Its Ram time!

We moved the girls nearer to home last Sunday, and who was pleased to join them but Mr Onion.  It's that time of year again, when us sheep keepers think about next year's lambs.

The gestation period for sheep is 144 to 151 days, and using what's called a Parturition Table, this then calculates the earliest day lambing will start.  So reading off the table, the tuppingdate, i.e. the date the ram was put in with the ewes, was 17th November, the table then gives lambing as 13th April, and as Mr Onion was doing his job within five minutes of joining the girls, well it won't be far off that date.

We have mule ewes here as it suits our system of grazing and management.  Lambing as early in April as we can (we are a bit later this year, we normally like to have the ram in by 5th November, which gives us a lambing date of 1st April).  We have summer grazing here of another 10 acres approx, which is under a Countryside Stewardship agreement, which means we can only graze it between 1st April and 31st October, but it does mean that the grazing gets a rest and it's usually green and growing well by 1st April, just in time for hungry lambs!

Having had rare breed sheep for a number of years, and not being pleased with the prices they were realising we decided to switch to commercial ewes and rams, and have not looked back, last year's lambs took top price at Norwich market.  We even sold a cull ewe for £65, four years after purchasing them for £85 each. It was a good decision for us, but maybe doesn't suit everyone.

Below are this years lambs, ready to go to market on 7th December.

They normally weigh 40Kg or thereabouts, but are a bit lighter this year, due to the hot summer and therefore lack of grass in front of them, which is a shame as they were doing so well at the beginning of the summer.  We shall see when we get them to the market! Watch this space!

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 3

Sales -
Nil

Expenses -
Nil

The Poultry Club of Great Britain - National Championship show

Well what a day I had on Saturday, I was at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire for the above show.  To say it was impressive was an understatement.  Two large halls filled with Poultry of every size, shape, colour that you could imagine.  It was amazing, I was completely flabbergasted at the whole experience.

I went to check out breeders of a number of breeds that we are interested in having next year.  I wanted to see what the best had to offer and I wasn't disappointed, in fact I didn't even get chance to see championship row as I had to come home, otherwise I would have been there until midnight.  I think I got the information I needed as there were so many people to talk to, and so much to see, that I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, thankfully I had an old and dear friend with me to help - Thanks Susie, your help was invaluable.

Anyway enough of me rambling here are some photo's of the day, (I did take 450!) -

Minorca Bantams

Minorca Bantam male

One of the clubs I may be joining next year!

Plymouth rock Bantam, Barred cockerels

A selection of Buff Orpington bantams

Poland bantams - a breed I fell in love with at the show

Scots Dumpy - Large fowl, black hen

Scots Dumpy, pullet bantams

Modern Game, bantams

Old English Game (Carlisle type), Brown Red cockerel - a handsome fellow

Japanese white cockerel

White Wyandottes - a breed I'm interested in for next year

Blue Partridge Wyandotte cockerel - a stunning boy

More Wyandottes

Laced Wyandotte breed club stand

Dutch - Gold Partridge cockerels

Black Pullet Rosecomb's

Indian Runner female, trout colour

Indian Runner females, fawn/white colour

Muscovy

The amazing incubators and associated equipment stand

Male Pekin ducks

Sebrights

Sebastopol geese

Chinese male goose

Chinese male geese

Trio of lovely Buff Orpington Bantams

Sebright trio

Champion Old English Game (Carlisle type) cockerel - well done indeed

Indian Game cockerel

Trio of Sebastopol's

White male Turkey

Large fowl Dorking's, red Hen and cockerel

The egg table! Very impressive

Decorated eggs in competition

Vorwerk cockerel's

Rare Poultry - True bantam

Appenzeller Spitzhauben, Silver spangled pullet, large fowl

As above

The above three photos just give you some idea as to what was for sale and how much.

I hope you enjoyed looking through this small selection of photo's.  If you've never been to a poultry show, then I would certainly recommend going, even just for curiosity reasons.  You never know you may find a breed that you absolutely 'must have', like I did with the Poland's.

Stats today

Eggs produced = 4

Sales - Nil
Expenses - Nil

Winter feeding

Winter feeding is always a worry when you've got livestock.  What to feed, how much, what type, how much to order - all those sorts of questions enter your head when considering what to feed.

We are big fans here of feeding lots of forage, whether that be hay, haylage, straw or silage, or a mixture of any of them combined.  There are many pros and cons of feeding any of them, and I shall probably do a blog post on the different types in the future, but I think this year we seemed to have hit on a winner.

I feed my horse on haylage primarily, it's what horses are designed to eat and plenty of it and he loves the stuff, preferring to eat haylage rather than his mother's milk when he was a baby I'm told.  So I offered some of the same stuff to Red, my Dexter cow, suffice to say she devoured the whole lot.  So this year all the ruminant livestock are getting the same.

I stumbled over Baillie haylage at the Norfolk show one year and decided to give them a try one year, when I was feeding two horses, I've never looked back, everything gets eaten, so excellent value for money with no wastage.

With the livestock, I still feed the haylage from hay nets.  I find it easier for me and nothing gets wet and therefore wasted, like it would if a whole bale was put out at once.

I think you'll agree they are enjoying it, gorgeous sunny day too -

You can find Baillie haylage at www.bailliehaylage.co.uk and No I don't work for them or anything.