A short recap of everything on the farm

I'm currently taking exams, so haven't been posting as much about the farm etc. However lots has still been happening, and today I'm going to be showing you a little of how everything is going.

Nan

Nan is still in training, and will be getting much more work after my exams finish in a few weeks. I will be considering Nursery Trials for November so if anyone has any experience with which ones are best please do get in touch.

The options are still open however I don't think I will be breeding from Nan, because I think that there are far too many collies (and other dogs) in rescue and I would rather increase my number of dogs by rescuing rather than breeding more. 

Two of the Jacobs

The family flock of Jacob sheep have now finished lambing and are currently being mob- grazed over some parts of our grazing. The ewe in the picture above was an orphan three years ago, Charlotte. She is still very friendly and has been raising some great lambs, one posing with her in the picture above.

Lambing 2015

I didn't post over lambing, it was a very busy time! These are two of the lambs a day after they were born, inside with their mother. Then of course there were my Oxford Down sheep who lambed earlier in the year...

Lambing 2015

Both of my ewes had one ewe lamb, an excellent result meaning my flock size doubled immediately. The lambs have been growing fast, they went back outside in March and are now still growing while grazing in with the Jacob flock.

Two of the girls last week

The lambs have grown fast, and I will be showing them later in the year, I have some shows planned in September. If any of you have any experience with showing I'd love to hear from you!

So that's a quick run through of whats been happening here on the farm, the next big thing will be shearing which will hopefully be taking place soon. Whats been happening with you? Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to send in your 'Future Friday' topics, see my last post for details. Feel free to share, comment, follow; and don't forget to head over and follow my twitter @oxforddownsheep for 140 character snippets of whats happening with the sheep and everything else. 

Future Friday

A new feature that I'm introducing to my blog is 'Future Friday.' Every Friday I will post about a topic that affects the future generation of farmers, give you my opinion on it and discuss how we can change or support it.
I would really love some ideas of topics to get me started, and even your own opinion on the topic so I can feature you in the post. So please come up with some ideas and get in contact, either with just a topic you would like to see come up or with your opinion on the topic and what you think should happen about it.
I won't be doing one today so you have a week to get in as many ideas as possible, and I will choose one to start with next Friday.
Check out the contact me page or comment below to let me know your ideas, over to you!

Devon and Cornwall Longwool

Continuing my series on sheep breeds, the next breed is the Devon and Cornwall Longwool. They were once two different breeds, the South Devon and the Devon Longwool, but are now the one breed, which is fairly exclusive to the south west.
They are also currently a rare breed.
It is a large and hardy breed, normally used for specialist wool because of its distinctive long wool. They are also used for crossing with other breeds because they are a very fast growing breed, and usually lambs at around 150%.
They are all white and both sexes are polled sheep, they are a little shorter than some other breeds however they are also bulky, which means they produce much more fast growing lambs.
The ewes make extremely good mothers and are often crossed with terminal sires, commonly the Dorset Horn to produce excellent lambs at a high lambing rate.
They produce a lot of wool, often being sheared as lambs as well as older, and the wool has a staple length of around 20 cm. It is not of very high quality however is very good for carpets and rugs, hence why wool is one of the breeds main qualities.
What breed of sheep do you keep? Let me know in the comments below and I will cover them on this blog whenever possible. If you have anything else you would like to see on here please let me know in the comments.

If you haven't followed me on twitter its @oxforddownsheep and feel free to follow this blog as well so you can see every time I post.