November notes

I am writing this in late December, the ground is saturated from a lot of rain, and I had forgotten until I looked through the photographs I had made in November that we actually had some good weather!  So much so, there were several days I was able to fly my drone.

The annual Scottish Blackface Breeders Association Stockjudging competition was held at Fidden Farm near Fionnphort this year.   It was well attended, and lots of young families which was lovely to see.  It was the weekend, and the teenagers from the Ross of Mull (normally at school in Oban during the week) were out in force.  

There wasn't much room round the ring for taking photographs this time, but I did sneak off when the raffle was being drawn and flew my drone over some of the (closed for winter) camping ground.  What a beautiful place.  Erraid is the island in the background - you can see the row of cottages built by the Stevensons to house the builders who worked on the epic construction of Skerryvore Lighthouse.  They used Ross of Mull granite from nearby quarries. 

Back home and I flew the drone a few times, over the Treshnish shoreline and also at Calgary. 

I was in Tobermory one calm morning, and flew the drone over the walled garden in Aros Park.   This is the view over the treetops in Aros Park towards Tobermory Bay. 

We had some cold weather too! 

In mid November the first tups went out. The Suffolk tup went out with the field of Cheviot ewes, and our new Herdwick tup went out with the Herdwick ewes. 

The female lambs (hoggs) born in the spring of 2024 will grow into next year's young breeding ewes.  They are in the shed now.  Inside they 'learn' to feed - to eat sheep nuts and hay.  

Nuts and hay are not their normal diet and it is important that they know how to eat it, so that in future if they ever need to be brought in to the shed due to illness they will know what the nuts and hay are.   That way we can look after them better. 

 

Moving sheep and feeding sheep

The young stock over on the rented fields at Ensay have to come back to Treshnish for a few days at the end of the grazing agreement each year, so Farmer has to entice them up to the Ensay farm yard where he has erected a corral of flakes and gates to lead them in to, so he can load them into the trailer and bring them home.   It is a bit of a palaver but he has a good system.   On this occasion they seemed to know where they were going and were not following the bag (in his hand!). 

 

Painting the tups

                     

                           

Painting the tups means they are easier to see from afar, when they are out with the ewes.  The red stripes indicate where they came from: 2 stripes mean they came from another farm on Mull, 1 stripe means we bought them at Dalmally and Oban, and the green ones are the 'home team'.   9 Blackface and 2 Cheviot tups went out today.   The Herdwick and Suffolks tups went out last week. 

February days - sheep work

 

Last time through the fank this year

Tupping has finished.  All the ewes have been put through the fank, they have been checked over and given a bolus with Cobalt and Selenium in it, plus a drench against liver fluke.  

Our first Christmas here in 1994, the ewes were all out on the hill and the tups were out on the hill with them, supposedly for 6 weeks.  A ewe's cycle is 17 days so giving them 6 weeks with the tup means if they don't mate on their first cycle there is a second chance 17 days later.    We didn't expect the tups to be taken off the hill until the first week in January when their 6 weeks ended.  So imagine our surprise when the tups all started appearing back at the farm on Boxing Day!   

The next winter we brought all the ewes in off the hill and put them in the fields for tupping.  Having them in smaller fields rather than on the open hill meant that the tups had less far to travel to find a fertile ewe and would be easier for us to check up on.  In days gone before, traditional hill farms would have had a tupping shepherd but we couldn't afford one of those!   We were told by an old farmer locally that this was dangerous, that they would die being in the fields.  Luckily we were right and he was wrong so we have done the same thing every year since.  

Our 6 weeks was up just before Christmas so Farmer put small lots through the fank on his own and had DG helping him for the big lot.  I took them lunch up in the shed, socially distant and well draughty! 

The ewes are now back on the hill with the old ewes in one field, the Herdwicks in another and the Cheviots in a third.  The two larger lots are being fed now with the snacker, whilst the Herdwicks get theirs by hand!