Joy at wool price prospects

MY mate Barry, from Bransdale, regularly taunts me with the old adage: ‘a good shepherd shears his own tups’.

Well, this year I’ve heeded his words and require no ‘deep heat’, and thanks to some nifty footwork which I learned on a Wool Board course, I’m now rivalling Michael Flatley in ‘Riverdance’.

The prospect of better wool prices are welcome news after so many poor years.

I hope my fellow sheep farmers will resist these Irish wool buyers and stick with the Wool Board. Lessons must be learned from the disaster that is the dairy industry.

I was pleased with the tups’ condition scores and will therefore repeat the policy of feeding them cake after tupping next year.

Geld ewes, which I’d used for the stockmanship competition and dog training, have been sold at Hull market but for £20 less than I’d hoped. Ewes and lambs have all been fly treated and faecal egg counts from the lambs resulted in them being wormed.

Decision reaffirmed

Temperatures have ranged from -3degC to 28degC this month, which reaffirms my decision to cover the maize in plastic. Where leaves were touching the plastic they got scorched by the frost, but the plants are now romping on and despite the dry weather these past two weeks, condensation on top of the plastic is keeping the maize watered. Plants covered by plastic are a quarter of the size.

As promised, I cut the lucerne but, frustratingly, a week before the scorching highs of 28degC. The week of dry weather predicted by the Met Office was on a par with their barbecue summer forecast of last year. The first two days of the four-day wilt were marred by a constant drizzle.

Fortunately, the next two days were drier and so the lucerne clamped well, albeit at 25 per cent dry matter as opposed to the desired 35 per cent. Milk yields have responded well to the new lucerne and, hopefully, butterfats will too.

Reinvestment in the college farm continues apace with a decision this month to expand sow numbers and the farrowing area by 15 per cent. A planned new beef unit is also in the pipeline for the next year, but I still need to get some ideas from farm visits.

My sheepdog pup, Straid Moss, is 10 months old now and coming on a treat. We reached a plateau in the training field and so moved on to real work, with good results.

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