Lamb sales

In the last few years we have taken lambs to market in a lorry.  This has been easier to arrange as it is one big sort out and that's it, the majority of the lambs gone - but with transport costs rising and to try and reduce the potential risk of having all our eggs in one basket (all our lambs at one sale) we decided this year to go back to taking them to market in our own trailer, batch by batch.  It is more work (more days going back and forth) and we have to find grazing for the lambs between the different sales, over a period of 6 weeks) but hopefully it will be worth it.  

Prior to the first sale Farmer has to move the in by sheep around to allow the grass to recover in fields where the lambs will graze between speaning (weaning) and selling.   

 

Off they go

I don't know where the time goes.  I suppose I have been head down sorting out photographs for an exhibition next month when I should have been blogging! I cannot believe I have written so few this summer - perhaps no one has noticed though, or perhaps there is a sense of relief that I haven't posted as many.  Hopefully this one will be a bit of a catch up on the last 3 weeks!

August has been a mixed month weather-wise.  There have been some astonishingly beautiful days, and there have been some pretty dreadful ones.  At least there is solace in the fact that our visitors have lovely comfortable surroundings if they decide to stay in on the wet and rainy days!

The Salen Show this year was on a wetter day than I can remember but the almost tropical downpours (at times) didn't dampen the spirit of the day - everyone was in waterproofs and there were lots of umbrellas, to go with the smiling faces!  Farmer helped J showing his Cheviots, and he won the Overall Sheep Champion, as well Show Reserve which was very exciting!

Unfortunately our beautiful Silver laced Wyandotte hens didn't recover from the summer moult in time for us to show them.  I hope their timing is better next year!

Farmer has been busy catching up with mowing bracken where he can, and spraying a few small areas on the still days.  The area we want to tackle next year is behind East, Middle and West. Because it is so close to the cottages the helicopter cannot spray there so Farmer will need to do it with his lance - and next week he is going with a group of other farmers to look at a new bracken machine which will harvest the bracken off slopes - apparently.    The idea is to see if this machine would help island farmers to control the bracken and provide material to go into an anaerobic digestor!

The wild Angelica in the wood has been beautiful this year - before the marauding stag gets the seed heads!

 The Heather has been beautiful also - the hill has been glowing all month.

Finally last week the silage was made. Farmer used our old mower to cut the fields - we made it this year in the field below the house, and also in the Coronation Meadow at Haunn.

J had a late night wrapping bales that evening but it was good to get them done in case it rained.  The Devils bit Scabious is amazing this year, though still no Marsh Fritillary butterflies!  Farmer kindly agreed to leave the beautifully thick patches in the middle of the Coronation Meadow so they could flower in peace.

Some gorgeous skies, at sunset and now the nights are dark enough, occasionally the Aurora Borealis again, which is exciting!

Over last weekend Farmer and his team of valued occasional helpers gathered the hill ewes and lambs and got them all sorted in time for loading the wedder lambs on to the lorry this morning along with the cast ewes.  The fields were noisy last night with the hill ewes calling for their lambs.

As I write he and the lambs are on the ferry.  The sale starts at 11am, and he is third through the ring... not usually the best time of the sale as the prices tend to start slowing while the buyers get themselves sorted out..fingers crossed! 

To market, to market

Market day today.  Every Tuesday for the next couple of months, there is a sale in Oban at the Livestock Centre about a mile out of Oban on the road towards Kilmartin.  It is an elephant of a building filled with echoing pens and on market day, it is transformed from the silent hulk it becomes between markets, into a busy hub of thousands of animals, dozens of men and a similar number of vehicles.  

Imagine looking down, if you could, early this morning, from space and seeing across Argyll.  You would see in isolated remote glens and villages, farmers and crofters loading up their lambs into livestock trailers and lorries, scrabbling about for the paperwork to keep it legal, putting on their 'market best' jacket and off down the track to the ferry or along the mainroad to Oban.  They all converge here.   Huge livestock lorries 'and drag' (trailer) head up from the central belt and beyond, some from as far as Yorkshire.  The 'dealers' arrive in their own vehicles, possibly more comfortable than the cab of a lorry. 

Our lamb sale preparations start early.  Booking a place on the right ferries is one thing.  Booking pens in the market is next.  Preparing for gathering, arranging helpers (J from Dervaig this time) and watching the weather.   You want your lambs to look their best.  If it is wet when you are sorting them, they will pick up muck and dirt from the yard and the fank, and not look as clean and fresh as you would like.  

Sunday's sort out had gone well, and Farmer had left the lambs he wanted to sell in a paddock by the farm building.  Their mothers rather treacherously had stopped hanging around the fence lines and moved off to quietly graze further afield. 

Last night, Farmer gathered them into the fank, to recount them before putting them into the cattle shed over night.  Thank goodness he did as in the middle of the night it rained heavily. 

The lambs huddle quite close together, almost in a swarm, with no single lamb wanting to be the decisive one, but they are soon in the pens, and Farmer can count them through.

Cap had this job well under control.

With the shed doors safely closed up and the trailer parked ready for the morning, we walk back down to the house. The verges beside the track look beautiful in the evening light.

Common Hogweed.

Devil's bit scabious catching the light.

Aphid attacked hogweed drooping.

And another wonderful sunset..

Farmer is on his way to market as I write.  Along with dozens of other farmers and crofters from the island and mainland Argyll.  Motorised ants heading up the road to Oban! 

Prices are a lottery. There is no way of telling what we might get for our fine looking lambs, even though I say so myself. 

Busy days

We had our Visit Scotland inspection today, and it was nice to walk round with the inspector and see all the improvements to the cottages through their eyes.  Taking stock. 

Walking the dogs. Barely a breath of wind. Down on the shore looking out on to Caliach Point. 

Selecting ewe lambs for a private sale. Walter is hiding behind the gate watching every move.  The lambs huddle up into that corner. When they realise he is there, they scatter very quickly.

Farmer takes stock. The great thing about the private sale is that the lambs do not have to go through a market, so less travel and less stress for them, and we know what price we are getting before they leave the farm. 

The starlings last night were enjoying the still night airs on the transformer pole near the Studio.  I managed to sneak a photograph or two from between Studio and Shieling.  There were hundreds of them.  More than we have ever seen here.

The autumn colours are looking lovely, from Calgary looking at Treshnish Point, and as the oystercatchers take flight at the water's edge this morning.

The sun is now not quite over the hill behind Calgary as I start to walk the dog on the beach, but by the time we have finished it has fully risen.

Back home and the sun is casting wonderful light on the garden.

Another sale tomorrow, this time Oban.  The last load of lambs and one or two older ewes to go. Sorting and tagging and getting ready.

The livestock trailer is all ready to load lambs first thing in the morning tomorrow. 

 Jan. In the place she is happiest to be. At his side.

Having seen that huge flock of starlings last night, I went to see if I could get more photographs of them tonight, but they weren't as settled and flew off as soon as I got near.

We have some spaces in the cottages in October, with special offers on!