Tuesday 27th August. Lamb sales. All our lambs are being sold in one go. Hoping the price will, at worst, be a fair one.
With the lambing getting off to such a heart-breaking and difficult start, the dry months followed by weeks of cold weather, there was very little grass and then a lot of cold and wet days just as the lambs started to appear. Hypothermia was a real issue and Farmer was, like many others, really worried about how things would go. Thankfully, the weather improved and the summer has been a good one for the animals (and us humans!).
The heavy dew burned off and so the big gather began....
And off they went, with 4 dogs at their heels, so to speak.
Farmer always has to do some back gathering before the big gather, and then sometimes has to go out and pick up a few stragglers.
Today was one of those days. He finally finished as the sun was setting.
Then Monday morning, and time to sort through the flock, keep back the best ewe lambs for breeding from and sell the rest with the wedders. We need to fill the lorry to make it worthwhile.
Sometimes it is a real struggle to get the sheep into the big pen at the front of the cattle shed. This lot had to be moved through another field.
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Time for tea and biscuits mid morning.
Ewes and lambs waiting to be put through.
Overnight this ewe lamb will become a hogg. They change classification when the rest of the lambs are sold. The lorry is arriving at 6am to take our lambs to Oban market.
Counted...
and chosen.... to remain on Treshnish as the next year breeding ewes.
