Preparing for a big day on the farm

Open Day

July has been all about sheep, dosing feeding, selling. Sheep are on the agenda in a big way. Of course all of this sheep work would be on the cards anyway, but Michael is being extra diligent in his sheep husbandry as next month, on 20 August, the farm and his beautiful flock of pedigree Lleyn sheep are on display during a Lleyn Flock Open day. The ram lambs have been thriving on the recently sown Red Start/grass mix and he is very pleased with their weight gains. The Red Start brassica offers a more cost effective alternative to feeding concentrates and the sheep have access to the adjoining grass field too. Some of the ewes have unfortunately developed sore eyes; possible due to pollen or flies, we aren’t entirely sure. But they are being treated with antibiotics and dry cow mastitis tubes so hopefully they will be back to full health soon.

Cull Ewes

Small batches of cull ewes have been brought to Carnew market a couple of times throughout July where the trade for them was good. Michael noted that the lighter lambs were making good money too, better prices than the heavier lambs. So I guess the trade for store lambs is strong at the moment, although it is always hard to predict the market. He also sold aged breeding ewes on for further breeding. I find that Michael is very particular about his flock and although these ewes will breed on for several years - he plans to build up the flock to 320 lambing ewes this year and further expand to 400 breeding ewes into the future, plus hoggets - he continually refines the flock to his exacting standards and has a specific breeding program in place.

Dosing

The sheep race Michael spent so much time installing last year has been such a boon in addition to (of course) his two good working dogs. All the dosing was done in jig time and the new and more efficient set up has made such a difference to Michael’s work load. There has been silage work too with second cuts of silage happening in between erratic weather which seemed to change its mind between sun and rain in the blink of an eye. So all in all a busy July ending with Michael whizzing off to spend some much needed time off at his favourite pastime – parachuting! Long may the clear skies continue.

Read more

Read more about Waterfall Farm here