Scanning the ewes

We had friends staying last night so this morning we all walked down to the Boathouse before a bowl of soup lunch.  It was magical to see a female Hen harrier flying low along the raised beach. I enjoyed hearing the call of a pair of Oystercatchers, as they flew along the waterline.     We didn't see any Otters this time.

It was one of those murky days, we could barely see the Isle of Coll, but there were beautiful colours underfoot in the mosses and lichens.

Farmer gathered the ewes in this week, in order to be ready for the arrival of Dan the Scanner who had messaged us all on Facebook with a tight timetable of where he was aiming to be and at what time.  Incredibly he is always on time!  This morning he started in the Ross of Mull, at Fidden Farm at 7.30 am and by the time he got here he had scanned 1700 ewes.  He did another 585 here before heading off to Croig to do the last lot before dark.  It was 4pm when he arrived here!

This is the time of year when Farmer can stop worrying whether or not the tups were 'working' or not, whether or not they were fertile.  From our scanning results, we know that they were all working and that lots of lambs are expected.  Typically the highest scanning percentage was from Daughter's Herdwicks! (I wonder if that has got anything to do with their fondness for the feed bag!)  We can look forward to lots of those gorgeous black lambs in the spring.

Now we will sort the in-by ewes into different lots.  The Cheviots carrying twins will need a bit more supplementary feed than the ones carrying singles.   The ewes who are 'empty' (not in lamb) will be sold.   We will also sell some of the Cheviots carrying singles as we are able to sign a new environmental contract which is going to restrict our sheep numbers on the herb rich fields.   

Looking and booking ahead for 2016

We have just added the availability for 2016 to the booking system.  We don't normally plan the prices for the following year this early, but having had a few requests for 2016 already we decided to extend the booking period now.   If you think you would like to book for 2016, please have a look at the prices page of the website.   You can find the prices for 2016 by going into the booking process.  We haven't added a table of 2016 prices to the website yet! Please email if you have any questions.

Several more calves have been born this week, and all seem to be doing well.  When the weather is wild, you cannot help but feel they are better off indoors, and it is certainly easier for Farmer if there was a difficulty as it means you don't need to bring them in off the hill in all weathers.  The cattle shed was a big investment at the time, and we are very lucky to have it! 

Farmer went to the last of the three farming figures meetings on Thursday night in Craignure, which he found interesting again, not just the meeting itself and all that they discussed but the chat in the car on the way there and back, lift-sharing with 2 neighbours.

The forecast for the next few days is pretty wild, with brief intermissions.  I sent a message to Dan the scanner to warn him, in advance of him coming to scan our ewes, thinking that perhaps he would delay coming.  No chance! He will still be coming, whatever the weather...

So yesterday Farmer, with 2 young friends we had staying, went to gather the ewes from the hill.  All 3 dogs, Jamie and his 2 dogs, set off from the old Reudle schoolhouse road end.  The other J had already starting walking out from the farmhouse, and would have had a bit of a wait on the tops before they caught up and were positioned correctly to bring the sheep round.

Farmer was expecting it to be a slow gather, with the ewes being in lamb, but actually it went quite quickly, and our friends had to walk quite fast to keep up.  They are all safely in the park now, and await the arrival of the scanner tomorrow.