Sheepblog

A busy day today, and as it turned out, very long day too!

Veronica took the sheep out and I spent a very tedious morning taking the Land rover from one garage to another to get tyres fitted and then back to the first garage to sit there until the mechanic has time to take its fuel tank out and find a leak.  This all started when I went to fetch the new sheep the other week.  I tried to fill the fuel tank as full as possible so I wouldn’t have to go into a filling station with a trailer full of sheep.  When I put the pump back on its holster I heard a splashing noise and was horrified to see about a litre of diesel spilling on to the forecourt.  Couldn’t do much about it though, and went on my way.  When the garage replaced the steering damper in an attempt to correct a scary wobble and it had no effect, they hoisted the Rover up, found massive chunks missing from one of the tyres (hence new tyres) and fuel leaking from the tank.  Aargh!  At first they thought they might have to replace the fuel pump because although it may just be the seals that have failed, Land Rover won’t sell the seals and bolts seperately and you have to buy a whole new pump.  Very wasteful.  After I went pale at the price of a new pump he suggested taking the tank off to look carefully for the leak as it may just be in the filler pipe.

So the Land Rover is still at the garage.  This had some impact on what I did for the rest of the day, as I had been planning to move some sheep around, but can’t do that with my weedy car.

So I wrote my newsletter instead and ordered some Bluetongue vaccine for the new sheep.  As I was going to pick it up we had a phonecall about a dog chasing some sheep near one of the car parks in the grazing area.  It was on my way, so I offered to see what I could do.  Of course when I got there the scene was of peaceful pastoral tranquility, no staffy crosses in sight.  No savaged sheep either.  But by then I thought it was too late to fetch the vaccine, I should go and help V get the sheep in. 

I got to the in-bye field, gave V a whistle and she began to bring the sheep in.  She had just disappeared behind a tree when I heard the most bloodcurdling screaming.  I thought “Oh no, she’s gawn and broken her leg” and started to run down the field.  The sheep were all waiting at the gate and I let them into the field then ran on up the track.  Every so often in between screams V was yelling at the dogs to get off her, so I thought they had turned on her too and expected to come across a savage scene of gruesome proportions.  But V had, ‘encouraged’ by Harry and Sally licking her enthusiastically, struggled to her feet and was hopping down the track.  As I had no Land Rover I had to just leave her to it, no signal from the phones or radio down in that dip.  While V hobbled up through the field I put the sheep away with Ben and Harry (Ben seems to respond well to Meg’s whistles, I just need to be careful with his fitness) and filled up their water, then went and reversed my car as far down the track as it would go.  V squeezed herself in my rather full car and we went to Crowborough hospital, but their x-ray machine gets switched off at 4.30, so we had to go on to Tunbridge Wells.  While in the waiting room V took the opportunity to brush up on some useful reading.

The verdict was it was a nasty sprain.  She should walk on it as normally as possible, but V said her boyfriend wouldn’t know that and was looking forward to an evening of being waited on.  By this time it was getting late and I didn’t bother to go and fetch the bluetongue vaccine - that could wait until tomorrow.  I was bushed.

Coire had her stitches out today.  She is almost back to normal, but she is very sensitive about anyone touching her stump.  I suppose it must feel really strange to her!

As you can see, she can move about alright on it!  Too fast for my camera anyway!

Here is Sally asking some of the wandering sheep to go back and join the flock. 

It is very tough on the dogs in this area as it is very tall vegetation and they have to be careful not to shoot straight through the middle of the sheep.  Harry has the right approach - slow and steady round the outside.  Sally needs to be stopped and sent out again and again as she tries to come in too soon.  Ben misses the sheep and goes on an expedition through the bracken.  I haven’t dared try Elsie after she pushed half a dozen sheep into one of the exclosure plots!  That took some rebuilding afterwards!

I did give Elsie a bit of a training session this evening though.  I was very pleased with how she went.  It is difficult to train her at the moment, with the way the sheep are grouped, but I did some work in the field and she kept off the sheep beautifully.  I really need to step up her training so I think we will rearrange the sheep this week……

Chris asked me to come and look at a patch of heather he was worried about as it was going brown.   I thought “Heather Beetle” but hoped to be proved wrong.  I wasn’t.  At the moment it is fairly restricted to two areas on the Forest, but unless something is done it could kill off all the mature heather in the area.

It is already affecting most of the heather north of the Ridge Road.  This could seriously affect the Golf Course as all their hazards are heather - they have no bunkers.

Here you can see the contrast with the green of the birch and bracken.  The cross leaved heath is not affected, just the ling.

Here you may be able to make out the difference in colour between the younger heather in the foreground, and the older heather in the background.  Young heather is not so badly affected, as the grub cannot get enough shade in the shorter, sparser cover.

There are solutions, but really it boils down to leaving it or burning it.  The only options with burning it are when.  Now or in the early spring.  Burning is unpopular.  There is a wasp which can exert some biological control, but I’m not sure how easy it is to get hold of the wasps and if you can introduce them!

Heather beetle attack is made worse by the atmospheric deposition of nutrients onto heathland.  These nutrients are released into the air by pollution and fertiliser run-off.  It is calculated that a staggering 15 kilograms of nitrogen are deposited onto every hectare of Ashdown Forest heathland each year.  This makes the heather grow faster but taste nicer to grazers - and the heather is less able to keep up the production of its defensive chemicals which are carbon based phenolic compounds. 

Yes, I did write a thesis on this subject, in case you were wondering!  I could go on…….

Today Veronica took the sheep out and put them away without any help from me.  This is a great achievement for her, it is not easy to persuade these stubborn, hungry Hebrideans to walk from a pen across a field full of sweet and tasty grass, out to eat the coarse grass on the common.  Also when taking them back, it is even more difficult, as they manage a few mouthfuls of the field grass on their way back to the pen and can be very reluctant to go back in for the night!

Today V was using Sally as well as Harry and Ben.  We need to be careful with Ben as he is liable to rush about without any consideration for his own physical limitations!  I think in his head he is still 3 years old!

Here is the view from the area we are grazing at the moment.  It really is not a bad job to be stood out here all day - as long as the sun is shining!

Here is our mummy’s boy.  The netting behind him is one of the exclosures we set up last week with Charlie.  We have to be very careful the sheep don’t get caught up in the netting with their horns.  So far, the only problems have been with the lambs.  One of the lambs seens able to get in without getting caught!  Now why, when they have so much space to graze in, do they have to be inside this little square of netting????

Meet Ben.

Ben is an 11 year old Border Collie.  He is a very experienced sheepdog and has lived with my mum recently, although previously he belonged to a well known triallist from Yorkshire - Alan Heaton.  Alan won some trials with Ben and offered him to us because he isn’t able to work him any more, however Ben is still full of beans!

I tried Meg’s whistles on him and they seem to work - most of the time!  Ben certainly is very keen to get involved, so hopefully he will be excellent at helping both me and Veronica to take the sheep out.

He is a lovely natured dog.  At first there were some grumbles between him and Harry, but they have settled down and although I don’t think they will be great friends, they tolerate each other!

Here they are - fresh from their journey south.  I don’t think they mind though, they are in an enormous field, however they have some horsey hazards to negotiate and these pesky dogs keep coming to chase them round. 

There are some adult ewes with lambs - two of them are ram lambs - and some other weaned lambs - another two of which are ram lambs.  So we will hopefully be able to use them this year to get our lambing more coordinated.

Today we set off up north on a mission, all will be revealed next week…….

Before we went, Coire had an appointment at the vets and got the all clear.

I think this rain is set in for the week.  Poor Harry is having some foot problems so I sent the sheep back to the field at lunch time to give him a rest. 

Charlie and I set up two temporary control plots.  It was absolutely teeming with rain.