Kennel Club, Kingfishers and kids!

Following a slow start to the lambing season, the new moon brought in the Chinese year of the sheep in style, with lambs popping out everywhere just in time for our lambing courses.

There were plenty of skinning techniques, adoptions, stomach tubings and mal-presentations to sort out. You can learn some aspects in the classroom, but nothing beats real hands-on experience. Well done to all our lambing graduates, it’s been a busy season! We’ve finally finished lambing with a total of 1350 lambs.

Another great educational resource is television and in March I swapped amniotic-fluid-covered overalls for clean clothes and a hotel room for a four-day lambing break, filming at Crufts.

What a motley crew!

Covering a different canine topic each night, Friday’s film helped launch a new initiative from the NFU and The Kennel Club who have teamed up to produce a sign (to be put up around public footpaths) encouraging responsible dog walking in the countryside, advising walkers to worm their dogs and clean up after them to reduce the spread of infection to livestock. More detail can be found here. We have many footpaths through the farm and although the majority of walkers are great, there are always a few dog walkers that cause havoc. Only this week gates have been left open and “dog size” holes cut in fences where lambs can fit through. Hopefully these signs will help.

Our countryside is beautiful and is currently coming to life. Trees are greening up, our Kingfishers are nesting and the first swallows have arrived on the farm, it is a lovely time of year. I wandered down the river this week and was rewarded with this wonderful photo. Farming and wildlife is a natural combination.

Think I’ve been spotted….

It’s encouraging to see how many keen youngsters there are in the farming industry and local YFC clubs are thriving. However not all farm kids want to continue the family business and it would be unfair to put pressure on them to do so. Daughter Cel has no interest in agriculture as a career. She’s extremely talented in music and the arts and has just taken her options at school with future plans including university. Son Sam on the other hand, hates school, loves farming and with only a few weeks to go before his GCSE’s it’s been very difficult keeping him focused on schoolwork. Every time revision was mentioned during the Easter Holidays, he disappeared chain harrowing. As a result our farm is now looking like a golf course and Sam has been offered work on the back of his impressive straight lines which were spotted from the road. This is on top various other agricultural jobs he’s already juggling. Maybe I’m worrying unduly about his education as he has a great work ethic and driving ambition, not all 16 year olds have that. Like all parents, we just want both kids to happy with whatever choices they make in life.

Sam is very proud of his straight lines!