FARMER FOCUS: National Sheepdog trial run is withdrawn
I just managed to get the lambs weaned before we started combining. They are looking well and chewing on some good headage. The ewes look a bit bedraggled, but I suppose they have had a tough year one way or another. Harvest is at last under way and we are well into the wheat, despite the fact we’re at least a month behind.
We have still got oilseed rape to combine that is not yet fit. I have decided to head sow a grass ley and rotate it around the farm. We will increase the ewes and drop back on the ewe lambs.
With our expanding ewe flock and our ever-increasing workload – with the contracting side of the business – we have decided to look out for another young apprentice, as Rob has turned out to be such a good lad. Finding young people that don’t mind a bit of lambing duties, as well as sitting on a Fendt tractor, are hard to find these days – the latter job seems easier to fill.
Last month we travelled down to the English National Sheepdog Trials in Devon to compete. The dogs, Jess and Sal, both ran tremendously well, especially Jess, but sadly her run was caught up in some controversy and had to be withdrawn. I have now retired Jess, but for my first dog what a fantastic career she has had. I owe everything to her. She has certainly changed my life and kept me out of the pub. Although she will get some light work with the sheep to keep her fit, she has always enjoyed riding on the tractor with me and shares my sandwiches each day. That is, apart from the other day when Sally my wife texted me saying that she had left some cold, past their best, sausages for Jess’s lunch in my snap bag. Obviously I had given it no thought when munching them a couple of hours before. Thank goodness there were plenty of hedges around the field that day.
James Read farms in partnership with his father, in Louth, Lincolnshire. They farm 400ha of mainly arable land, run 200 breeding sheep and a pack of working/trialling sheepdogs
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