For anyone down here in the south west there are two events very soon which might be of interest. First there is the Wool Forum on Thursday 11th Feb at Duchy Square Centre at which I’ve been asked to speak (assuming we are not snowed in again by then as the forecast looks ominous!) and then there is this:

http://sites.google.com/site/knitexpodevon/

It looks great fun. I shall be there selling cashmere all being well.

Hey ho it’s back to the shearing shed I go this morning. Raymond will be here later to finish the job. I’ve just got my fingers crossed that it doesn’t get too cold over the next couple of days. Actually the cold is not too bad it’s when the easterly wind blows. We shall put up screens and windbreaks if it does.

When you mention mothers and babies in connection with goats or sheep you probably  imagine something like this. Young kids, soon after birth in the fields with their mothers.  However, it never ceases to amaze me how that strong bond lasts, certainly with the goats. I have just come back from the barn now after feeding and settling all the animals down for the night and, as usual, after filling their bellies with silage, the adult goats find a corner and settle down. Right next to them is their latest kid which in this case, means animals which are two years old this spring and may themselves be pregnant. ( We have all the adults running as a group and all the yearlings running as another because their feeding requirements are slightly different at this time of year).

It is such an appealing sight – mums and their daughters and sometimes the occasional castrated male that we still have in the flock, snuggled up nose to tail and as warm as toast. They will stay like that all night.

I wonder what, if any, the behavioural advantage of this is? They are flock/herd animals but so are the sheep and at this stage in the year, certainly in the Bowmonts, I see nothing like this. In the morning all the sheep are asleep but distinct and you would be pushed to establish any family relationships. The goats cuddle up together even after a long period of separation. A new kid will disrupt this of course as mum will chase away her older kid, but it will invariably settle down very close by.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone has an explanation. Just being part of the group is protection from predators so where is the biological justification for this behaviour? It’s tempting to put human values on it and until I hear to the contrary I shall be content to do think that they do it because they feel some special bond to each other. It’s a sight which always makes me smile.

I’ve been asked by Dianne Summers to put the word out among the Camelid community that DEFRA have withdrawn their newly produced leaflet and instead produced a new revised version. This is likely to happen regularly as the situation in Camelids is constantly changing.

For the latest version you should go to this page on the DEFRA website

For anyone in the South West with Camelid connections  this will be of interest:

BAS TB Awareness Meetings

EXETER

Saturday 20 February at 5.00 pm and 7.30 pm

Because of unprecedented interest in the BAS TB Awareness Meetings scheduled to be held at Jury’s Inn, Western Way, Exeter, numbers wishing to attend now exceed the venue’s capacity.

There will still be two presentations, one at 5.00 pm and the second at 7.30 pm.

The meetings will now be held in

Andrews Hall
Exeter School
Manston Terrace
entrance off Magdalen Road
EX2 4NS

Dianne’s  determination to get TB properly addressed is beginning to pay off. She deserves a huge vote of thanks from everyone in the livestock community whether or not they keep Camelids.

One thing I always forget every year until after shearing is just what a joy it is to be able to touch my sheep and stroke them.  I’ve just had a 5 minute “bonding” with a ewe in the barn who was quite happy to stand there while I stroked her gently. Normally their fleece is far too thick for them to feel much at all but this is an opportunity for  real human contact – if they want it. Her skin, plus the little cover of fleece which Raymond has left for her, was  so warm and not at all greasy. Bowmont has lost so much of the lanolin which characterises Merino. She lifted her little face and sniffed my hair, clearly exploring in that very quiet, gentle way that sheep have.

I’m delighted to say she (and I) enjoyed it. Time  spent doing such things is never wasted.

Unless you have done it I don’t think anyone can truly understand the sheer hard work which goes into removing a fleece from a sheep.They must be coralled in a corner, caught and pulled gently to the shearer. That sounds SOOO simple! But even moving only 10m from a pen to the shearing stand, if 55kgs of sheep doesn’t want to cooperate, is pretty tough on your back and arms! At the moment the sheep are pregnant with about 5 weeks to go before lambing, so while we would always be gentle , now, when heavily pregnant, we must be especially careful not to over stress or upset the sheep. Lambs can be lost as a result.

Once shorn, that sheep, now devoid of anything to hang onto (thank goodness for horns on the Cashmere goats I say!), has to be moved gently to new quarters. For the pregnant ones that means a separate pen where they will stay right through to lambing. For the others, it’s a return to their old pen.

All this takes much longer than you might think if you are being quiet and gentle. If you add in the fact that Bowmont wool is so incredibly dense and fine that it takes twice as long for the shearing comb to penetrate the fleece, it adds up to a long day spent standing around in the cold and damp interspersed with bouts of frantic activity as one sheep is finished and the next is caught.

I spent quite a bit of time weighing each fleece, picking out the dirty bits and then bagging it. I was also on the look out for an extra special one for some people who are competing in the World’s Longest Thread Competition in Tasmania next year. I have a real corker lined up for them so I hope it suits their needs.

Raymond, our wonderful shearer, is so quiet and gentle with the sheep but yet has a firm hand which at the same time reassures and restrains. If anyone tries a wriggle, Raymond just stops the shears and increases his grip very gently. They soon settle. There is no noise, no shouting, huge wavings of arms or other cafuffle. Just a quiet, calm environment. Once freed the sheep looked totally relaxed in their lovely strawed up pen and were soon tucking into silage. We have been very lucky with the weather as it has turned mild and wet so not a worry from the point of view of cold. We were due to shear last month but had to put it off. No amount of straw would have protected the sheep in temperatures of -8C and a biting Easterly.

Raymond returns on Monday to finish the job. These sheep take such a long time to shear that he only managed half the flock.

Here are some pics.

Raymond is his usual unflappable self!!

,

The phtographer is from Finisterre, the company which buys most of the wool from me.

By the way, I have been asked twice  today to explain our winter shearing. Most farmers (although not all) shear in May/June, so why don’t we? Here goes!

Shearing in Jan/Feb is best if you want the very finest fleeces. All sheep have a residual tendency to moult in spring. The wool you see on a sheep is actually the undercoat of an orginally DOUBLE coated wild ancestor. The guard hair coat has been bred out and we are left with the undercoat which would in the primitive animal, have been shed as the weather warmed and daylight lengthened.  Some breeds will still do this causing  shedding (as in the “rooing” you see in Shetlands).

Most sheep will not shed but may show some signs of staple weakness at that point. It’s a particular concern in very fine wool. So,by shearing now, any slight weakness will appear at the very tip of the staple as it starts to grow out again and so be insignificant. Also the same applies to any stress caused by lambing.

The sheep actually are fine after shearing. We did not get Raymond to come in Jan because of the extreme weather but now is ideal. Raymond always leaves at least 0.5cm so they are not “scalped” and yesterday they were not even shivering. It’s turned v mild here  with constant rain so they are cosy and warm in straw filled pens. Shearing now also makes good sense with lambing about 5 weeks away. Many farmers now shear their bog standard sheep in winter before or at housing for similar reasons. Makes seeing what goes on at lambing v easy and also, means you can cram more sheep into small spaces.  We don’t cram of course but some farmers do!! Hope I haven’t bored you  all with the detailed explanation!!

Today is the Feast Day of St Blaise – patron Saint of Wool Combers, Wild Beasts and Sore Throats! For more information about him and what it meant to the wool community of Bradford, England 150 years ago then see this contemporary report.There is also a town in Cornwall named after him  and a couple of Devon churches – reflecting the great importance of wool in this area of the UK.

The poor chap, whooever he was, was tortured before being put to death, with wool combs – hence his suppport for wool combers. We can ALL sympathise with the horrors of that.  His patronage, certainly in Bradford, extended to the wool trade generally and shepherds and shepherdesses along with weavers and spinners were all involved in the celebrations. For a non Catholic country like the England it has always struck me how readily we will adopt a saint or two if it gives us an excuse for a good bash and a riotous feasting afterwards!

For me this is an  especially auspicious day  as today is shearing day!! All the Bowmonts are in the barn waiting for Raymond to come.  The weather has turned milder so someone, whether it’s St Blaise or not, must be smiling on me and my about- to- be- naked sheep! They have the most fantastic bed of clean warm straw planned for them so no fears – with a good bellyful of food and  plenty of straw they will be warm as toast. Finisterre are coming to film it all so it should be a hectic day!

By the way, I notice Caravaggio has the torturers using carders, not combs so someone somewhere has got it all muddled!!

I caught the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme last night.  This link is to the Podcast. It was a thought provoking, intelligent analysis of the motives of the Green/Environmental  Movement. There were excellent  contributions from Jonathan Porritt, John Gummer and various other very well known voices in the debate.

It sounded at times like a theological discussion, with the emphasis on social engineering and an evangelical approach which I found quite disturbing. The winning of hearts minds AND souls was a target.  The emphasis on “anything should be allowed because the Domesday clock is ticking” – put another way – “Repent for the End of the World is Nigh!” was discussed – unhelpful in a post religious world?  The use of fear and apocalyptic imagery leaves people feeling powerless and ridden with guilt and fear. In “good” religion there is always hope and a means of redemption. “Bad” religion ignores redemption and individual control and instead imposes control from above. There are apparently some extreme Environmental fundamentalists that have said Climate Change is so serious that Democracy must be sacrificed to deal with it.This fuels the sense of suspicion which already surrounds some of the Green Movement.

I came away with the distinct feeling that some in the Green Movement are doing themselves, and ultimately us, no favours by their hijacking of quasi-religious terminology and concepts. You must decide for yourselves. It is well worth 30 minutes of your time.

No – not the colour, the credentials! There was another feature on the news this morning saying that AGA owners should turn off their contraptions to reduce their carbon footprint. They were regarded as environmentally unfriendly because oil fired AGAs in particular drank huge amounts of oil and wasted energy.

This set me thinking. Yes, AGAs do use a lot of oil and yes they do spew out heat all the time they are fired up – at least all the older ones do. Mine is about 10 years old. The very newest are programmable to vary output at different times of day automatically. (Mine is programmable too – just means you turn a dial up or down!!) The two oven sort drinks 40 litres of oil a week while the 4 oven drinks 51 litres. (See Aganomics here for more details). This is nowadays an expensive and potentially wasteful way to cook in all sorts of ways.

Then I got to thinking around the subject. I DON’T just cook on or in the AGA. It is used for a myriad other things, many of which would require other energy sources. Amazingly enough, even in all the severe weather we had just after Christmas, we never had our central heating system on all the time. It was on the normal programme ie a couple of hours in the morning and evening. The rest of the day the house is kept warm by the AGA, the 65cm thick stone walls and the (relatively) small windows. We light a wood fire in the sitting room in the evening. Add in careful siting by the builder 1000 years ago (we face South and are in a dip in the hills) and you have a cosy environment in which to bear the worst of the winter.

Then of course there are the small electrical appliances such as kettle, toaster and iron. Every time I would use an electric kettle or toaster I use the AGA. At least 50% of my ironing is now done by folding washing carefully and placing it on the AGA where creases drop out by magic. I do not use a tumble dryer very much at all these days. The hanging rails in front and above the AGA dry my washing. I use the microwave far less than I might otherwise do. I melt butter by placing it on the AGA and leaving it for a bit while I organise other cooking bits and pieces. Food/coffee keeps hot sitting on the warming plate. Baking tins are dried in the same way before being put away for storage.

How would I dry the kilos of washed fibre, yarn and knitted/woven articles without the gentle, constant heat of that wicked, oil-guzzling AGA? It is absolutely brilliant for all my fibre needs. At times my family object when the odd fibre of Bowmont or mohair ends up in the Shepherd’s Pie (at least it’s washed!) but generally the fibre/fleece and my usual cooking activities don’t clash at all.

Then of course there are the farming related uses. Wet dogs, boot socks and frozen people are all thawed and rewarmed by placing themselves as close as possible to it. Half dead lambs and goat kids are even placed IN the warming oven on occasion. No farmer can really afford to be without this in the middle of a busy lambing season.

Here we are at the mercy of wind and weather generated power cuts. We have had three this winter varying from a few minutes to several hours. It is a feature of rural life.  We have a generator of course but we would be pushed to run large electrical appliances from it. We use it for lighting and running the electric pump on the central heating. The AGA of course continues to run happily in any power cut and we can cook and keep warm oblivious to the whims of the National Grid. This alone is  reason enough to have one in a place like this.

If I was being truly green I would rip out the AGA and exchange it for a Rayburn which does all the above but using wood fuel. (AGA used to have a solid fuel version but have stopped making it). We have 60 acres of our own woods here and could of course run a Rayburn very easily from home grown fuel. BUT, that would mean another new Rayburn was made and use carbon in the process. It would also require petrol for our chainsaw to cut the wood, diesel in our tractor to drag the wood up from our steep valley bottoms plus a heck of a lot of physical effort in doing it which we don’t have enough time to do. As it is we are pushed sometimes to keep ahead of our use of wood on our stove in the sitting room. TIME is the resource in short supply – not green energy.

I do take issue with folks who have AGAs in towns as a “fashion statement”. Unless you can make full use of all an AGA’s potential and will be there with it most of the day, I do think it’s probably not a very green thing to do. For me however, who relies on the oil guzzling cream machine for far more than cooking a decent stew, I would probably use more carbon by switching to an alternative. Better to stick with the existing devil in the kitchen I think.

The decision came through to me by email at about 1pm today. The Planning Inspector has ruled AGAINST the wind farm development.

I am relieved and delighted that the grounds he gave, (damaging visual   impact on Exmoor National Park among other things) still carry some weight in this politically charged debate.   I am so pleased that at least now I will not have to run down to the Iron Mill Stream every morning during a construction phase to see what, if anything had been washed down overnight.

We will be doing our bit locally to increase Green Energy. Just over the road an enterprising farmer is building, with the full blessing of the council AND most local residents, a large biodigestion plant which will take local animal, food and crop waste. It will provide enough energy to serve 5000 homes.  This will provide local jobs galore and be an efficient waste disposal service meaning less going to landfill. If only the government would give us all small grants to survey our farms for bioenergy more of us could do similar things on a small scale. But the grants available to date are pitiful and show a real lack of commitment to this.

Anyway, for now, I can breath again and feel that a weight has been lifted from my heart. Looking at the Iron Mill Stream will now be a pleasure again instead of a constant source of worry.

By the way, I decided to get into the 21st century after having my arm twisted by Andy from Cosmic, my Web Design Company! Follow me on Twitter. This is the way in.

@devonfinefibres.

I’m obviously very new to it so if you have any tips and wrinkles do share them!

I think for many farmers this is the very worst time of year. We are still a good way off Spring which this year, because of the extreme cold might be rather later than normal, and the hard work of feeding livestock whether inside or out  really gets to you. Animals are never more hungry than on a bitterly cold day when the wind is cutting you in half. No sooner have you put hay in  a rack than they have finished it and are bleating or baaing for more. Many females are of course pregnant so their needs are increasing daily, meaning more work for the weary farmer. Wrists and fingers ache, noses drip constantly and you begin to feel at least 10 years older than you were at the start of winter.

Add on frozen water pipes, ice  and then mud everywhere when the thaw came  and you can see why even the most cheerful of us count the minutes of the lengthening day eagerly. We reached 5.15pm today before I  was really conscious of the gloom. Around Christmas I could not see by 4.15 on some days. A real improvement! I also noticed the first snowdrops poking through the grass – not out but definitely showing white. They are a good two weeks later than last year.

My neighbour came down with a huge bale of straw for us at dusk yesterday. Normally he is full of cheer, but even he looked drawn and cold. They had been grappling for 2 whole weeks with a “downer cow”. A milking cow had been unwell and refused to get up. For 2 weeks, every day my neighbour and his brother lifted 600kgs of cow back to her feet to allow calves to suckle her and hoped she would stay standing. She was eating and alert during all this so there was cause for hope. The vet said to carry on and see what time would do. But every day at some point she went down again. Finally, yesterday, she went off her food and was in distress. Mr Bones, our hunstman was immediately called and the poor beast was put out of her pain and misery. My neighbour was a picture of gloom as a consequence. It’s hard to see something you’ve fought so hard for die despite it all.

All farm animals find this tired end of winter very hard.  I have two yearling goats with anaemia who are struggling to get well. I know for a fact that if this was two months further into the year and I could give them fresh spring grown grass or leaves they would pick up SO much more quickly and likewise, my neighbour’s cow MIGHT have had a better chance if she could have been taken outside. The lines by Dylan Thomas explain this for me:

“The force that through the Green Fuse drives the flower

Drives my Green Age;”

(see here for the rest of the poem)

There is something in the drive and push in nature in Spring time which animals cannot help but be borne along by. I fear far less for anything which sickens in Spring. It will have nature on its side in its fight to get better.

The day before yesterday we had a very sunny day. It was perishing cold but the sun shone all day. The goats were out on the fields, oblivious to the biting wind in their thick cashmere coats. I walked among them as they were lying down resting around midday. They were cudding quietly and most had their heads turned into the wind, slightly raised, scenting the air.

“You are waiting for the first sniff of Spring my beauties, aren’t you!” I said, as much to myself as to them. Heads turned towards me and I’m sure they smiled quietly. My animals and I are spending a lot of time scenting the wind these days.

Roll on Spring!!!