I am so thankful that this past week was much less eventful than the previous! However, it did start out with a bit of panic before school on Monday. I had forgotten to ring the insurance company to extend coverage for the car we were loaned from the garage, so I was unable to drive the car over the weekend and had to ring them first thing when they opened on Monday morning. I got it sorted out quickly, but I was sitting in my driveway with my foot on the accelerator when I hung up the call and ready to rocket off to school!
In terms of the sheep, we had a vet visit to check up on a couple of our younger breeding rams early on in the week. It involved bringing the sheep from the field into the handling unit and again, calling for reinforcements in the form of family members who had to stand on the busy main road and ensure their safe passage across. Bloods were taken, sent to a lab and we were delighted to get a clean bill of health for them when their test results returned.
The sheep are still all out in the field and we are predominantly using the strip grazing method to allow them to make best use of the grass available. It has been so wet all week long which means that the ground is inclined to become soft and muddy. By strip grazing, we give them a new ‘strip’ of ground every day or so which keeps them happy and stops them wasting the grass. If we give them too much grass at a time, they are inclined to walk it into the ground and it doesn’t get eaten, only rots. We use electric fencing when we are strip grazing and it is very effective at discouraging sheep who may get their own ideas about which grass they’d like to eat!