Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
If lambs go to £50 I’m jacking them in...May as well grow corn and go skiing 45 weeks of the year
If lambs go to £50 I’m jacking them in...May as well grow corn and go skiing 45 weeks of the year
I haven’t got that option on our placeIf lambs go to £50 I’m jacking them in...May as well grow corn and go skiing 45 weeks of the year
The great thing about the uk is it has the sheep stratification that others do not have, the lowland flicks will need replacements as they do not want to or have enough grass to carry round hoggs. Where I think the process has lost the plot is in the fact that hill farms have intensified beyond what their ground can handle and then become reliant on concentrates and bought in forage to basically represent a low land system up in the hills but with out the benefit of cover crops and excess forage etc....
Errrr, haven't you recently changed from buying ewes from that stratified system, to running a self-contained flock?
The great thing about the uk is it has the sheep stratification that others do not have, the lowland flicks will need replacements as they do not want to or have enough grass to carry round hoggs. Where I think the process has lost the plot is in the fact that hill farms have intensified beyond what their ground can handle and then become reliant on concentrates and bought in forage to basically represent a low land system up in the hills but with out the benefit of cover crops and excess forage etc....
I think the weather this year plus brexit will finally give the greenies what they want, good sized pieces of land to re-wild. Then they can pay the farmers to manage the gorse etc. with sheep and cattle instead, rent free at the tax payers expense.There's less ewes in the hills now than at any time in the last 50 years, at least!
I am the same latitude as between Thornhill and Dumfries,so unless you are up at Sanquhar much the same northerly as me.But you are West,so not as cold.Just out of interest,what breeds are you lambing,and what sort of fields do you lamb in? How high up?We shall wait and see.
I'm farther North as you, I've finished lambing and yes, there's been losses - but on the whole it's been very good.
Theres far more on here talking lesser ewes next year though
I am the same latitude as between Thornhill and Dumfries,so unless you are up at Sanquhar much the same northerly as me.But you are West,so not as cold.Just out of interest,what breeds are you lambing,and what sort of fields do you lamb in? How high up?
dont worry,they are £150If lambs go to £50 I’m jacking them in...May as well grow corn and go skiing 45 weeks of the year
dont worry,they are £150
Aye, we are roughly the same.
Lleyn ewes, bred pure or put to the Texel. Also a small group of TexX ewes put to Suffolk. We were Blackies and Scotch Mules before I switched, and South Cheviots when Grandfather originally came here in '45.
The steading sits 400ft, but the village at my roadend, less than 3/4 a mile away, sits at 110ft and the top of the hill is 830ft, most of the land will sit around 600ft. The land drops away drastically to our South and West, so we are very exposed to these sides. A foothill of the Southern Uplands - the next bit of ground at the same altitude as us, to the South, is 30-40 miles away across the Solway Firth in Cumbria. And to the West, the other side of the valley, 2-2.5miles away. So although regarded as low by many, we are rough and steep, with shallow soil depth onto solid Whinstone.
All inbye ground is South facing. Lambing fields are the silage ground, there's one or 2 fields are relatively level with a gentle slope, but the most of it you wouldn't let an inexperienced round baler operator anywhere near!
You'll need to share yours now.
Sounds very similar to us.
Home farm runs from 250ft to 1000ft.....over not much distance
Most of the farm at 600-800ft,
On a hill completely seperate from the rest of exmoor- like a jelly bean has been dropped on the map east-west, sea on the entire north side, steep, not much soil, dry..... totally exposed to wind from all directions (yard &lower fields sheltered from northerlys).
About equal north /south facing land.
Wouldn't swap it for anywhere else!
Who wouldn'tI wouldn't swap here, either... I wouldn't mind it scaled up by double, at least, though!
You should try and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.
There's less ewes in the hills now than at any time in the last 50 years, at least!