1February2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Milly had a prolapse a few weeks ago, which was attended to by the vet and some running repairs were done - but she was always at risk from that moment on.
Kate checked the sheep at 1pm today before going to collect the kids from school (which was closing early due to bad weather). She went to check the ewes again at around 2:30pm and found Milly had prolapsed again and this time much more seriously.
Kate quickly checked Milly over, identified the problem, checked for obvious lambs (feet/head showing) and decided immediately this needed professional assistance. The vet was called, but it was already clear before he arrived that Milly was swiftly deteriorating and was on her way out. On arrival, he sedated Milly and performed a caesarian, but the lambs were already stillborn, and had probably died a few days ago (causing Milly to abort early). They were around two weeks early. By then Milly was also dead.
Not the great start to lambing we had hoped for, and sad to lose a ewe with so much character as well as two lambs, but we have to be both pragmatic and optimistic - we know these things happen. As the vet said, there wasn’t anything anyone could have done for Milly.
1February2008
Posted by Kate under: Rural Issues.
£3551 to educate a rural child in Shropshire, £7089 to educate the same child in the City of London. Why? Because these large urban schools need metal detectors and school psychiatrists maybe?
When this kind of funding differential exists it doesn’t matter how many times the likes of Jim Knight say “Councils should not be closing rural schools” because at the end of the day money is more influential than rhetoric.When are this government going to wake up and realise that in the same way large scale, max production farming is not good for the welfare of animals, large scale, max production schooling is not good for the welfare of children. We’re just starting to get rid of battery hens in this country, lets not replace them with battery children.I plan to continue lobbying the government for fairer funding for rural services and a choice in the way we educate our children. Thank you to all who are supporting the save our rural schools campaign.
30January2008
Posted by Richard under: Rural Issues.
Well, Shropshire County Council have decided to put their planned closure of schools on hold. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all the schools are saved, but at least it gives people time to investigate alternatives and develop a better plan.
However, the issue is now in the papers and on the radio and tv. (Kate has now appeared on local news and had a brief interview/quote in the Times)
Thanks to everyone who signed the e-petition. It is still worth signing up, as potentially (if nothing changes regarding funding and government policy) the same proposals will resurface in the future.
30January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
After the recent Bluetongue scare in North Shropshire, things are getting back to normal again.
Andy arrived yesterday evening, in the dark, looking like he hadn’t slept in days. In fact, he hadn’t slept in days - what with calving, lambing and milking. However, the time had finally come for the tup to go back to his home on the hillsides of the Shropshire/Wales marches (his Bluetongue test had proved negative so he was free to move).
While Andy was over, he took the opportunity to check over our ewes and, as we suspected, in the next week we should have some lambs. The way he checked was by feeling the udders and based on years of experience, worked out how much milk they had. As ewes get closer to lambing, their udders fill with milk - a process known descriptively as ‘bagging up’. Kate had already identified one or two of the ewes as being pretty close.
Five of the ewes (Cloe, Fay, Fatima, Flora and Felicity) have pretty much full udders, which matches almost exactly with almost five months after the tup arrived. These five are due in the next few days - one is particularly close - so they are all housed in the stable now with a deep straw bed.
Three of the the ewes (Llywn-Yr-Groes 049, Manor X9, and Milly) probably have a fortnight or so to go - but we have moved them up to the top paddock now to be close to the stables and our lambing pens so we can watch closely.
One ewe (Evans) is not very far on as yet - at least three weeks off, and there is a chance she may not be in lamb at all.
Unfortunately, one ewe, Fifi, is showing signs of aborting her lambs (I’ll spare you the details). She is being kept in isolation in a separate stable with very regular checks - if she does abort, it will probably be within the next 24 to 48 hours. There is a slim chance the lambs will survive, but as she doesn’t have any milk yet (and we don’t have any ewes with singles yet) they will have to be *bottle raised - but the chances of the lambs surviving is probably pretty slim.
So the tup has gone (which means a bit more grazing for the ewes now - he was a greedy guts), and Kate & I are in for a few weeks of broken sleep (with checks on the flock every four hours).
*Bottle-fed lambs are usually referred to as cade lambs. Most shepherds will try everything to get another ewe to adopt before bottle-feeding - as it is hard work. Adopting is tricky with a small flock as you may not have a suitable ewe available.
29January2008
Posted by Richard under: Rural Issues.
Shropshire County Council have opened a can of worms and announced the impending closure of 22 local primary schools, 20 of which are rural. Their decision is based wholly on financial budget constraints. They are targeting small schools, regardless of performance or importance to the rural communities. Their proposed solution is ill-concieved and poorly thought-out.
Our village school is one targeted with closure.
The Rural Affairs White Paper published by Defra in 2000 highlighted the importance of vital rural services, such as local primary schools, in maintaining a viable rural community.
- Welshampton School
- was founded in the mid nineteenth century.
- has a total of 81 pupils (out of a total of 84 places).
- was graded as ‘outstanding’ at the last Ofsted inspection.
- was highlighted as offering ‘outstanding value for money’ in last Ofsted report.
If you feel that closing rural schools that are popular and performing exceptionally is fundamentally wrong, then please take the time to complete the petition on the attached link:
Save Welshampton School
Alternatively, please sign the Number 10 Downing Street e-petition. This is a more general petition asking the Prime Minister of the UK to to strongly object to the proposed new policy document for reorganisation of primary schools in Shropshire.
20January2008
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding.
We planted up the raspberry canes today. We’ve got eighteen canes and with one and a half foot between each cane there was enough room for two rows in the area we set aside. We have three varieties - and early, a mid-season and a late fruiting - and we weren’t sure how best to split them up. In the end we went for three of each in each row.
We will be watching them now hoping to see new growth coming from the base.
Oh - and we planted a whole heap of garlic in one of the raised beds. I know we were potentially a bit late doing garlic…but better late than never.
19January2008
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding.
We got our Christmas presents from my parents delivered on Thursday - 18 Raspberry canes, one Redcurrant, one Whitecurrant, one Blackcurrant and a Gooseberry bush. We ordered them prior to Christmas, but Marshalls closes down for deliveries for a couple of weeks in mid-winter.
On Thursday evening we put the canes and bare rooted bushes into a couple of buckets of water to soak until we had opportunity to plant them out. The wet weather was holding off today, so wheeled a good load of well-rotted manure up from the heap, and planted up the currants and gooseberry. We thought the soil would be terrible to work with all the rain - but it was fine (all that digging and manure last season must have done the trick). The tough bit is pruning back the bare stems, knowing that you’re not going to get any fruit this year - but you keep telling yourself that it will mean more fruit in the long run. (I am looking forward to our own redcurrant jelly to go with our own lamb).
We will tackle the raspberries tomorrow (probably in the rain). Six of the canes are of the ‘primocane’ that fruit on this seasons growth - so at least we may get a few to eat in the autumn.
17January2008
Posted by Richard under: Chickens; Smallholding.
The two surviving hens have started laying again. We have had a few eggs laid occasionally for the past couple of months, but nothing to speak of - but this week has seen one or two every day.
Kate had sourced a local poultry supplier, and there should be some new ‘point of lays’ available around easter time. Just got to survive on reduced fresh egg rations until then.
15January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Lambing could commence as early as three weeks away now, and our kitchen is starting to resemble a veterinarians storeroom. With the health problems with A01 and X9 in the last few weeks we realised that we were possibly under-prepared so started gathering some of the kit we need (and possibly don’t need).
- Obstetric lubricant (to smooth the way for assisted lambing)
- Antiseptic solution (useful in many ways)
- Iodine (for treating umbilical cord stumps, amongst other things)
- Lambing rope (for misaligned lambs)
- Various syringes and assorted needles
- Panacure (the ewes worm count can soar after birth)
- Prolapse spoon (to help recovery of prolapse ewes)
- Liquid Life Aid (in case of further cases of twin lamb disease)
- Calcijet (in case of further cases of twin lamb disease)
- Glucose (instant energy for hypothermic and exhausted lambs)
- Lamb Macs (plastic coats to reduce risk of hypothermia in lambs)
- Feed Bottles (for extra feeds or cade lambs)
- Colostrum tube (direct stomach feeding of colostrum)
- Powdered colostrum (if we can’t get enough from the ewes)
- Eartags and tagging pliers (thanks to the EU & Defra we need to double tag the lambs now)
- Elastic rings and applicator (Southdowns do have docked tails, but not too short)
There is more work to do and things to sort, but we have most of the essentials now.
9January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Yesterday, Kate noticed that X9, our oldest ewe, was behaving a bit strangely. Intially she was concerned that she might have been aborting her lambs as she was not feeding and was spending her time away from the flock.
Kate kept a close eye on her for a few hours and after reading up we felt likely that she may be suffering from ovine pregnancy toxaemia, which is also know as ketosis or ‘twin lamb disease’. This is a metabolic disorder and will be fatal if untreated. It usually happens in old fat ewes carrying multiple lambs - as their guts get restricted by the lambs and excess fat and then are too small to hold and absorb enough nutrition. The lambs are now doing most of their growing - so the next 4 or 5 weeks are a big stress on the ewe and their ability to provide nutrition to the foetuses. Our feeding regime had been pretty good - reduced bulky feeds, more concentrates and a high energy lick - but X9 is an eight year old Southdown and is definately on the fat side of ‘conditioned’.
We made a quick call to Andy - who immediately suspected ‘twin lamb disease’. The only treatment is to start a course of glucose solution direct to the stomach of the sheep (drenching) - so we called the vet and Kate went down to the surgery to pick up a bottle of glucose solution.
She returned 20 minutes later with the bottle and a 60ml syringe of calcium (which is also a vital part of the treatment). We gave X9 160ml of the glucose solution at 10pm (and will repeat 80ml doses twice a day for 3 or 4 days) and injected her with the calcium in two lots behind her neck. We checked on X9 a couple of times before midnight and she seemed more active but still hadn’t eaten.
She is penned up in the stable by herself, with her own feed and water, fingers-crossed she will pick up and start feeding.