Happy Christmas from Hanley Suffolks and a happy New Year.

Scanning

Hi Again

Today my ewes have been scanned and I will have 2 ewes that will only have 1 lamb and 1 ewe will have 2 lambs.

Thank you and I look forward to lambing.
Jack

Stop Press!!!!!!!!!

Hi Again

Big news. Today I have had my local farmer ring up and say that he has the scaner coming in tomorrow and would I like my sheep scaned. I said yes straight away. I checked with the Co owner and she said fine. I will tell you how I get on tomorrow.

Thanks
Jack

Hi all

These past few weeks I have been putting up my lambing pens. They are brilliant. We have had our friends down to stay. Ian is the farm manger of one of the largest estates in England. Ian helped me to put up the lambing pens.

This week I received a comment from 'Mike' asking me what breed of sheep to buy, how much they will cost and should he buy them in lamb or with lambs because his son wants some sheep. My advice would be to think about these few things: (remember I am only 13 years old so I still need to learn lots!)
Breed Choice:
1. If you live on a hill you probably want to buy hill sheep like a Blackface or a Cheviot.
2. But if you live on lower ground you probably want to buy lowland sheep like a Texel or Suffolk.
3. You might consider the Rare Breed route. I don't know many Rare breeds but I know that you can get Soay or a Castle Morton. If you want to know more about rare breeds go to http://www.rbst.org.uk/.

Price:
1. Hill Sheep
  -Blackface cost about £100(in lamb)
  - Cheviot cost about £120 (in lamb)
2. Lowland Sheep
  - Suffolk cost about £320 (in lamb) but they are pedigree and will need to think if you want to keep pedigrees or do you want to be a commercial sheep farmer.
  - Texel (Pedigree) cost about £450 (in lamb)
  - Texel cross and a Suffolk cross, non pedigree, cost about £150 (in lamb)
3. I do not know how much a rare breed in lamb ewe would cost i'm afraid so visit the rare breed website.
A local auctioneer would also be willing to help.

In lamb or Ewes and Lambs:
If you want to buy them in lamb and have the thrill of lambing then certainly buy them in lamb. If you do chose to buy them in lamb you would have to buy all the lambing equipment needed for lambing. But if you buy them with lambs it would be easier for your first year. People who sell ewes with lambs probably think that the lambs or the ewes are not good enough so you may not get the best qualitiy but some farmers just sell them straight away whatever.

These are a few pics of my pens:

I hope this has helped you. If you need some more advice do not be afraid to leave a comment.

More questions welcomed.

Jack

Ewe Sold

Dear all


As you know from the last blog I had a ewe to sell. I asked my local sheep dealer to sell it at Market. He took it to Hereford livestock Market and sold it for £50. I thought it would make around £50. I am very pleased with the price. Next week end I will be setting up my lambing pens. You might think that I am being a little bit quick ; it might snow this month and it will be able to look after them.

Thank you for reading
Jack

Selling

Hi

Hello again. Sorry I haven’t written a blog in a while because there hasn’t been much going on. I have had a busy few weeks at school because on the night before Remembrance Day my school got burgled. The burglars came to our school at about midnight and broke through a window next to the bike shed into the front office. When they finally got in the alarm went off. They fled but picked up the Remembrance Day poppy money but managed to find time to write on the poppy box ‘WE DON’T CARE!’ So our school have set up a campaign called ‘WE DO CARE’ because at our school we take these things very seriously. The press came in and because I am part of the campaign they decided to take a photo of me for the paper. I thought it would be on the inside of the paper but it was on the Front Cover. That night the burglars went to four different places and stole the poppy money. I think it is disgraceful. On a positive note the school have really pulled together and we have already raised enough money to replace the stolen collection.

On the sheep side of life it has been quite busy. My granddad came down to see us this week. I asked him to bring down a ‘High energy’ lick to give to the ewes because they need to get a bit healthier. I have one ewe which isn’t very well. We think it might have a liver problem. I asked my granddad if he could have a look at the ewe and he said that it had a liver problem. I have taken it upon my self to sell it. It is going on Tuesday to a livestock mart. I know that I will only get about £50 because it is so lean. I will probably not buy another ewe this year but might buy a ewe with lambs next year once I have lambed the others.

If you have any questions about the WE DO CARE campaign or if you have any questions about the farm just leave a comment.

Thank you,

Jack

The Burglary

Hello everyone,

You are probably wondering what the title means but I will get to that later. Last week I was on my half term so we have some people to stay. My Great Aunt Di came down to see us for 5 nights as we don't get to see her much because she lives in Northumberland and we live in Worcestershire. As I have said in previous blogs I went to a sale and bought two pairs of handshears. Both of them were very rusty. So Great Aunt Di and I went to a hard wear shop and bought some rust remover and a rust brush. We came home and got the shears out and started working. The bigger pair were so rusty the rust had stuck to the shears so we couldn't get the rust off. But on the other shears the rust came of nicely. So Aunty Di and I walked over to the sheep because one of the four had a dirty backend so we had to clean it up. We did it and it was a good days work. After she had gone we had some more visters from Northumberland. They were my mum's good friends. Their son James helped my to get the sheep in again and do their feet. We do this every 4-6 months just to make sure that they are not getting foot root or they are lame. Sometimes they are lame after we have checked them so we have to get them back in to make sure the foot is clean and healthy.

Now to the exciting bit!! The BURGLARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One Tuesday Night when the air was cold a young boy (me) was enjoying Jonny English (it is great) at the cinema. When he had just got in to the house the phone rang. "Hello" he said and then
"Hi , its Chris. (he is the owner of the field) There has been a burglary!!! The sheep are fine but the Electric Fence is Bust."
"Oh no!!!!!" Jack replied,
"Its ok. The main thing is that the sheep are ok!" said Chris,
"I will be round in the morning to see." The confusion went on.

As he said he was there the very next day and I saw something amazing.The robbers had got stuck in the electric fence and it was on. They had broken it in half and could have been nearly killed. They had planned it so well, they had wheelbarrows in the next door field to put everything into.

I have had one question online and it is as follows:
What does E.I.D sand for?
This is a very good Question. The answer is that it stands for Electronic Identification.

Thank you for your question please ask me more!

Jack