Farming in February - and...

 Suddenly we are at the end of February. 

Ben More with a dusting of late February snow. 

The Lagganulva cows were on the move on Sunday.  They like to lick the road salt (the road had just been gritted). 

It's not just the Herdwicks who get a bit of feeding in the mornings, the Cheviots do too.  And now that scanning is over, the ewes from the hill who are expecting twins will get supplementary feeding too. 

Walter (the hairy one on the right) always looks where he is going, Nyje (on the left) always looks where the sheep are. 

The sheep are in the fank. Waiting for Dan the scanner to arrive.  Gathering took place a couple of days before, and the different groups of ewes are moved around prior to his arrival.  Usually Dan comes at the same time of day, on the same day of the week, year after year. 4pm on the last Saturday of the month.  This year he got ahead of himself and arrived 2 days early.  And then at a different time of day. 1pm on the last Thursday of the month. And then he texted at 10.30 to say he would be there at 12 instead of 1.  (We were ready). 

Herdwicks with the Cheviots behind.  

The hill ewes wait in the big pen. 

Results were very similar to last year, even slightly better. So that was good.  

DG and AG came over to help and Daughter used the wand to record the eartags.   They all came in for lunch before Dan's next appointment. 

We are still involved with the pilot scheme to look at a different way of delivering biodiversity management on west coast farms.  Mid month we had a meeting in Appin village hall followed by a field exercise out on the hill.  We drove up and up and up a forest track into the middle of the hills.  An unexpected site visit! 

We have had a local photographer taking photographs of the interiors of the cottages.  I picked the last of the snowdrops. 

There are so many Greylag geese around now, looking for nest sites I guess. 

More feeding...

Greylags and gulls. 

Frost and hail on the ground in Scomar.