The media and first signs of spring!

Schmallenberg virus has hit the headlines this week. Yesterday our phones were constantly ringing from local press wanting our thoughts on how we are coping and preparing for our 250 ewes who are due to lamb in 3 weeks time. Roly spoke on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday and we had BBC Oxford television out on the farm this morning which you can see from the photos.

The virus was first detected in a village called Schmallenberg in Germany last year. The virus is transmitted by midges which were possibly blown across the channel at the end of last summer, hence most of the cases have so far been on the east coast. As the UK lambing season progresses more cases are emerging, as yet none in Oxfordshire. We thought we might have got away with it as our January lambing went well but our vet Adelle advised us this morning that the ewes are vulnerable during the first months of their pregnancy so there is a chance the March flock could have been exposed to the midges later in the year.

It seems very ironic as the ewes all look really well and are tucking in to all their yummy food and are totally oblivious to our fussings over them.

The good news is that there is no risk to human health from the virus. Adelle explained this is due to the particular type of gene sequence which the virus carries does not affect humans. So all our bookings to be shepherds for the day with us and our lambing weekends are all safe to go ahead as planned and we're looking forward to seeing everyone.

All the January lambs are having their first taste of the outdoors today! Spring is in the air! It was also their first taste of being moved as a group which is often chaos as the lambs don't know what to do or to make of Belle. This will make more room in the sheds for the March flock and ensure they all have plenty of trough space to feed their growing lambs.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Keeping warm...

I took this photo this morning in the lambing sheds of some of our January lambs looking pretty cosy. There were a few rays of sunshine streaming in and they were positioned right in one of them! They are all growing really well and being very cheeky escaping from their pens and charging around the lambing sheds. Its so funny, as they know they're being naughty, they jump straight back into their pens with their Mum's when we come in.

The March flock were all shorn over a week ago now, we did feel a bit mean! It was literally just as the weather changed but they are absolutely fine as they are indoors and on cosy beds of straw. Brian, our shearer, uses special winter shears which don't shear as close to the skin as the summer ones, so they do have a fine layer of wool. We shear them now so that all the energy they gain from eating the special nuts and hay goes into their growing lambs, rather than being wasted through panting trying to keep cool with their thick winter fleeces on.

We're really pleased to be supplying two new pubs within the last two months - the Seven Stars at Marsh Baldon www.sevenstarsonthegreen.co.uk and the Three Horseshoes at Benson www.thethreehorseshoesbenson.co.uk we hope all their customers will enjoy eating delicious local lamb.

We've got lots of bookings to be shepherds for the day and we're starting to take bookings for companies who are going to spend the day with us as a day for their staff to all get together and work through some tasks, we'll keep you posted, but do get in touch if you are interested.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

On your marks, get set, go .....

We've finished! Well the January lambing ewes have and it felt like a cricket test match trying to bowl out the tail enders!! We can have a little rest now until the March lambing flock start in about 8 weeks, these are going to be scanned today so we know who is pregnant and if they are having, singles, twins, triplets or even more!

Feeding time is great fun now, as the lambs are a few days old they love to have races when their mums are feeding, its like sports day! Come and 'be a shepherd for the day' and see for yourself! www.camillaandroly.co.uk

More to follow

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Belle and Boris

First lambs of 2012!

Happy New Year everyone! We're off! Well the sheep certainly are, two sets of twins, two singles and two sets of triplets....so far! It seems incredible that it is all starting once again, it is always so exciting and we look forward to it so much. The atmosphere in the sheds is just wonderful, new life and expectant mums all nesting and feeding to their hearts content. So far all the lambs are feeding well. Those first few hours are critical for survival. They are born with a certain amount of brown fat but they need the colostrum from their mums as soon as they are able to suckle. Colostrum is full of all the antibodies they need to get them off to a good start. Despite only just being born, they get to their feet so quickly and that instinct to find food never ceases to amaze me.

I keep thinking this time last year Molly was about to be born at the same time as a ewe had a set of quadruplets, blimey!

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Straw and leaves are back!

The January ewes are now inside which heralds the return of straw and hay appearing in every crevice of clothing and materialising as we begin the 5 minute undress every time we come indoors to remove all the layers! The straw gets mixed in with oak leaves which drop from our neighbours wonderful oak tree. We know winter is here both inside and out!

Loading the girls up to come back to the sheds went well and it is nice to have them inside and give them the TLC they need to nurture the growing lambs inside them. During the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy, the lambs put an increasing demand on the ewes energy so it is really important that they are given the right nutrition. Molly is at just the right level in her pushchair to see the ewes munching through their food, she loves it!

This morning the boys were separated off from the girls and brought back to have a well earned rest. They had a bit of a pedicure and are now enjoying a bit of boys time back together.

Roly has been busy building the sheds and creating more space this year for the extra ewes which will be lambing. He loves working it all out and thinking how the layout will work for ease of lambing, bringing in the bales with the tractor and for the public to get a good view when we are open for our lambing weekends.

The markets are busy as are private orders so please get in touch if you would like to order lamb for Christmas and the New Year.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Results for our January ewes!

Who would have thought it is mid November! We went for a walk in the glorious sunshine today without a coat on, it was amazing. However, we have just watched the Countryfile weather forecast for the week and it looks like it is getting colder tomorrow. I will be relieved if it means that some of the germs Molly is picking up get frozen out. Her nose has been constantly running for about 2 months now!

Anyway enough of Puzey domestic news….what about the farm? Well as ever it has been really busy. The ewes are now entering their second cycle, which means we have changed the crayons on the rams raddles to green! The crayon on the first cycle was orange and looking at the ewes bottoms the boys have been very busy, in fact we can count on one hand the ewes who still don’t have a mark. This means that the first two weeks of lambing will be full on!

We mustn’t forget that we have 70 ewes lambing in January and we had them scanned on Friday morning – 10 triplets, 35 twins and 24 singles, one ewe was empty. Really exciting! We will be bringing them indoors in about a week and the winter routine begins of feeding twice a day. We rather like it as there is life back in the sheds. Molly will love it, we can’t wait to show her.

A busy week ahead, 4 markets in a row and a local Christmas fair on Saturday. Please come and see us – Wallingford on Tuesday, Woodley on Wednesday, Oxford on Thursday and Abingdon on Friday.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Close your eyes Molly!

Yesterday marked the beginning of our sheep calendar for the coming year....we set our handsome boys loose amongst the girls. Flirting for the girls manifests itself in surrounding the boys and literally queuing up and for the boys well, queuing doesn't really feature at all, there is no time to loose, there is a job to be done and it needs to be done as quickly as possible before one of the other rams beats them to it.

The process started with Roly loading the rams up in the trailer and dividing them into their different groups. Harvey our older Charollais plus two of our Texels joined the ewes who are due to lamb in January. This is to make sure that if there were any ewes in this group who aren't pregnant they can now join the rest of ewes from our March flock. It will be interesting to see if there are any 'raddle' marks. Raddles are the harnesses the rams wear which have crayons on them, these leave a mark when they have done their business, so we can tell which ewes should be in lamb. Hopefully there won't be many marks which will indicate the majority of them are due to lamb in January. The second drop off yesterday was with the main flock of March ewes, where young Ted, our young Charollais was first out and ready to meet his ladies! The older Texels didn't hang around for long either! I was holding Molly and wondered what on earth she was making of all the activity....you will be able to hear her on one of our video clips....The third and final drop off was our two handsome Hartline rams who we have put with our group of ewes we will keep any replacements from. These rams are entirely different conformation to the Texel and Charollais who produce lambs with carcasses ideal for the farmers markets and our private orders. Whereas the rams we use to breed our lambs we are going to keep (replacements) are more slender.

The rams will stay with the ewes for 3 'cycles'. A ewe's cycle lasts 17 days so at the end of the each cycle we change the colour of the rams crayon. This helps us manage the flock when they come to lamb and identify any problems. If a ewe ends up with all 3 colours we either need to check her out or it could be a problem with the ram too. Luckily this hasn't happened to us yet, but the raddles are a useful management tool.

It really is an exciting time, each time it comes round every year we wonder at the speed of the seasons passing and look forward to the sheep coming into the sheds and getting ready for our intense but amazing lambing time. We are still desperate for rain and wonder how long the sheep will last outside before we have to bring them in and start feeding them. It will certainly be earlier than last year.

We'll keep you posted on colour codes!

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Belle and Boris