Farm Diary - Autumn

• The crops are harvested in late September and stored ready to feed the stock in the winter. The stubble is left over the winter, this provides a source of forage and shelter for wildlife in the winter. It also means that there is no bare ground to be eroded and washed away in the winter. The stubble is ploughed in just before sowing again in the spring.
• Autumn calving takes place around September and October.
• Cattle are brought into sheds from November onwards, depending on the weather and are fed overwinter in the sheds.
• Slurry and manure are collected. These are full of nutrients and organic matter and are therefore spread onto the silage or the cropped fields as a fertilizer in Spring and Summer.
• Lambs are sold at intervals throughout the Autumn until the new year.
• The ewes are put to the tup (ram) towards the end of November. Sheep are ‘flushed’ for a couple of weeks before tupping, to bring them into good breeding condition, by moving them onto fresh pasture or feeding supplements. The condition of the tups is very important as they are 50% of the breeding flock. The gestation of the sheep is 5 months so a rough guide is that a sheep tupped in November 5th should lamb on April 1st!! Tups are usually fitted with a coloured marker, so when they mate, the ewes back is marked. This helps to track when ewes have been mated so they can be grouped for lambing.