Out & About April 2017

Lambing season is a 24/7 job for Nigel

24/7 looking after animals, but Nigel has promised me a holiday eventually.” Although spring is clearly a key time at the farm, it doesn’t mean that they get off lightly the rest of the year. Shearing takes place towards the end of May, when Nigel will shear all of the sheep himself. They then spend another four weeks lambing the majority of the pedigree ewes in September, before it’s the turn of the Hampshire Downs in December. “I haven’t stopped since December really,” Nigel explains. “I was at the farm on Christmas Day as we had two sheep lambing then. “The animals must always come first, so it is all-consuming.” “Showing and exhibiting at agricultural shows is my passion and that is very hands-on. I travel all around the country showing and judging.” “If you have good quality animals and you can get results and prizes at an agricultural show then it can help when you are selling them, but it isn’t as important as it used to be.” Nigel’s love of agricultural shows has led him to take on the role of chairman of the Livestock Committee at the Royal County of Berkshire Show. “We start arranging next year’s show straight away,” he explains. “It takes up a good three weeks of my time in September and there are always meetings throughout the year with different sections, as I oversee seven sections.”

His first taste of the show in Newbury was in 1978 and he has exhibited at every one since; even leaving Karen at home with a week-old baby and two toddlers one year. Once they were old enough, his daughters joined him at the Newbury show and now Sophie and Zoe both exhibit their own animals there. “Things have changed over the years at the show,” he says. “We’ve had lows such as Foot and Mouth, and breeds have actually changed too. Different breeds have come in and some have been introduced from Europe. “It’s now about adapting to produce lamb for the mass market. That is the biggest change I have seen recently. Breeds themselves have had to actually adapt to do that.” Although ultimately the job of the farmer is to prepare his lambs for market, Nigel admits that the family have had pet lambs over the years and every one has a name. His daughters have always helped bottle feed the lambs too, but they would all eventually go back to the flock, evoking a barrage of questions as to where their cuddly pets had gone. “That’s the reality at the end of the day though,” he adds. “We cannot get attached to them because they all go, even if it is four or five years down the line. “You do have your favourites and there is always the anticipation that the next lamb could be an award-winner. “It is a tiring and hard job but there is a 

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