubs for the ewes in lamb.

We have brought 6 Hampshire Down ewes back home ready for lambing end of January/ beginning of February.

The beef shorthorn cows are doing well outside and are usually waiting at the gate for Martyn to arrive with fresh hay.

The December born lambs are growing on well and it’s just a pity that they are not bounding around outside.

Lambing has started

glynis — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:58:12 +0000

We had our first lambs born yesterday. A ewe we bought as a lamb from Richard Cole’s Chaddlehanger flock had twin ram lambs at 3pm. She couldn’t have picked a colder day but she had plenty of visitors with the other ewes watching from a distance. She is a good mum considering it’s her first lambing and she is very attentive.

Departures and Arrivals

glynis — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:02:25 +0000

We sent the first two of our home bred beasts- a heifer and a steer to Darlington mart last week. A sad but neccessary task to enable us to keep Beef Shorthorns.

We have a new heifer. Her name is Ellie and she is from the Rob and Gilly Johnson’s Gilven Herd. She has settled in well and came over to see Martyn today when he went to see her

Ellie

We have just got home from our first holiday in 2 years. We stayed in a beautiful cottage near Tavistock. The first 2 days were the Hampshire Down Sheep AGM weekend. We had good weather and enjoyed visiting two large flocks of Hampshire Down sheep.

View from secret garden Cobweb Cottage

Eating for two

glynis — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:43:50 +0000

We are starting to feed the hampshire ewes ready for December lambing. Aprt form one single and a set of triplets the rest are expecting twins.

The tups are in with the lleyn ewes for spring lambing. We are using a couple of ram lambs with the lleyns and a hampshire tup with the cross breeds.

Hampshire Down Shearling Ewes For Sale

glynis — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:35:10 +0000

We have 7 good shearling ewes for sale. They are running with Parkstock Richie Boy who produced some nice lambs for us this year.