Things can only get better.......................I hope! As promised here our our cheeky Berkshire piggies...............4 month old boars due for the freezer in September.....
The lamb that had been chased by the children and badly injured could still not get up unaided after 10 days so the vet put her to sleep. He thought it was nerve damage to her back and torn ligaments and his opinion was that to try any longer was futile as she would probably never recover...........sad day and expensive! I am thinking of giving the parents of the children the vets bill.
Worse followed...............some sheep we bought in a few weeks ago, of whom the unfortunate lamb was one, had not been sprayed against fly as far as we knew, but were all shorn around their behinds and not at all dirty behind. We could not spray them as it was too close to shearing and its not good for the shearer to get residues from the spray on him. (we shear next week weather permitting) Well on Monday we found 3 had shoulder strike (blowflies which are a green bottle lay their eggs on the wool at the shoulder.....you can guess the rest) There were few hatched maggots so we cut back the wool and applied 'Spot on' which usually polishes them off....................but these were tough little b####rs and it didn't so yesterday Pete and I sheared 3 maggoty sheep..............luckily before too much damage was done. One is totally shorn the other 2 look like poodles and will have to wait for a full shear until next week as my back couldn't cope with more! ( Jock our shearer will do about 20 plus per hour!)
Got back to a phone call stating we had a dead sheep in another field!!! Dashed off with 4x4 and ropes (they always die in an awkward place) to find poor little Longly, one of my favourite Dorset Downs who has a tendancy to get over on her back and get stuck, necessitating frequent rescue had done it again, obviously after I last checked on Monday evening and before my check yesterday! (I check that group every other day as its overlooked by some houses who let me know if something is amis) She had got herself in the only dip in the field and rolled by the fence and got stuck. I felt very bad about it all as I manage my stock very well but I cannot watch them all the time sadly. She had 2 lambs but they are 8 weeks old, well grown and will be ok. Added to all thet Liverpool lost the European cup final so Pete was even more depressed!

On a good note I sold some old ewes last week and got the highest price for cull ewes in the market....................the market report stated Mr Grainger rather than Mrs which miffed me a bit!
I attended Wonderwool in Builth Wells in mid Wales at the weekend and had a wonderful time, sold an incredible amount of wool and other stuff, got interviewed for Simply knitting and Smallholder magazines and generally had a great weekend. Pete held the fort and I could not have done it without him!