busy times

Busy times here. All the lambs have been weighed, wormed and vaccinated. The lambs are all growing well, with heaviest weighing 27.8kg. They have also been moved with their ewes to fresh green grass so their winter paddocks can be rested. The first group of ewes and lambs were remarkably good and walked down the lane quietly and calmly to their new pasture. I wish the same could be said of the second group; two escapees who refused to follow the bucket and just opt to eat the grassy verges decided to take a slight detour into the neighbour's garden and a trip towards the village. My lack of Usain Bolt type skills was definitely uncovered as I tried to round them up. A halter and bucket of nuts later and all were back in the correct paddocks. The new paddock has proved popular with the ewes and lambs who descended on it like a swarm of locusts and have barely looked up from the lush grass once.

The other paddocks are growing well and green grass can be seen sprouting everywhere. I'm just waiting on my delivery of grass seed to do a little repair to the areas which were poach during the winter. Fingers crossed it will be here later this afternoon. We have also sent a soil sample off for analysis so we can tailor our fertilisation plan for the autumn growth. We sent off twenty samples of our paddocks for analysis so hopefully the report will give us a clear indication of any issues we should address.

Several of the lambs have been reserved already and we are so happy with their new homes. They should add some excellent breeding lines to their new flocks. Ryelands ewes aren't generally bred from in their first year so they will spend the next 16 - 18 months getting used to their new homes. By this time they will have reached their adult size and be ready to be mothers themselves. Well grown ram lambs can be used of a few ewes in their first year. Dougie, our Ryeland ram, was used on a few last year just to check he had all the credentials to be retained. He did an excellent job and produced some lovely offspring. This year he will be used on all our white ewes. We are also thinking of buying in a coloured ram lamb to use along side our coloured ram so we will be able to retain some of his daughters in the future.