Out & About April 2017

great deal of satisfaction in it. “I had a ram born in 1998 and he was unbeaten in show in 1999 and then won again in 2000, so Wally was a winner in two different centuries. “Wally was one of my special lambs.” Nigel will keep the best lambs each year for breed replacement and must try to introduce different blood lines in to the flock regularly. “When you are a small farm (Nigel has 85 acres) you are limited to what you can produce,” he says. “That is why I have a second and a third job.” With a wry smile, Nigel explains that his second job – electrical contracting – was also inherited from his father, and he has since added gardening to his repertoire.

It seems maybe life on a farm hasn’t changed that much in the last half a century. What has evolved, however, is the onset of machinery in the day-to-day running of a farm. “Farming has become more mechanical,” he says. “Things have got bigger; even farms have got bigger. To make a living off a farm you need a minimum of 750 acres to survive now. “That is why estates are diversifying in to livery and renting cottages or barns for storage.” He has also seen some positives in

1980s and 90s wasn’t making a financial return, the sons of farmers didn’t follow them into the business. “Now, 40 years later, it seems there is another generation getting back into farming. There are a lot of youngsters coming in, particularly from agricultural colleges. “I just hope they get the fulfilment I have got out of it.”

recent years, with the younger generation showing an interest in farming as a profession again. “There was a generation gap,” he explains. “Because farming in the

One development that Nigel and Karen have seen recently is an increase in dog attacks on sheep. For the past 40 years they were lucky not to have any experience of it, but over a period of 36 months they have had two gruesome attacks that have left their flock grotesquely maimed, dying and terrified. “We have lost four sheep to dog attacks,” Nigel tells me as he shows me the horrific injuries inflicted on those animals. “It is so disheartening to have raised those sheep for that to happen to them and it’s really hard to see the injuries they have. “Even if a dog just scares the sheep, they still suffer afterwards. A ewe, especially at this time of year, will always protect her lambs.” Karen, who sits beside her own dog as she talks about the problem, says that it is only natural for the dogs to want to run and chase. “It is just a game to them; it is a natural instinct, which is why it is so important to keep them on a lead when you are near fields of sheep.” The cost of this increasingly frightening phenomenon was £15m to the sheep industry last year alone.

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