August 2018 We continue to look with increasing anxiety at the weather maps like everyone else, but increasingly hopeful that the worst of the drought is behind us. We are on heavy land, so we are not completely barren. All the fields were either topped or cut for haylage or hay by early July.
We were thankful that shearing was completed prior to the onset of this hot weather. Another year and again only one ewe with any sign of fly strike. Hopefully enough good haylage has been made earlier this month and (slowly) some regrowth is now coming through. Lets hope for a “normal” winter, although
The last week was a little brutal for everyone. We are still a few weeks off lambing, so like everyone else, hope that it will start to warm up before too long. A long cold spring means limited grass and an almost certain uptick in mastitis. Over the years mastitis post lambing seems to be
At last some rain. Still lots of grass, but this rain should certainly freshen things up, (and the worms). Spring stitching of grass in some of the fields and the broadcast of additional clover I fear will have been partly wasted due to the lack of rain in May and June (and most of July).
So lambing was completed in what can only be described as perfect weather, except perfect for so long that it started to look like something less than perfect – drought and no grass! We were lucky I guess in that the post lambing fields were full of grass and so were the “next fields”. After