Sunshine and showers....

Is summer finally here?! Up and down the country you will be hearing the background noise of mowers, tedders, forage harvesters and balers (towards the end of the week) as every livestock farmer rushes to get their hay and silage made before the weather is set to change again at the end of the week. We are no different! We use a great contractor called Stuart who is doing his best to work through the backlog. We have decided to only mow half of our hay crop in order to get it tedded (turned) and baled within this short window. The rest will be done when we have our next sunshine window. We hope this won't be too far away! Haymaking is great when the weather plays ball and all is straightforward. We are late this year so stress levels have risen slightly. The quality starts to deteriorate the longer it is left and the wetter it gets so there is always pressure to have it all done in good time.

It is lovely to see some sunshine at last but it means we have to alter our days a little bit if we are working with the sheep. Today we need to select lambs for next weeks markets at Oxford and Reading but this will now be an evening job once it has cooled down.

Our other news is that we are expecting another baby! Due at the end of January. So Molly is going to be an older sister. We have made the big decision not to lamb in January next year and lamb all the flock in March. So we shouldn't have the same excitements we did when Molly was born!

Our plans are moving forward for shepherding experiences during lambing next year which we are excited about and will keep you posted.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Delicious mutton

We're just back from the butchers and our mutton is looking amazing! Have a look at these photos of some diced and loin chops. Such a rich, dark colour which needs to be cooked slow and low.... Somehow it doesn't feel quite right talking and thinking about stewing meat at this time of year but as I look outside it is still overcast and more rain is forecast! Having said all that about the mutton the new season lamb looks pretty yummy too and we're sure the chops, cutlets, burgers will go down well at tomorrow's market in Henley.

We had Lou Hannan from BBC Radio Oxford join us this morning, to record a piece for next Thursdays breakfast show. We chatted about what is involved when people come and be 'shepherds for the day' with us, in particular focussing on the corporate days.

We are still waiting for a few clear days of rain so we can crack on and cut our hay, Roly is beginning to get a bit twitchy, but is trying very hard to be patient!

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Teambuilding down on the farm

We had a lovely time when the Ceres PR team joined us to be 'shepherds for the day' for their teambuilding day. We got them busy straight away with identifying their favourite cuts of lamb over a cup of tea and then we headed down to the farm to set them up for their challenge! They practiced working Belle and gathering a group of sheep into our fixed handling pen and we talked through what we look for when selecting lambs for market. We stopped for lunch, lamb and mutton burgers of course, then we let them loose on our mobile handling system which they had to put together and then ask for Belle's help to get 90 lambs into the handling area to then select 8 lambs for market the following week. The team all did really well.

We really enjoyed watching them all work together, but we found it quite hard taking a back seat! Their day ended with us giving them a selection of lamb to take home to share with their family and friends.

'The days objectives were met very well – the day was very well thought through, well managed, good fun and I learnt loads.

The building exercise was great fun – it was really interesting as well to see how the team worked together outside of our normal working situation – some insight and surprises as well for me with the team so very informative from that side of things.

Fantastic hosts, extremely approachable, could ask them anything - both Camilla and Roly were extremely welcoming, it was a very relaxed atmosphere which was great and certainly contributed to a very enjoyable day so thank you very much'. Kathryn Race, Ceres PR

We had another group join us to be 'shepherds for the evening'. They call themselves the Warborough Challenge and get together once a month and take it in turns to organise a different activity. Their destination is kept a secret to them until they arrive but they were briefed to wear flat caps and ginger sideburns, I got the giggles when they arrived! They all soon got stuck in and did a condensed version of the full shepherding day before heading off to the pub!

If you think this type of teambuilding day might be of interest to you and your team, please get in touch with us.

New season lamb is proving popular on the bbq's now that we've finally had some sunshine. We are putting together some special bbq packs so put your orders in while the sun is still out!

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Meet Basil

We've been shopping - meet Basil, Camilla's birthday present! Basil is a 14month old Oxford Down ram. The Oxford Down breed originated in the 1830s after crossing Cotswold rams with Hampshire Down and Southdown ewes. Basil is what we call a 'terminal' ram, which means his offspring will be for meat. The other type of rams we have are 'maternal' rams, which we use to produce future breeding stock. In rugby terms we compare 'terminal' ram to a prop forward, and 'maternal' ram to a fly half!

We will let you know how Basil gets on.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Belle and Boris

New season lamb, yum!

Another favourite time of year for us is when our our new season lamb starts. We sold our first 2 lambs at Wallingford farmers market last week although the temperature was more like a November market! Extraordinary weather. New season lamb is a lot paler in colour to our lambs which were born last March. Our favourite new season cuts are chops and cutlets which will literally melt in your mouth and take minutes to cook, yum! Even Belle is licking her lips in this picture!

As I write now we have glorious sunshine which is so lovely to see, we have missed it. It is only now that it is easier to see the benefits of the last few weeks of rain as everything looks so green and the grass looks fantastic. The lambs will just be starting to eat the grass and take less milk off their Mum's so they will be really benefiting.

Before we know it we will be haymaking and thinking about winter again!

We are at Henley farmers market this Thursday and Wantage on Saturday, come and see us!

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Green, green grass!

We must be one of the few people who have had smiles on our faces over the last few days. The rain has made us very happy, we have needed it for a long time to help the grass grow to feed our flock over the summer and winter months as well. We have already shut the hay meadow gates to keep the sheep out and let the grasses grow for their winter forage. We feel so grateful we had the warm weather while we were lambing in March, the sheep don’t look too amused right now but the lambs are strong and able to put up with the wet, although we have moved some sheep off the meadows next to the River Thames onto higher ground, as they are not good swimmers! Roly took some great photos yesterday when out and about, I love the one with the ducks next to the sheep and such a treat to see a roe deer so close poking its head out of the oilseed rape! I had a call from Roly as he was driving into Oxford this morning on his way to the farmers market to say the river was really high so I took Molly to check the sheep and thankfully the field they are in is still managing to keep them dry. The river is flowing so fast and is definitely swollen and has spread to the riverbanks and over in some places. It was really exciting standing and watching the water racing past. Molly thought the puddles in the fields were great fun! The sheep seem pretty unfazed by it all but will be very happy when it dries out and they can shake the extra weight of the water off their fleeces. We have a 10% discount offer on our 1/4 and 1/2 lamb packs at the moment. Drop us an email if you would like to place an order, first come first served! More soon Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Herding cats?!

Trying to move young lambs is like herding cats, difficult! So when we realised that we had put a small group of young mums and their week old lambs in the wrong field, we needed help. Luckly three young lads from our next door village came to the rescue.
We are presently enjoying the rain, and the grass is growing for what seems like the first time in 12 months.

More photos of the flock and their young lambs to follow shortly.