The Shepherd's Calendar comes to a final end

Like everyone else this Summer we have been battling with the heat and more particularly the protracted lack of rain. Suffolk and Norfolk have been especially affected by drought resulting in field, heathland  and woodland fires. Yet another heatwave of plus 35 degrees centigrade is on the way later this week and no rain forecast for the forseeable future.

On the smallholding there have been ways around the drought with the vegetable plots, but with the hosepipe ban it involves more back and forth with the watering can. I have a small submersible pump which I have dropped into the dyke that forms one of our boundaries and can extract water from it. The flow is not powerful enough to activate a sprinkler so the hose end has to be moved around at intervals. 

The poultry do not seem to mind as they have plenty of shade, although the heat does reduce their egg laying. The ducks have a decent-sized pond to swim in. The pigs have shade and an all-important wallow. Filling livestock drinking troughs with a hose is a permissible exception to the hose pipe ban, as is topping up ponds. Our sow has just had another litter of piglets. They are in a concrete block farrowing house which stays relatively cool.

The biggest challenge has been the sheep. There has been no re-growth of grass at all since the early Spring and their grazing has been depleted. We have been feeding them hay since early July. Hay is scarce and increasingly costly. This is a big problem, too, for those with commercial-sized flocks and cattle herds. Added to which grain harvests, which go into livestock feeds, are significantly lower as a result of the drought conditions.

Bear in mind that, in East Anglia at least, we experienced a problematic drought last year with no Spring rain for almost three continuous months. In fact this is the third drought we have had in the last five years. Although we have a relatively small flock of sheep, the four acres we have and the  extra two acres a friendly farmer lends us each year, is proving increasingly insufficient to sustain a flock of around just ten breeding ewes. This is directly the result of the weather and consequently of global heating. Seemingly gone are the days when I have had to top the grass because it was growing too long for the sheep.

Alas, we made the difficult decision to disperse our flock of sheep. The ewes, pedigree Wiltshire Horns, were all home bred and we have their lineage going back several generations. We selectively bred them for their maternal instincts so that they are all proven excellent lambers and mothers. We had already sold this year's lambs (except three ram lambs which we will grow on for home consumption). The same buyer has also come back and taken our ewes too. He is growing his flock and has the land to do so. Alongside their commercial farming operation they run a care farm so our sheep should make a great contribution to the lives of others.

The saddness of their departure will likely soon dissipate but their absence will create a gap. For the first time in many years there will be no lambing in the Spring and the grounding effects on our lives of keeping to the shepherd's calendar will be no more.

There is, however, still much to do to keep us busy. And the fine weather has had its benefits. We continue to enjoy or rural setting and the surrounding countryside, entertaining friends and extended family outdoors, celibrating family birthdays, and in June we hosted our youngest daughter's wedding celebration in one of our fields in rustic style. We have much to be grateful for.

Scenes we will miss:-