Autumn has been a busy time on the farm. We split the ewe’s (female sheep) up into smaller groups at the beginning of October and the tups (male sheep) were split up so one tup was with each group of female (usually you work on one tup serving about 40 – 50 ewes). We have 350 ewes so hopefully, so long as the tups have done their job there should be plenty of lambs around next springtime! The gestation period is approximately 5 months so we should be lambing March / April next year.

Our flock of sheep now includes 15 Herdwick ewes (seen here on the left) Tim bought me our first 5 Herdwicks for Christmas last year, we have increased the numbers and are very much looking forward to having our first Herdwick lambs on the farm next year. We also still have a handful of Oxford Down (the ones that look like big teddy bears) as well as our commercial flock of 330 Llynns (see above).
You can see our tups (on the right hand photo) are having a well deserved rest in the shed following all their activity!

The Hereford cattle are keeping well, we now have a total of 25 breeding cows some with calves still at foot. We shall keep the females to gradually increase our herd. Most of the females are in calf again, with their calves being due anytime from January next year.

Here is Eliza, our youngest daughter on the farm buggy, learning the ropes and helping to check around all the stock on the farm. Teddy our Boarder Terrier is also on board!

You can often see our 2 donkeys Mini and Coco and our pony Rosie (who is now about 24 years old!) grazing around the farm. They always love a carrot or an apple if guests have any to spare!
You can get up close to the animals and learn more about the stock and wildlife on our farm by taking a Farm Tour with Tim during your stay in our self catering properties. If you would like to check any availability, maybe come and stay during lambing time?, please click on the following link which will take you through to the correct page on our website CHECK AVAILBILITY