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Jubilee celebrations, going to market and trying out auctioneering

Hi All

What a lovely week once again. I should not complain but it is just a little too hot, especially when you do a science experiment using fire!

I have got my ewes shorn on Tuesday, Tim did them and they look great. I did not have a go at it as I would hate to have to take the blame if anything had happened! I will have some pictures soon to post on here.

Tim is a sheep dealer. Through the lambing period, I was there every night in the school week. I started at 6 o'clock and was responsible for certain jobs until Tim returned. Now lambing has finished I am helping whenever there are jobs to be done. On Thursday I had a phone call to ask if I could go round in the evening and load the lorry with the wool bags. Tim was telling me how dreadful the lamb trade is at the moment, we have some good chats while we are working. In Longtown which is a very big livestock mart which usually have 4000 ewes and about 4000 lambs to sell, both ewes and lambs were down dramatically.

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine.
Jack

29th May

Hi All

What a lovely week once again. I should not complain but it is just a little too hot, especially when you do a science experiment using fire!

I have got my ewes shorn on Tuesday, Tim did them and they look great. I did not have a go at it as I would hate to have to take the blame if anything had happened! I will have some pictures soon to post on here.

Tim is a sheep dealer. Through the lambing period, I was there every night in the school week. I started at 6 o'clock and was responsible for certain jobs until Tim returned. Now lambing has finished I am helping whenever there are jobs to be done. On Thursday I had a phone call to ask if I could go round in the evening and load the lorry with the wool bags. Tim was telling me how dreadful the lamb trade is at the moment, we have some good chats while we are working. In Longtown which is a very big livestock mart which usually have 4000 ewes and about 4000 lambs to sell, both ewes and lambs were down dramatically.

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine.
Jack

Beef Expo

Beef Expo took place on the 23rd - 24th May at the showground. It's mainly a tradeshow for businesses with most of the Cattle Society stands showing off their finest cattle and the latest trade equipment and support organisations represented.
On the first day of the show there were organised farm tours. We had some great friends staying at the house and we went to the show together. They thought that both of the tours were they good and different. After the tour there was a Native Cattle show. I am very pleased to say that a lovely Longhorn heifer weighing 598Kg from Mr & Mrs G Woollatt won the Native Heifer section and went on to win the overall Native champion. The reserve Native champion was the second place heifer from Mr Michael Read with his Lincoln Red called Hemingby Treasure coming in at 574Kg. The first place steer cam from RH & SM Grace with a great Lincoln Red called Blisland Bruiser.
The second day was a much bigger occasion consisting of 14 classes. There was a lot of great looking cattle. I also saw cattle from Canada. Wow!!!

Here are all the winners from the classes and what they weighed:
3.1. Heifer by a registered Limousin sire Mr D Hughes coming in at 491Kg. This lovely heifer became Champion Continental Heifer. Well done.
3.2. Heifer by a registered Limousin sire from Messes JEL and LS Morgan weighing 518Kg.
3.3. Heifer by a registered Limousin sire from Mr A.D. Bishop's Red Hot Honey coming in at 728Kg.
4.1. Heifer by a registered British Blue sire was won by a heifer weighing 463Kg from Messrs P&S Sellers.
4.2. Heifer by a registered British Blue sire was won by T A & C L Lyon & son with a stunning 538Kg heifer.
5. Heifer by a registered Charolais sire was won by Mr J MacGregor with a 494Kg heifer.
6. Heifer by any other Continental sure was won by a big 642Kg heifer from Mr A D Bishop.
7.1. Steer by a registered Limousin sire was won by a 514Kg steer from Messrs P & S Sellers.
7.2. Steer by a registered Limousin sire was won from J Hyslops 654Kg steer.
8. Steer by a registered British Blue sire was won by T A & C L Lyon and Sons who also won class 4.2.
9. Steer by a registered Charolais sire was won by Mr W Owen with a big strong steer weighing at 514Kg.
10. No entries
11.1. Baby heifer up to and including 425Kg. This was won by the Baby beef championship from a smaller Limousin heifer weighing in at 299Kg from T Jones. Well Done!!
11.2. Baby heifer up to and including 425Kg. This was won by a heifer from Mr R Fountaines weighing in at 379Kg.
11.3. Baby heifer up to and including 425Kg. M M & C Alford's British Blue heifer at 406Kg.
12. This was the last class. Baby steer up to and including 425Kg. This was won by the overall champion of all the classes at the show. The cow was bred from T A & C L Lyon & Sons third win of the day. The Limousin weighed 345Kg.
Hope you are all ok
Jack

25th May

Hi All

Hope you have all had a great week and the weather has ok. The farmer I help, Tim, has started shearing. Tim is one of the first farmers in the area to shear his sheep and one of the first to get his wool off to the British Wool Board. I love shearing because I get to jump on the wool sacks to pack the fleeces in tight. I love seeing the ewes with their fleeces off and looking neat and tidy. On Monday I will be helping Tim to shear about 200 ewes. My job will ether be pushing them up to the shearers or take the lambs off the ewes so they don't get mixed up when the ewes get shorn.

Over the next few weeks I will be giving you the latest results from the major shows.

Over the past week there have been a couple of shows. There was a great turn out of all different types of livestock. I was really pleased to know that my good friend Sandy Fraser won the sheep interbreed with his Suffolks. So here we go:

Newark and Nottingham show:
Sheep interbreed
Champion: Sandy Fraser of Scunthorpe. Sandy won with his homebred Suffolk Shearling Ram.
Reserve Champion: Frank Rushton with his Texel Shearling Ewe.

Cattle Interbreed
Champion: Smiths of Bloxham with their great Limousin bull calf.
Reserve Champion: A South Devon cow and calf outfit from A and C Farm's, of the Langham Herd.

Dairy Interbreed
Champion: A Jersey cow from Abi Sercombe.
Reserve Champion: A Holstein cow from Holdcroft and Sons, Burton on Trent.

Pig Interbreed
Champion: A Tamworth sow from Stuart Roberts.

Balmoral Show:
Sheep Interbreed
Champion: Texel ewe from Mr Alastair Gault's flock in Newtownavvey, Antrim. It was a lovely ewe.
Reserve Champion: Was a Charolais from Mrs Diane Christie's flock in Comber, Newtownards, Co Down.

Cattle Interbreed
Champion: A Limousin heifer Millbrook Ginger Spice from William Smith
Reserve Champion: A Charolais heifer Cornascriebe Flo from Mr James A Watson.

Pig Interbreed
Champion: A Large White gilt - Glenmarshal Dainty Lady - from Mr Trevor Shields.
Reserve Champion: A Middle White junior boar - Ginnington Captain 2 - from Rebecca Gregg.

I am very sorry if I do not mention your show please email me on

hanleysuffolks@gmail.com and I will mention it in the next blog.

Hope you are all ok.
Jack

Ask Jack

I have had a question from somebody asking me about one of their lambs: 'One of our lambs would appear to have her back legs longer than her front legs, and stands with her legs tucked underneath her. She doesn't jump around like the others. Have you had any problems like this?'I spoke to my grandfather who informed me that it sounds like a deformity. I have never had this problem but I am sure it is not too serious especially if it is not having trouble feeding. If you want more advice ask your vet who will give you more in-depth answer and they are much more qualified than me.

I have also had a comment from Annie and in reply, I think it must be raining all over the place! I will not be entering the Three Counties Show for two reasons. Firstly I don't consider my ewes to be good enough and secondly I am a ring steward at the show on Saturday and Sunday. This means I ensure all the corrrect sheep are in the ring and ready for the judge. I then help present the prizes and make sure all the results are recorded correctly. Over the Three Counties weekend I will be giving you a diary account of how it went, who won and why I like stewarding. Which show are you hoping to show at and what are you hoping to show?

Hope to speak to you soon.

Jack
www.hanleysuffolks.blogspot.com

A touch of gardening

14th May

Hi All

What a great weekend. These past few days have been wonderful. It has rained at night but been lovely in the day, great growing conditions.

On Thursday the Malvern Spring Gardening Show started in typical British weather ... rain!! Never mind, people still flocked to the show. BBC Gardeners World were recording their show and on Friday it was shown on BBC2. It really showed off the show well and together with the beautiful sunshine, there was a bumper weekend crowd. The mud had gone and the roads were packed. As I cycled along the road home from school on Friday I had never seen as many buses full of ladies and gentlemen heading back on to the M5.

On Sunday the mud was no where to be seen and I decided to go to the show. My mum works at the show so I cycled over and met her for lunch. You probably don't know but I love gardening as well as farming. Any time I go to a garden centre I will buy seeds or plants and start growing and planting. I bought quite a bit at the show and came home and started potting up. It was a nice suprise for Mum when she got home that night!

In farming you need to know about horticulture and agriculture because you need to know what seeds to plant, when to plant and how to do it. I've tried to learn from my relatives and I also read gardening books.

My ewes are looking great and the lambs are growing very well, not long now until they are ready to sell.

I would like to here from you and what you would like to know about.
Speak soon
Jack

8th May

Hi All

What a horrible week. I have had exams all week and to make matters worse it has not stopped raining. As a farmer I should not complain about the rain but it is horrible. I know a local farmer who has silage ready to be cut in the next few weeks but the river that runs next to the field has flooded. It needs to stop right now and if we then get some sun, there will be grass everywhere.

In the field where the ewes and lambs live, we use an electric fence which splits the field in half. The lambs get through the fence even throw it is "electric". This means that they are not with their mothers, so the ewes go to fing them and they push through the fence too. The ewes can then get tangled up in the fence and it causes mayhem. So we have now decided to put a new permanent fence up. This will separate the field properly.

I have had a comment on my blog from A. M:This is an amazing project! We're doing the same thing with a couple of orphans rearing them on the bottle and will sell them when they reach the right weight. Do you do this by yourself? It's just what I want to do, I'm helping with lambing at the Scottish Agricultural Colllege, and I'm completely obsessed. It's great to know that there are likeminded people my age out there!!! Good luck, and a brilliant blog!

Thank you Annie for your very kind comments. I am really pleased that you are another person starting up in farming. There are not many young people who want to start farming as it is a hard and time consuming job. Make sure you pick the right place to sell your lambs, and make sure you watch the trends in the prices for a couple of weeks before you plan to sell.
As usual send me some more questions and I will try my best to answer them. I will be attending the Spring Gardening Show next week at the Three Counties Showground. It is a great event that I go to every year.I will be buying some flowering plants to brighten up the garden when the rain stops! My main interest in the garden is vegetables. I grow tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, cabbages, beetroot, rhubarb, carrots and peas. Mum loves me growing vegetables!

Hope you are all well.
Jack