Silage time and staring at sheep poo!

This week, we managed to take advantage of the sunny weather and got some silage cut, baled and wrapped just before the rain came in. The crop was a bit light in places but was a mixture of ryegrass, white clover and lucerne (Alfalfa) so what it lacks in bulk it will make up for in protein content. As it is safely covered in a waterproof, airtight black plastic jacket to preserve it, there is no urgency to get it in from the field and under cover but rooks and crows can be a bit of a pain if they decide to peck holes in the plastic. This breaks the seal and instead of the grass pickling in its own acidic juices to preserve it, it just goes rotten and mouldy. Foxes can sometimes damage the wrap too as they seem to enjoy jumping up and down on the bales and using them like bouncy castles and our collie pack have been known to use them for a bit of dog agility from time-to-time!
Unfortunately, the straw we have bought from our brother-in-law, Paul, near Cirencester was rained on as soon as it was baled so it will take a bit of time for the bales to dry out before they can be finally stacked in the barn but at least Paul was able to get the crop harvested and safely into store before it rained.

A lot of people have already take a cut of hay and will be on second cut silage at least but we are always a few weeks behind. This is because we are higher so the growing season is later and we also have to graze the sheep on most of the fields in the winter so the grass loses several months growing time. The other reason is that the various environmental schemes we are in stipulate that we can't cut till early July anyway. This is to allow wild flowers to set seed and ground nesting birds such as the skylark to raise a brood of chicks and get them safely fledged. Early cuts of forage can also threaten leverets (baby hares) which are "parked" by their mothers in long grass, often left hidden for a whole day before she comes back to feed them. Their instinct is to lie low and stay still, and this means they are very vulnerable when big machinery is in the area. Deer fawns are also likely to be killed or injured if they have been left by their mothers in the same way, and we always keep an eye out for them when mowing and try to move them on to a safer patch, or mow round them till they move of their own accord if we can.

The lambs are growing well and I have been doing fecal egg counts to determine whether they need worming or not which means I spend a happy hour gazing down a microscope at diluted sheep poo every 2-3 weeks during the summer. We have been picked as a focus farm as part of the South West Healthy Livestock Initiative (SWHLI), run jointly by ADAS and Duchy College and part of the deal is that we have been loaned a FECpac for the 2 year duration of the project. After training, this enables us to check not only the level of internal parasites in the lambs but also whether they actually need treating and if so, with what type of wormer. Just like antibiotic resistance in humans due to over-use, anthelmintic (wormer) resistance is becoming a problem in livestock, including horses and so targeted worming using the right product, in the correct dose at the right time and only when the treatment threshold has been reached, is vital to make sure we don't run out of effective treatment options.
Because we also use grazing management within the organic system to reduce the parasite burden in the fields, our worm counts have been historically low and we often only have to treat the lambs only once a season but warm, wet weather following the long dry spell means the worm eggs will hatch en mass so regular monitoring is really important. I suspect I shall be spending many more hours with my trusty microscope yet!