Chunky Monkey gang

Took these a week ago. Lambs in the shed playing before going out for the day.


Pneumonia lambing. First steps in trying to stand.


Bertie bull passed his TB Test last week. Hes been with us 12 weeks. He will be off to pastures new once his owners have sorted where hes going for his next harem of ladies.
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Yesterday was spent clearing a garden of one of the empty cottages. Was long overdue, as its been neglected for years. So loads of trees and shrubs to remove and cut back. It was a jungle. Had a massive bonfire. We just kept piling the stuff on. Garden looks totally different now. More like how it use to be as a kid.
Can now put the two horses in on whats left of the grass lawn, so they can mow it for me. Now weve removed the poisonous plants i can use it more regularly than having the hassle of fencing round everything for safety. Another little paddock of nearly 1/4 acre of grazing we can use.
 
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I love your posts. You do educate me and Covid has given me more time to read and appreciate them. The only place I have seen a bull is on TV All Creatures Great and Small.
 
Thankyou. I know a few people read my posts on this thread. I dont know if its something that people like to read generally or see on here as i know its a horse forum really. My subconscious mind worries that people dont like them.

I do like to educate people if i can.

I take loads of pictures and videos, not very good quality, but i post up very few. Which is silly really.
 
Took these a week ago. Lambs in the shed playing before going out for the day.


Pneumonia lambing. First steps in trying to stand.


Bertie bull passed his TB Test last week. Hes been with us 12 weeks. He will be off to pastures new once his owners have sorted where hes going for his next harem of ladies.
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Yesterday was spent clearing a garden of one of the empty cottages. Was long overdue, as its been neglected for years. So loads of trees and shrubs to remove and cut back. It was a jungle. Had a massive bonfire. We just kept piling the stuff on. Garden looks totally different now. More like how it use to be as a kid.
Can now put the two horses in on whats left of the grass lawn, so they can mow it for me. Now weve removed the poisonous plants i can use it more regularly than having the hassle of fencing round everything for safety. Another little paddock of nearly 1/4 acre of grazing we can use.
Bertie is a unit!
 
Bertie the bull, what a champion! He has an interesting life, travelling from one harem to the next :D . Is he good natured? I always heard beef bulls were softies, but I wouldn't like to take a chance on any bull.

Don't stop your posts, they are so interesting!
 
Bertie the bull, what a champion! He has an interesting life, travelling from one harem to the next :D . Is he good natured? I always heard beef bulls were softies, but I wouldn't like to take a chance on any bull.

Don't stop your posts, they are so interesting!
Actually hes been at the same farm i think for the last 4 years. But the people have given up dexters so hes been sold. The people who now own him will be hiring him out as thats part of what they do. So we were the first ones to have him.

He has been really nice and quiet. But your right i wouldnt trust him at all. I will literally put the hay in the field, cast my eye over to check hes okay and step back. Hes given me the eye a couple of times when i got close, especially when a girls been on heat.
I was pinned in the stomach against a wall by a billy goat when i was a kid.
Ive been wacked several times by the rams. I even climbed a tree one day in desperation to get away from the ram. That was a ram that was so well handled when he was younger, he followed us everywhere. But he turned rather unpleasant when he got to 3 year old. Couldnt trust him at all.

I dont trust the entire males one bit.
Watching several videos recently of a stallion shetland who has been spoilt rotten, hand reared. Now gone to a rehabilitation/rescue centre. Has turned into a very evil little shetland. Barrelling anybody he can. Nice
 
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Aw that last video with the shivery lamb trying to stand! Did the little wooler manage in the end? How old were they both? Mummy looked a bonny sheep.
Yep there up and about, now out in the field during the day with mum. The one trying to stand was about 15 minutes old. Literally was its first attempts to stand. The other one that was mainly laying had been up and moving. Got tired and needed a wee rest. Was about 40 mins old.

Which one were you refering to as bonny? Youve got me worried now.

Dont forget though when you look at my sheep, what you see is what you get. There is very little fleece. If you sheared most commercial sheep i think youd be worried if you saw the state of some. Mine have no fleece to disguse body condition, so when they loose weight you see it straight away.

Most mums will loose weight now naturally as they put everything into rearing there lambs. The milk demands go up over several weeks after lambing.
I do have one very skinny ewe though. Shes always looked skinny, but she puts everything into her lamb. Thankfully it will be her last lambing this year.
 
Yep there up and about, now out in the field during the day with mum. The one trying to stand was about 15 minutes old. Literally was its first attempts to stand. The other one that was mainly laying had been up and moving. Got tired and needed a wee rest. Was about 40 mins old.

Which one were you refering to as bonny? Youve got me worried now.

Dont forget though when you look at my sheep, what you see is what you get. There is very little fleece. If you sheared most commercial sheep i think youd be worried if you saw the state of some. Mine have no fleece to disguse body condition, so when they loose weight you see it straight away.

Most mums will loose weight now naturally as they put everything into rearing there lambs. The milk demands go up over several weeks after lambing.
I do have one very skinny ewe though. Shes always looked skinny, but she puts everything into her lamb. Thankfully it will be her last lambing this year.
Sorry, I meant pretty - where I used to live people mean someone is pretty if they are bonny (I know it can also mean well rounded? in some places). But then again, I think a lot of sheep are pretty. Some of them have such nice faces. It brought back memories hearing the bleating - from when we lived in the middle of the sheep farm. In summer I'd hear them bleating and get lulled to sleep listening. Unless it was one stuck in a fence or something in which case Mr trews was dispatched to go free it :D
 
@Trewsers I need to learn to spell. I thought you meant boney. You have put bonny.

That racked wouldnt get me to sleep. I need ear plugs. They are more settled now. When i first put the creep pen in, the lambs go in and mums cant see them in there so they stress and call. Now the mums of the older ones dont worry. Often the lambs will come in from the field at night nd go straight in there to lay out away from mums.
 
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Aw the lambs are so cute. I enjoy your posts about the non horse farm life, the highs and the lows are all part of it. I find it quite interesting how much more you can do in terms of treating stock compared to horses where it’s always a vet call.
 
I hope whatever it is works out for the best for you, it sounds very stressful. I’m here if you want to chat.

How did the lamb fare? It must be so hard, they’re such delicate little things really.
 
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Whatever the problem is I hope you can get things sorted and move on xx

ETA I agree with @Trewsers you can post whatever you like on here as long as you realise it isn't guaranteed to be private. People here are generally very supportive, and it isn't all about horses x
 
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Been a bit busy with animals and work so not got much riding in. With all the changes around this weekend im hoping that i will now be able to have abit more me time with the horses. Lord knows i need it just now.

Have had a very busy weekend.
Yesterday had all the sheep to foot trim. So got someone to come and help me with that. My fingers have blistered badly from holding the foot trimmers and the constant squeezing. In the afternoon i did mnage a ride.
Today chunkys new rider wanted to come and help with the sheep and cows so we wormed them all. Eartagged all the lambs and have moved them all down the road to my neighbours pasture. Left 4 still at home, juries still out on whether there even in lamb. Could still happen.
All went really well bar one little issue. One little ram lamb managed to catch his horn on something. Probably a hurdle whilst we had them penned. I was aware one of the lambs was covered in blood all over her face. I could see it wasnt her, so im looking round then see blood on a ram lamb. I touched his horn and it just fell forward. Broken off round the base 90%. 10% still hanging on. Sprayed it and applied some fly cream. The last bit will eventually come off. Hopefully the underneath will harden off quickly. The rain weve had this evening should wash away any blood so it shouldnt attract the flies too much. Bet hes got bit of a headache tonight. But i did see him feeding under his mum this evening so all is well currently.

Then we moved all the cows around. Most of the cows are now back together out grazing on the hill. Have kept a couple of older cows in on my field. Fleur is getting quite arthritic so not sure she will manage on the steep banks. So shes in with the next oldest cow, Jam, who we decided was too old to go back to the bull. Weve put them with my still lame cow. Although if youd have seen her at one point today charging past us, you would question if she was lame at all. She was on strict box rest for 3 days, then i let her have the run of the yard during the day. For a few days she was fine with this arrangement, penned overnight. Then one night gave me a right run around and refused to go in her pen. Even food bribs didnt work. She lashed out at me when i tried to get hold of her head collar. Got her in her pen eventually but she told me then she didnt want anymore box rest. So next day i turned her back out with her 15 friends. Sadly her friends have realised she was not sound and have spent the last week bullying her. Her first day back out, she looked pretty lame again. I regretted turning her out. All the massage work and rest nearly all undone. As the weeks gone on though shes slowly been getting stronger on the leg despite other cows chasing her off and banging into her. Shes tried to keep away from the rest of the herd and keeps taking herself off on her own. She hasnt been with, fleur and jam for the last 4 months, hopefully the 3 of them will bond together, which will give her time to get fully sound. Hoping she can eventually go back out with the rest of the herd.

Sadly as im sure a few of you read before i deleted my post a few weeks ago. We were given some very upsetting news. We have been notified that will be loosing the conservation grazing contract we have been doing on the local hill for the council for some 17 years. This has been extremely upsetting for us as a family. I am finding it very hard to take just now. We are unsure exactly of when this will happen. So we cant make any plans. We ourselves only have a small acreage of land and i have the horses and sheep as well grazing our fields. We have worked over the years to build our small cow herd up as was requested by the council. Having all or some of the cows back on our land at certain times of the year. Now just like that they dont want us on the land. They have informed us the the cows are not doing a good enough job under the current regime, so rather than working with us they are going to terminate our contract and get someone who can meet there requirements. They havent actually told us of what the requirements are as then are still working it out themselves. So the big problem is obviously what will happen with all the cows. The limited info they have provided has indicated that we are unlikely to be able to meet there requirements. We ourselves simply dont have enough ground 24/7 for the current number we are up to. So we have to put the herd up for sale. You might say well so what we are farmers, you send them to slaughter eventually. But to me its not the point. Apart from a couple we brought in, everything has been born here, i halter trained, i know there personalities. The animals are like my family. Some are literally like pets. It is breaking my heart with the thought that i have to sell them. Dexters are a very interesting market and not everyone likes them as a cow, so they can be hard to sell. So my only other option if i cant sell them will be to send them direct to slaughter. I still feel very empty several weeks on from this bombshell to the point i cant even explain how i feel. In the meantime, i still have to feed them and care for them. It is hard to go and see them everyday, and look them in the face and say tomorrow you may have to be sent to your death. I am actually struggling quite badly with it all.
So there we have it. Life feels very out of place, out of sorts currently. Yet i have to somehow carry on.
 
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That is really crap, bloody council should have at least tried to work with you as you have worked with them in the past (building your herd to meet their needs). It’s especially unfair that they haven’t told you when it will happen, living in limbo is one of the most stressful things. I hope you get lucky and find a nice home for them all 🤞
 
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