Welcome back Number Ten and Number Eighteen

Today I picked up my two friendly Zwarbles lambs       ...from the butcher.

The butcher was quite surprised at how "long" they were, but then I guess he doesn't get many Zwartbles in and they are certainly a tall and elegant breed of sheep. I was quite pleased with their weights though, as a friend had recently taken hers (from the same batch) and they were just over 20kg.
So what do you get from one lamb?

Four legs! (no surprises there)
Four shoulders.
I had the bone left in all of these celebration joints, for flavour and drama.
About a dozen pairs of chops (I was too busy to count exactly)
Five packs of mince.
A couple of loin chumps.
Lungs, liver, kidneys.

I for one am very much looking forward to tucking into them. We would never dream of buying chops normally, or even  leg these days.
In fact, if I can manage their grazing more effectively I may even keep a couple more next year, maybe to raise on to make mutton.
It could well make more economic sense to be raising these for meat than raising pigs, certainly in terms of selling the meat.

The key difference is that pigs need constant feeding with brought in feed which is ever-increasing in price. It's also possibly the least environmentally sustainable part of everything we are doing here.
In contrast, the main cost of the lambs was the initial purchase, a little bit on medication and the butchery costs. In all they have worked out about £92 per lamb. So that's in the region of £5 per kilo of meat.

That is, of course, if you don't factor in the £85 it cost me today to replace the tyre which got pot-holed while driving back with the meat last night! Wouldn't have been so bad if I could have removed the wheel nuts!



For ourselves, I reckon a couple of weaners and a couple of sheep a year, along with a few chickens, guinea fowl and a couple of geese, would keep us quite splendidly supplied with meat...

Maybe a cow too...

Or a goat...!!

Friday 16th November 2012
A sunrise to forget.

Now that the Zwartbles are gone

Boy, the abattoir was busy this morning. We joined a long queue to drop off the Zwartbles and it wasn't too long before we were towing an empty trailer back to its owner.

Lovely as the sheep were, they could sometimes be a right pair of thugs. I had to leave the gates to the veg garden open, otherwise they just blundered right through the fence. And I couldn't leave the doors to the chicken enclosure ajar, otherwise they trotted straight in and pillaged all the feed, knocking everything flying in the process and terrifying the poultry.

Next year I'll be better prepared for containing them.

Sunday 11th November 2012
We bade an icy farewell to Number Ten and Number Eighteen.

But today spelt freedom for the ducks, chickens and geese. (The guinea fowl already freely hopped the fence).
The ducks quickly waddled into the veg garden and began devouring all the juiciest morsels. I am hoping to move them into here, even in the spring when the chickens will again be banished on account of their determined scratching and scraping the ground.
The geese have grazed their paddock to a fine green baize so will welcome the lusher grass of the veg garden now. And the chickens get the winter to wander around the whole farm.



All the poultry have a new found freedom to roam.
They are already making the most of it.

When I'm not so busy managing the house renovations, I'll grab a few minutes to dig the veg beds and apply manure so that winter can break down the soil. This will be when the birds come into their own, greedily scoffing every pesky grub which is brought to the surface. Shame I can't tell them exactly which ones to eat and which ones to leave be.

 

Zwartbles get ready for a journey



Do they know what's coming?
 

I really should know by now.

 

When a plan goes even better than expected...

There's a surprise in store!

 


Saturday 10th November 2012
The words dull and dreary
do not do it justice!

When the livestock trailer appears on the farm, all the animals should be wary. There's a fair chance it's not good news for at least one of them.

And todays victims were...














... Number Ten and Number Eighteen.


Without doubt the most endearing animals on the farm, these two characters have ensured there will definitely be a space for sheep here in the future.

But for the moment I am really looking forward to being able to tuck into a nice piece of lamb, a luxury which I can ill often afford. We look after them as best we can, we feel affection toward them, but at the end of the day they never were pets.






It must have taken all of about fifteen seconds to lead these two inquisitive animals up into the trailer. They simply followed the remains of the Euonomus plant, now a few twigs in a pot. This was always the first thing they headed for when they managed to sneak through the gate into the stable yard.

But there is a twist.
For sheep are resourceful, headstrong and remarkably agile creatures. They soon discovered that by climbing on the rails of the hurdles inside the trailer, they could almost blunder their way back over the tailgate. A lofty drop onto concrete would have welcomed them, as well as the task of reloading them without the benefit of taking them by surprise this time.

With no way of blocking the opening at the back, I removed the hurdles and decided to park the whole shebang in the paddock.

That way, if they persisted with the escape plan they would land on grass and be in the right place for recapture in the morning.
I just hoped the car would get enough grip to pull the trailer out!

As darkness fell, Number Ten and Number Eighteen settled down, though they still managed the occasional peek over the top.
I really think its 50:50 whether they'll still be contained come the morning.

Whatever happens, they'll be fondly remembered.

The kneeling sheep

Tuesday 4th September 2012

At first light this morning, this mother roe deer and her fawn allowed me remarkable close approach. Fortunately a large clump of grass hid my approach along the dyke and the wind was blowing freshly. They were taking a morning drink, but when they saw me they went bouncing off over the fields. Do they have supersprings in their hooves?

Bird news from the night before of a possible Short-billed Dowtcher in Weymouth had me on tenterhooks all day. To go would be a bit of a risk as it's identity was far from sure and a four and a half hour journey each way needed a bit more of a guaranteed result at the end of it. I'd seen one before, over in Ireland, but this bird would be only the second ever in Britain and I didn't see the first back in 1999.

But there was birding to be had on the smallholding today with the appearance of not one, not two but three smart male blackcaps around the pond, along with a chiffchaff. These birds came in overnight for sure. It is amazing how we get these mini falls of birds here. I am sure they must travel in small groups.

Anyway, on to the subject of this post, the kneeling sheep. Our two lovely Zwartbles came from an organic farm, but sadly a few of the sheep were long overdue a hoof trim. We had done this when we picked them up, but Number Ten's hooves were in a right state. We had treated them with antiseptic spray again, but by this morning he was clearly in some discomfort, preferring to kneel rather than stand and limping slightly when he did walk.

So we captured him and spent a good half hour tidying up his hooves. I must say, I think I did an expert job. Let's hope it works and Number Ten appreciates it, as my leg muscles are now very sore from gripping on to a wriggling sheep for so long. So far he doesn't seem to be holding it against us and, if anything, is friendler than before.

I'm not sure who is grimacing more for the camera!

 

Sheep... Friendly maybe but clever not.

This didn't take long to happen again.
This time I had the camera with me.

You can see how the sticky out ears act as a non return valve!

Zwartbles lambs

Zwartbles to you too.

Meet our newest animals. Zwartbles.

No, I'm not being rude. That's what they are called and don't ask me how to pronounce it. Originally from a cold, wet, windy area of The Netherlands, they seem like the perfect choice for our very Dutch landscape here in the district of South Holland.

This pair are wethers (males which won't get to become rams) which have come off an organic farm. They are becoming more common over here in the UK, as they are prolific, good for meat and docile.



Monday 20th August 2012

So yesterday morning we hooked up the horsebox, kindly lent to us by a fellow smallholder, and tentatively drove the few miles to the smallholding where several of us were to collect our lambs. Being unbraked, the livestock trailer took some getting used to and often seemed more in control of the car than vice versa! Fortunatley we were travelling on rural backroads where we could keep things nice and slow.

We pulled into the smallholding to discover that the lambs had swapped paddocks over an electric fence during the night. This was a little concerning as our fencing was lower and was all that would separate the lambs from the road or Don's vegetables. However, they were surprisingly easy to herd back where they were needed and made no effort to jump over the insubstantail hurdles into which they were coraled and grouped. They even began nibbling at my shorts.

Now began the fun and games, as we began our crash course into sheep handling. I am glad I did not have my camera!

Firstly you lift up your lamb (remembering that, though technically lambs, these are actually sheep to the untrained eye), sit it on its bottom and wedge its shoulders between your thighs,  so that its feet protrude out the front. At this point, if you've got it right, the sheep becomes docile - remember I said that Zwartbles are a docile breed anyway. When it came to my turn, I got the lively one! Probably more down to inexperience and tentativeness on my part.

Then a lesson in toenail trimming and some of these lambs were well overdue a lambicure. This was a good opportunity to inspect the feet of the lambs and one of ours did have a cut between its toes which was becoming infected. Next a syringe of wormer fluid into the mouth - sheep have a perfect space between their teeth for one of these. And finally the flystrike liquid, sprayed down the back and round the tail / bum.



Number 10 and Number 18

And all this under a blazing sun in almost 90 degree heat.  At least we weren't wearing thick woolly coats though!

And while the small herd of Dexter cattle were giving my car a close inspection and setting off the alarm in the process.

Then into the trailer - oh, how I wish pigs would go in so easily - and home, where we let our two Zwartbles out into the paddock with the geese. They quickly made themselves at home and settled down to munching the grass.


I must say, they really are very nice creatures, gentle, good-looking and friendly. If this goes well we may take more next year, once we know how much grass they need and how easy they are to look after. We may even possibly go for sheep all year round. It could save me a lot of mowing time, not to mention the petrol money. 



Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you their names.

Number Ten and Number Eighteen. That's as close as they'll get to being named, considering that they'll be going on another little journey round about late October.