Welcome to the May episode of A Day in the Life of a Shepherd.
Chris and Caroline are back in the churchyard, amongst a few orphan lambs - complete with natural sound effects!
Grass is on Chris' mind this month. He always jests how he spent 3 years at agricultural college studying grass and indeed with his monthly National Sheep Association magazine there is a frequent supplement dedicated to forage. After all, good quality grass is fundamental to the healthy growth of his sheep, the farmer's product offering.
Next month it's time for a hair-cut. For the sheep that is. Have you got a question about shearing you'd like to ask Chris?
Ask the shepherd: chris@raisingthebaa.com or message him through our Facebook page and you could feature in a future episode from the farm!
Connect with the speakers via LinkedIn: Caroline Palmer - Top Dog and Co-Founder, Raising the Baa Chris Farnsworth - Head Shepherd and Co-Founder, Raising the Baa
Hello and hello to you too. And welcome to SheepDip, the podcast brought to you by Raising the Baa. We're global leaders in team-building with sheep. My name is Caroline Palmer and I'm Top Dog at Raising the Baa.
Chris:
And I'm Chris Farnsworth, Head Shepherd.
Caroline :
So this is our monthly look at the day in the life of a shepherd. And we are coming up to mid May now, here in England. And today it is slightly cool for this time of year, I would say. And the potential for a little bit of rain in the sky as well. Wouldn't you say, Chris?
Chris:
Yeah, we're going to get the odd shower. It's normally associated with April. Isn't it? April showers, but it's been so cold. Eh, we've been having frost and the grass hasn't grown and it's, it's caused all sorts of challenges. I mean, I know I keep going on about grass, but the grass is critical to our industry. You know, we're trying to produce some good lambs. They are reliant on the ewes eating good grass, but actually what we're finding with these late frosts and everything, this, the grass has been under such stress that actually it is gone, Oh gosh, we've got to produce a seed head and it's gone to seed very early. And so we haven't had the volume of leaf. We haven't had the sugars in the grass to help the ewes, produce the milk. And so it's caused challenges really as always.
Caroline :
So what, what do you do about it then? When, when you say the grass has seeded too quickly, what does that mean to you? And well, how do you get round that problem?
Chris:
Well, more, the problem is, is, is actually for the haymakers. So we were looking to make hay in, in this glorious weather, which is, it's now actually started to rain, which is very nice. So actually it's more of a problem for the haymakers than the sheep farmer as such, but we do need the volume of grass. So we sneaked into some of the hay fields to feed the sheep. So they come first, and haymaking comes second if you like, but the challenge is there isn't the volume there to put the mower through to cut the grass.
Caroline :
So as last month we are back in the churchyard where we have got four lambs around us, which occasionally you might hear. So this grass is quite good for them, isn't it?
Chris:
It's good enough for them. It's not brilliant grass but it's good enough for them, but actually I'm keeping an eye on them. They're very difficult for the dog to deal with and actually....
Caroline :
( laughing) And now they're running for shelter because they don't like the rain!
Chris:
Yes they're all just going into the shelter and also in the shelter is some food for them. So it gives them extra nutrition to the high concentrated food because the grass isn't very good. And also they're just easier to manage. You see, when I'm moving the sheep, the, the ewes and lambs with the dog, everything normally runs away from me. Whereas these sheep run up to you. So that actually causes bigger problems for the dog and for us to handle. So that's why we're still here in the graveyard, feeding these sheep, because actually it just makes easier shepherding for not only the shepherd, but also for the dog. You've got to make it manageable for everybody concerned. Actually we've got over 20 orphaned lambs, so what we're doing is- we'll bring them back to the graveyard, get them used to the concentrates so that then they can go out into a bigger field and actually graze naturally.
Caroline :
And we've been feeding them on milk with a bottle. How long do they feed on milk? When do they move off from milk and just onto the ground?
Chris:
So the ewes would feed lambs for 12 weeks. We pick 12 weeks because after 12 weeks when the lamb drinks milk, it will slow its growth down. So 12 weeks is an optimum time for it to go onto solids, totally solid rather than just going on to milk and grass. But with orphaned lambs, we tend to get them on solids a bit quicker. So we put milky concentrates in the trough. So it gets that nutrition.
Caroline :
Sometimes I see quite big lambs, still nuzzling at their mothers' teats. I guess it's a comfort thing. Is that just like human babies, I guess?
Chris:
Exactly. Though they will knock them off. You know, you see them running up to the ewe and they'll run round the front, then go in underneath for the other. Often when they're just going to start that behaviour, the ewe will just keep walking forward so they can't keep doing it. The ewe will keep stopping them. They'll naturally wean themselves. But actually this tends to be after a longer period of time[than with the orphans].
Caroline :
Now this time of year, you sometimes start shearing, don't you? I guess it's just a bit too wet for that today, but when will you start doing that?
Chris:
We can start sharing any time soon, but we need the weather, we need the warmth to get a rise in the lanolin and also we need it to be dry. That is certainly not today as we were getting wet!!(laughing)
Caroline :
(laughing) So we'll cover that next month won't we. There's a lot to learn...
Chris:
Yes, there's a lot to shearing. It's not as easy as it looks.
Caroline :
Yeah. And this is actually quite a lot of lessons I think that can be had from shearing as well. So, okay, we'll make it a wrap today as the rain comes tumbling down. So thank you so much for listening. If you've got any questions about shearing that you have always wanted to know, but never dared to ask now is your opportunity email chris@raisingthebaa.com and we'll make sure to answer it in next month's podcast in the meantime, have a baa-rilliant month. Bye for now.