Liz Shankland: It’s work time for rams

Nov 13 2007 by Liz Shankland, Western Mail

IT’S that time of the year again. There’s definitely something in the air; the hormones are racing, heartbeats are quickening, and thoughts are turning to sex. No, I don’t mean me (more’s the pity), I’m talking about the sheep.

It’s tupping time. Last year I didn’t get a ram in until the first week of December, which meant lambing in the third and fourth weeks of April, but this year I’ve got things organised a little bit earlier.

The benefits of having late lambs are that the weather tends to be a bit kinder and there is plenty of grass (grass = free food) about. I know a lot of people who lamb really early in the new year – and even some who like to get it over before Christmas – but when you’re rearing primarily to fill your own freezer, rather than to make the most of new season lamb prices, there’s really no rush. And once you’ve tasted meat from a lamb which has been fed solely on grass and clover, you won’t want to change.

Once again, I’ve borrowed a ram to serve my ewes, because there’s just no point keeping one unless you have a decent-sized flock. Good old Phil Thomas – the man who taught me everything I know about sticking my hand up a ewe and checking a ram’s testicles – has again come up trumps, letting me have one of his Lleyns. The one we had last year – we called him Rambo – was only a ram lamb, but he did a brilliant job, impregnating every one of my girls, and I’m told he grew into a really good ram.

I’ve got high hopes for his successor, Billy (I can’t tell you why he’s called Billy, because it’s classified information at the moment. Maybe sometime in the future). Gerry and I picked him up at the weekend.

It always amazes me how quickly rams get on with the job. There’s no time wasted on getting to know the girls – not even so much as a brief “hello”. Once they sniff the air and set sight on the target, that’s that.

Interestingly, the young ones always go for the older ewes first (All you toy boys out there, take note). Maybe they can sense experience and know the job will be a lot more straightforward with a more mature female. Perhaps there’s hope for us old girls yet.

Billy will probably stay with us till Christmas time, to give the ewes the chance to ovulate a couple of times, and then he’ll be packed into the trailer to trundle his way back down the M4, hopefully with a good bit of experience under his belt.

It was just as well I got Fergus the Land Rover back from the garage on Saturday, because there are quite a few towing jobs waiting for him this week. He went away to get his doors repaired, and he’s much better now. For some reason, everyone wants second-hand Land Rover doors, and all those you see offered for sale are usually in a worse condition than your own, or priced so high, you might as well go for new ones. Fortunately, I found a really good place where they rebuild your existing ones at a good price, and now I can drive along the motorway without fear of the passenger door flying open, and I can actually wind the windows up and down. Bliss.

Now Josh has passed his driving test, I don’t see as much of Fergus as I used to. I taught him to drive in the Landy, but I thought he would start dropping hints for a nippy Corsa or something similar once the L-plates were off. Bizarrely, he hasn’t. It seems he actually likes that battered old car as much as I do. His friends are partly to blame, telling him it’s really “cool”. He also discovered the Landy Wave – that jolly salute owners give when they pass one another . There’s no hope for him now. He’s a Landy Lad and no other car will be quite as special.

You can write to Liz Shankland c/o Western Mail, Blue Street, Carmarthen SA31 3LQ. Please enclose an SAE if you would like a reply. Or send an email to downtoearthliz@hotmail.co.uk