Red Clover

We're rewarded by Government for reducing chemical inputs to maintain/return pasture to traditional hay meadow. Yes it looks great, stock benefit from the rich mixture and high quality hay is produced for winter feed.

But this week the results of a research study, by the University of Aberystwyth, supported an assertion by farming bodies that the red clover found in our meadows is harmful to breeding ewes if grazed six weeks before and up until six weeks after tupping.

In summary:

• Red clover is a greater risk to sheep fertility than white clover
• Phytoestrogen (see below) levels are higher in Spring and decline after flowering
• Switching ewes between high and low estrogen fields reduced effects on fertility
• Ewes prefer clover to grass, so a even a limited amount will pose a problem
• A higher phytoestrogen level can be found in red clover hay compared with pasture
• Tups suffered no ill effects.

In short the farms ability to produce lambs is at risk if female sheep graze where red clover is present. But what if your farm comprises a majority of pasture with red clover? Tupping is usually scheduled for November, so a pasture plan would need to take into account three months where ewes are kept on fields that have been historically sprayed with herbicide and the quality of the sward reduced. Ironic.

Oh, and phytoestrogens are a female sex hormone. Separate research suggests that plants use them as part of their natural defence against the overpopulation of herbivore animals by controlling fertility.

Stonewall

We have more than 1,000 metres of dry stone walls around the farm.

Walling is an old skill used to divide land into more manageable parcels for grazing and separation of ownership. No part of the wall uses cement or lime mortar and only weight/friction binds the wall together. That is more remarkable when the size of the walls is considered.

Along our boundary with the moor estate the wall is nearly two metres high, not including the foundation buried below the surface. I always admire the effort it took to construct it, considering that it is likely to date from 200 years ago and is 250 metres above sea level and over half a kilometre from the nearest road. 

Some of the base courses, or layers, resemble boulders not the key elements of a field boundary. Another of our walls has a number of these large stones and is classified as historic under the terms of the farm Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) subsidy scheme. The walls were originally constructed by local farmers who would share the work, working on each others farms to gather stone laying on the ground and lay the patchwork patterns we have today.

Over time many of walls have fallen into disrepair and no longer constitute viable livestock controls. In one memorable case a neighbours bull decided one length stood in between it and goodness knows what and left a sizeable hole; we were told that had the wall been better maintained it would have 'turned' the bull, but I'm not so sure... We call him Burgers, but that's a different story.

Our subsidy will help us hire a contractor to fix major sections of wall and we've already started to repair stretches where the top stones are missing. Under a separate scheme the National Park offer a grant to part fund repair works alongside roads and footpaths on the Moors. At the beginning of the year we applied for five walls to be considered, and eventually heard that we had successfully received funding for the most complex length.

There are three contractors available in Farndale; Dave Bentley is a sheep farmer, but also a Master Waller and we'd been told by a number of people that he was the guy to help us. The challenge for Dave included a collapsed retaining wall, with a badly damaged stock wall on top of that. To kick start the project we removed the nettle, thistle and bramble (finding three rolls of rusty wire fence in the process) barrier and dug away the worst part of the collapse.

The pictures show the area of the collapse with the stone removed and then the retaining wall built, with a stagger, leaning into the field behind it. The wall will be built on top. It's quite an art. Picking the correct, heavy, stone and placing it, well it's worth watching. It's said an experienced waller 'never picks up the same stone twice', or in other words once he picks up the stone he knows it's the right one for that part of the wall he's building.

Come Bye!

It's back! Remember 'One Man and His Dog'..? The TV Channel More4 is screening the World Sheep Dog Trials, taking place on the Lowther Estate in Cumbria from the 15th to the 18th of September.

It seems that since the 1980's the world has gone trials crazy; stats on the internet show trials in Utah in 2010 were watched by more than 25,000 spectators. Mind you, trials are not the wholly British invention you may think with New Zealand claiming the first event in 1867. The first UK event was held in Bala, Wales in October 1873, organised by Richard John Lloyd Price who went on to form the Kennel Club in the same year.

The inaugural world trials in 2002 were won by Welshman, Aled Owen, who won again in 2008 and is a favourite to regain his title this year. 240 dog and man/woman teams from 23 nations will compete in the Lake District for the £3,000 first prize. The winner will also receive a solid gold shepherds whistle.

More4 are using the same production company behind ITV's coverage of Formula 1 motor racing, North One, so we can expect to see GPS trackers, accelerometers and heart rate monitors on the dogs. The latter might have made interesting viewing on the human handlers too.

That'll do... (pig).

http://www.worldsheepdogtrials.org/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/8749386/World-Sheep-Dog-Trials-in-Cumbria.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/12/dog-v-sheep-sheepdog-trials

Pigs - Rules and Forms

We have our pigs!

Born on 19 July our three British Saddleback gilts (young female pigs that have not produced a litter) were weaned from their mother by their breeder last week. In advance of their arrival we prepared a pen, complete with electric fence, sourced a metal ark (thanks to neighbours Lucy and Chris Wilson for that) and stockpiled food and bedding.

I'll talk more about the breed, food and the economics in later posts but here are the rules we're getting used to.

Whether you keep one pig or a commercial herd you need to be registered with Defra. In the event of a disease outbreak, the precise location of all livestock is essential for effective measures to control and eradicate highly contagious viruses (based on the experience from the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001).

The first step was to register our land with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to obtain a County Parish Holding (CPH) number. That was actually done some time ago so our neighbour could graze his livestock here. A CPH, for example, 12/345/6789, confers no rights, but aides efficient administration as call centre operators will use it as a means to identify our farm. The first two digits relate to the county we live in, the next three relate to the parish and the last four are unique to to us.

With a CPH we could collect our pigs.

When they arrived the next step was to call Animal Health at Defra and obtain a Herd Number. This is a code, unique to our pigs, that helps to identify the individual animal. It is most obvious on the yellow tag seen on the ear of all livestock over a certain age. Our Herd Number was issued over the phone and associated paperwork should arrive by post this week.

The pigs were collected from a farm outside Thirsk. Each one, still wearing the ear tag applied by the breeder, was identified and its unique code annotated in the livestock movement log for that farm. Then she and I completed the 'Report of a Pig Movement made under the General Licence for the Movement of Pigs (AML2)', a four part form, that details the movement of the livestock from her CPH to ours, including the journey time. The breeder keeps a yellow page, we keep our pink portion for six months and send the top, white, element to North Yorkshire County Council's Trading Standards Animal Health team in Northallerton. Oh, and the fourth part, the blue copy is kept by the transporter, in this case, us.

The process is intended to provide a window to observe the health of animals being transported on an industrial scale around the UK and Europe, hence the journey time aspect and other questions the forms pose relating to vehicle cleanliness.

Easy really; but it's not over. Once the pigs arrive (in fact the same would be said for one pig) a 20 day standstill is triggered. That means no pigs may come or go from the farm. A serious consideration if your livelihood involves buying and selling pigs at market. The standstill rule is six days for cattle, goats and sheep (this effects our neighbour who has cattle grazing here). Aimed at minimising the spread of disease clearly pigs are highlighted as high risk, or if you look at the matter another way, particularly resilient and likely to shoulder illness for longer unobserved.

All of this will get easier with time and it won't detract from the fun of providing a happy life for our weaners, as we become accustomed to being pig keepers. Next time, more about the pigs favourite topic, food...

It's Wool Week

The Campaign for Wool was initiated in October 2008 by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who had observed that the wool industry was facing enormous and unprecedented challenges.

The price of wool had plummeted to the point where farmers were being paid less for their sheeps’ fleeces than the cost of having them shorn. At the same time, sheep numbers were declining across the world, from Britain to Australia and New Zealand, and some farmers were losing confidence in the future of the wool industry.

A parallel threat came from new man-made synthetic fibres, often oil-based, which were providing stiff competition in the areas where wool had traditionally triumphed – fashion, carpets and insulation. The Prince of Wales formed an apocalyptic view of what the future for wool might hold, unless something could be done. Without a thriving wool industry, and with further declines in the sheep population, the physical appearance of our landscape could change forever. Imagine the Cumbrian uplands deprived of sheep, or the Scottish and Welsh mountains, or the sheep stations of Australia and New Zealand. Were we really to enter an era when the wool trade, which has thrived and prospered since the Middle Ages, would be sidelined by man-made fibres?

The Campaign has a full and diverse programme of events for 2011, working closely with retail partners, promoting the wonders of wool, and will also be working much more closely with the artisan community across the whole country – the spinners, weavers and designers, both large and small, who have always been great local champions for the fibre.

Wool Week in the UK this year runs from Monday September 5th to Sunday September 11th, with windows and events throughout the nation, including a Love Wool initiative to encourage knitters across Britain to get involved.

Sign up to show your support: http://www.campaignforwool.org/love-wool/sign-up/