Amazing grazing in wildflower plots

Writing for local publications has its benefits, and we are currently reaping the rewards in our own village deep in the Lydden Vale. I put out a plea for some small grazing plots and the village has come up trumps.

Spoilt now for wildflower meadow grazing, we have scattered plots containing sheep who are clearly enjoying helping out by eating the grass. Why graze wildflower meadows?

In my ignorance I thought that they would be a liability, eating the wrong things, but it seems I was wrong. Grazing improves the sward structure, they open up gaps and holes with their hooves and remove any excess vegetation.

New growth will be able to establish itself in the holes that they leave, although we need to take care that they are not there for too long as their feet can equally do a lot of damage, by compacting the ground and churning it up.

The sheep will naturally spread manure, no need for any fertiliser there as they are busy putting those nutrients back into the soil, and they will eat everything, right down to the brambles.

Our sheep love wild garlic and at early springtime smell of the stuff, we believe that by rolling in it they are defending themselves against bites from midges – who said sheep are stupid? Grazing wildflower meadows does produce sustainable, ecofocused, responsiblyraised lamb, they too are calm, well fed and happy sheep and I get my mindfulness moment watching them graze such beautiful places. Fortunately wildflower meadows are on the increase – 97% have been lost since the Second World War, they are a haven for bees and an important addition to farming.

Alex the scan man has been to visit the flock to see how well the paddock party with Humphrey the ram went. Clearly a good time was had by all as the older ewes have all scanned for twins. Which makes life a lot easier for us, Zwartbles are good mums, but do only have two sides to drink from, so hopefully we will have no issues with rejected lambs this year. Knowing what the ewes are having helps us to bring in a feeding regime that will benefit both them and the unborn lambs. More vitamins and minerals are provided by special lick buckets and feeding enough to maintain the ewes and keep them healthy. Twin lamb disease can pull a ewe down very quickly, if she isn’t getting enough to maintain her pregnancy, she will divert all of her energy to the unborn lambs and allow herself to almost slip into the equivalent of a diabetic coma, so nutrition and enough of it is key during the next few weeks.

As there are a lot of pregnant sheep in the fields currently, it is a good time to mention sheep that are cast – lying on its back with its legs in the air. At this time of year they are weighed down with pregnancy or full fleeces, and for whatever reason they lie down and cannot get back up. Gasses build up in their abdomen and they can die in a matter of hours. Walk over quietly to it and roll it over, once it is the right way up it should run back to the rest of the flock. It should make a full recovery. As a smallholder myself I would be eternally grateful to anyone that saved one of my sheep, just watch out for the back legs – they can give an unsuspecting person a fair whack. Being sheep, who are programmed to want to die, once it has trotted off, it will probably do it again, or at very least stick its head through the stock fence.