Chunky Monkey gang

From this cute little bundle.20210608_101630.jpg

To this little so and so. Who appreciates his mummy everyday bringing food by running in the back of her legs.

Im sorry Oliver but your days are numbered. You will be someones dinner soon.

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Currently twiddling my thumbs. Shed is ready, mucked out, pressure washed, pens are in, hay is in the racks. Bedding will go down tomorrow. All sheep will be moving round to different fields tomorrow. The sheep due to lamb are on my neighbours field, a bit far from the lambing shed so i hope nobody pops early. My calendar says four due Sunday. Cows are going in the top field away from pregnant ewes, not risking calves chasing the ewes. Was hoping not to use the top part of the field and just rest for hay making but needs must. Horses hammered it and theres still no grass really growing on it yet. The rotational grazing plan on the cows has been working well but its clear i didnt stock pile enough grass in the autumn.

The two horses were getting through a small bale of hay per day and have been all winter but this week they are leaving some. The field they are on has nothing really in it. They went on it mid jan and have cleared off all the rough rank grass the sheep didnt eat. There was more grass in it january than there is now. Those sweet shoots must be boosting them enough to not want to eat the hay. They did spend 3 afternoons up on the lawn as well over the weekend. The lawn is the only thing growing. But im surprised they are leaving hay on a bare looking field.
Mind i actually stood at a distance and counted four ribs on chunky yesterday. I dont mind if he doesnt eat hay as he is coughing badly again. Just put him back on cough mixture, so hope that helps. We desperately need rain to moisten the grass which helps him. My grass on the track isnt long enough to put them on yet. But im thinking it will be better than leaving him on the current field. Not sure what to do for the best.
 
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Currently twiddling my thumbs. Shed is ready, mucked out, pressure washed, pens are in, hay is in the racks. Bedding will go down tomorrow. All sheep will be moving round to different fields tomorrow. The sheep due to lamb are on my neighbours field, a bit far from the lambing shed so i hope nobody pops early. My calendar says four due Sunday. Cows are going in the top field away from pregnant ewes, not risking calves chasing the ewes. Was hoping not to use the top part of the field and just rest for hay making but needs must. Horses hammered it and theres still no grass really growing on it yet. The rotational grazing plan on the cows has been working well but its clear i didnt stock pile enough grass in the autumn.

The two horses were getting through a small bale of hay per day and have been all winter but this week they are leaving some. The field they are on has nothing really in it. They went on it mid jan and have cleared off all the rough rank grass the sheep didnt eat. There was more grass in it january than there is now. Those sweet shoots must be boosting them enough to not want to eat the hay. They did spend 3 afternoons up on the lawn as well over the weekend. The lawn is the only thing growing. But im surprised they are leaving hay on a bare looking field.
Mind i actually stood at a distance and counted four ribs on chunky yesterday. I dont mind if he doesnt eat hay as he is coughing badly again. Just put him back on cough mixture, so hope that helps. We desperately need rain to moisten the grass which helps him. My grass on the track isnt long enough to put them on yet. But im thinking it will be better than leaving him on the current field. Not sure what to do for the best.
Oooo lamby time soon :D

Trying to judge field juggling when you don't have a big excess of land is hard work, it's half down to luck and the weather!
 
Yep its so much hard this year knowing ive got to accommodate cattle all year round. Its 22 years since we had the cows and sheep on our land all year round. I didnt have horses then either.
The last 20 years normally the cattle at home over winter would go back out on the hill at the beginning of May. Quite often in the April we could also move them off and round to the other layback land so our fields could start resting for hay making.
 
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Yep. We normally cut my top field about 9 acres and our lower field about 5 acres. Having the cows home means we need to give up making hay on the bottom field. Im going to use that for grazing the cattle on rotation over the summer, but the next month the lambing ewes will be grazing it. So the cows are coming onto the top field for a few weeks. Not good but its all ive got.
Fortunately my neighbour has been letting me graze my sheep on some of his land and we have been able to cut that the last three years. So theres a bit of leeway.

But managing the fields is a constant headache.
Since having the cows at home ive been operating a 3 day grazing rotation. In winter though you need to allow a minimum of 45-60 days before they return back onto that peice. Ive only managed 30 days. Im thinking of putting the horses in with the cows next winter. That would give more rotation rest time but i fear the horses will strip all the fields. I managed them separately this winter on about 4 acres but thats left me short on cow rotation.
 
Is that 3 days on a section then 60 off? Is it mob grazing quite small bits? I’m always interested in what farmers do as they’re light years ahead of most horse keeping
 
Yep that principle. Mine is 3 days and 30 off. My paddocks arent small enough for mob grazing. For the 9 cows ive got id need to do them on about 1/4 of an acre. It would be near impossible on my fields given the steepness. Watering would be a nightmare. Ive been reading up on it lots lately.
Im also not sure that id agree with restricting the cows to that smaller patch. (Bear in mind that some of the cows were free grazing on a 40 acre site. Poor buggers didnt know what hit them suddenly being restricted to 1 acre at a time only. Theyve adapted though and seem content now) I know it puts weight on quicker because they just go in and eat, (grazing behaviour changes) but i want to give mine movement. My paddocks are about an acre, some a little bigger. Some under so ive been doing 2 day grazes on them.
I think the fields are looking better for being on rotation rather than giving them extensive but they say it takes a couple of years before you start to really see changes.
 
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Been a very long day moving animals round to there new fields. Winding up my temporary electric paddock fences so the sheep dont get hooked up.
Got two lambs up put them in the holding pen whilst i walked down to get the other 6 and then i could collect the two lambs on the way past to take them up the road altogether to there new field. Barely put them in the holding pen, start walking down to get the 6 and i hear some woman behind me calling her dog. I turn round shes looking toward the pen where the two lambs are. I shout her there are sheep just there so she better go and grab her dog. Too late dog had squeezed through the cattle race gates and was chasing the two sheep round. As you can image she got the sharp end of my tongue and told to keep her dog under control in the countryside. Literally id probably walked 50metres away from them.
Rocky decided he didnt want to stay in the yard and jumped over the stock netting fence into our little garden next door. Fortunately he was actually easy to retrieve but it meant i had to do plan b and double move the lambing ewes whilst i moved the rams.
Guess moving round again was a bit too much for one lady. Having moved her a second time to a paddock so i could move the boys, i let them back out she walked off on her own across the field and promptly decided to lamb. I had 4 down to lamb starting sunday. She was one of them so i guess she decided it was better to get on with it today. I left her to get on with it, so i ended up walking down the bottom of the field a bit later to go and retrieve her and her newborn.
So we have officially started lambing. Took no chances the other 3 due sunday are now in the shed tonight too.

Poor lamb was covered in very dark lamb fluid so looks a bit yuck currently. Thankfully mother is looking after it. She is know for hammering or ditching her lambs.

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It wasnt her that the dog got to. It was two last year lambs. I had to separate them a month ago from the 6 retired ones as one was not looking good so for the last month the two have been having twice day feeds to booster her back up. They gone back together today with the retired ones and gone over into my neighbours field now where i bought the ewes back from.
If your confused im not surprised, honestly it was complicated working out how to get everyone into the right places.
 
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Yep probably why she didnt apologise.

All quiet this morning. Feels like a new routine with everything moved round. It was actually quicker too.
I even got some wooden posts banged in this morning on the track ready for the horses. Half the track is now up, live and complete round half the field at least. Cant do the other half the field for a few weeks. Aiming for the horses to go on the completed half next week once its got a bit more grass growth.
 
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Twins born overnight last night to a first lamber. Went down to check at 2am and they were out. Looked good, so sprayed there umbilical cords, and left mum to it. This morning i get there and shes decided she doesnt like one of her lambs and is sending it flying across the pen. I tied her up and persuaded the lamb under for a drink. She seems to accept the girl but not her boy. Shes improved a bit with him during the day. This evening she stood and let him feed, even kissing and nuzzling his tail. When he finished feeding though, she turned round and sent him flying again. Not sure how this is going to turn out. Hopefully if he gets strong enough he'll learn to sneak in, or he will learn to feed from the back. Not going to intervene and take away just yet. Hes quite a strong boy, seems more intelligent than his female sister. She looks a bit sleepy so im not sure if shes had enough milk. Maybe she took a couple of knocks from mum too. Will top her up with some cows milk tomorrow to stimulate her a bit if she looks slow and thin in the morning. Didnt try today as i didnt want to add my sent to the lamb to confuse mum.

Alarm is set for another 2am check tonight. Got two others in the shed who should have lambed today. One might pop soon. The other one hasnt bagged up though so i think she may have been remated at some point. No other raddle colour markings so im going to play guess when im due for a few weeks.
 
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3 lambings, 5 lambs now. The one who tried rejecting a lamb seems to have accepted it. I growled and shouted at her every time she sent it flying and lots of praise when she sniffed nicely and fed it. Now accepted she has two lambs. Phew

Put the boys on the track Saturday but with the rain its going squishy already. I knew there wasnt enough grass on it really but the paddock they were in had nothing and i want it to start growing for use over the summer. I dont want a grassless track though. The aim is to keep enough grass on it for summer to keep the boys whilst the hay grows. So tonight i decided to take them back off it, so they got turned in with the cows instead. So im thinking for the next week they can go on rotation with the cows.
Thought Billy would chase the calves. Guess i was wrong.

 
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That’s good he’s not chasing them, perhaps being in a bigger herd will also help his anxiety when you’re doing stuff with chunky, might end up a double win 🤞
 
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