black gorse, blue tongue

With the silage made in June, the beginning of July gave us a chance to catch up on some of the sheep work and gather in the ewes for their ‘blue tongue’ vaccination.

‘Blue tongue’ is a disease that sheep farmers in this country had scarcely heard of until two years ago. However the disease that was once only found in Africa has spread north through Europe over the past few years, arriving in the UK in 2007. A vaccine has been developed to prevent sheep from contracting the disease ( which is carried by midges) And as reports from farms affected in Europe is pretty devastating, we’re pleased to have that protection. However the vaccine only covers 1 strain of the diseases and there are a total of 23 strains.

The gathering of Morte Point coincided with a gorse fire on the point. The long dry spell had left the scruby areas tinder dry. That shouldn’t be a problem, but when someone emptied their barbeque ashes onto the gorse the result was a major fire.

The Woolacombe fire brigade spent all of one night trying to put out the blaze, but with the fire burning deep into the peaty ground under the scrub it was an almost impossible task. Over the following 5 days they were called out a further 6 times, as each time there was any flare up reported, they are required to answer the call.

The gathering of the Morte Point flock wasn’t without incident either. On the north side of the point there is an aut crop known as the three cornered island, the most inaccessible place to gather sheep from. Although they rarely graze there it does seem that whenever we need to gather there are a few sheep there, determined to avoid capture.

I sent Jake to bring them up as it takes a very careful dog to drive them along the top of an 80 foot cliff. However the ewes were in no mood to cooperate and found a steep incline on which to hide

We eventually got them moving again and the flock headed for the pens

Vaccination itself is a quick operation and in little over an hour the flock were back out onto the point. Ready to try and avoid capture again on the gather to wean the lambs in a couple of weeks time!

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Recent Photos

here are some of the latest photos from Borough Farm.

mist’s puppies

If you watched the final episode of ‘Sheepdog tales’ last Sunday morning on Channel Five, you’ll know that Mist had a litter of puppies earlier this year. We had to keep them a secret so as not to spoil the surprise for the telly, but now that the episode has been broadcast we can let the cat out of the bag (or the puppies out of the kennel!)

The puppies were born on March 6th, there were 4 girls in the litter (we only showed 3 on the telly, just so as the naming of the pups didn’t last too long) they are absolutely tiny when they are first born

Although their Dad is Eddie (she was the only husband that Mist was interested in) one of them looks the exact image of their grandfather Jake. They spent the first few weeks of their lives in the laundry room. Mist was a good Mum, but like most working sheepdogs she was itching to get back to work after a week of being a Mother.

Pups grow very quickly and by the time they are eight weeks old they are no longer dependent on their mother at all. One by one they left to go to other farms to start training as sheepdogs. At such an early age there is no way of telling which will make the best sheepdog, so the first three farmers that bought them chose them on appearance, leaving just one behind……. the Jake look alike (who we were calling ‘baby Jake’ or ‘Jackie’!!)

For a couple of weeks she stayed around the house, and played in the yard, but at 14 weeks old my son Nick (11) decided to see if she was interested in sheep, and for the next three nights he took her to the training paddock on his own. He reported back that she was doing all the things that I’d most want to hear! On the fourth evening I thought that I’d better have a look for myself, and was amazed to see what she was able to do.

Since then she’s been allowed to work for a few minutes 2 or 3 times a week. However, she can no longer be left free around the yard as she heads straight for the training paddock and rounds up the sheep.

We’ve now given her a proper sheepdog name ‘Dart’ and I’ve been so pleased with her work that at the first display last night, she was allowed to take a small part, accompanied by her father, Eddie and of course with Nick on hand to help catch her.