Our Sheep Come Home

For those of you are reading this blog because you are interested in the farm, you will remember I wrote about 'wintering away'.  Well now we are busy bringing all our stock back home.  The in-lamb sheep need to back because lambing starts for us on 10th April.  The other reason we bring all our animals home is, that by the end of March, the lowland farmers want their fields free of stock so that the grass can grow. Our sheep have done a good job over the winter keeping the grass short and this encourages young sweet grass to grow in the spring which is what the lowland farmers want for their cattle.  The hoggs go back onto the fells to refamiliarise themselves with their hefts but the sheep go into pastures until after they have lambed. The sheep that haven't been 'wintered away' don't have their lambs on the fells.  Nearer the time they will be gathered up and those that are having their lambs in the first week will be brought down to fields closer to the farm for careful shepherding.