Country diary: it’s clipping day on the farm, but the wool is worthless
Written by Andrea Meanwell from the Guardian
Tebay, Cumbria: Sheep are clipped because of the heat. This year’s mountain of wool will join last year’s in the hay barn
Around 6pm the wind drops and we feel the full force of the sun on the clipping trailer. We started gathering the sheep at 9am, and have been clipping ever since. My job is to move the waiting sheep through a series of pens, up a ramp and on to the trailer for one of the two men to clip.
Most of the sheep follow on up the ramp, but some are reluctant so I must encourage them, or push. The sheep weigh about 70kg and push back with great force. My knees and thighs are very bruised.
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Written by Andrea Meanwell from the Guardian
Tebay, Cumbria: Sheep are clipped because of the heat. This year’s mountain of wool will join last year’s in the hay barn
Around 6pm the wind drops and we feel the full force of the sun on the clipping trailer. We started gathering the sheep at 9am, and have been clipping ever since. My job is to move the waiting sheep through a series of pens, up a ramp and on to the trailer for one of the two men to clip.
Most of the sheep follow on up the ramp, but some are reluctant so I must encourage them, or push. The sheep weigh about 70kg and push back with great force. My knees and thighs are very bruised.
Continue reading...
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. Support the Guardian – it only takes a minute. Thank you.