Hare Farm’s main enterprise is sheep farming.
Although there are both busy and quiet times of year in a shepherd’s calendar, livestock demand a shepherd’s attention every day, come rain or shine.
January
- Scan all ewes and tegs (via a hand-held ultra sound device) to confirm how many lambs each is expecting
- Bring pregnant sheep in from the fields and house in two main sheds at Hare Farm
- Feed sheep twice a day
February
- Crutch (shear) expectant mothers’ backsides
- Vaccine the sheep against 8-10 diseases
- Put up 145 lambing pens, each to house a new mother and her lambs
- Plant last lines of hedging before spring arrives
March
- Lambing begins
- Spread fertiliser on pastures to boost the growing rate of grass
April
- Recover from lambing!
- “Looker” all sheep and lambs, morning and evening
- Take down lambing pens and clean out sheds
May
- Drill grass seed to create new lush pastures
- Shear the year-old tegs. They grow faster without a fleece
- Drill new cover crops (including turnips and wild bird seed mix)
June
- Protect lambs with fly repellent
- Shear the main flock
- Start selling early fat lambs
July
- Make hay (while the sun shines)
- Sell lambs at market
- Wean larger lambs from their mothers
August
- Wean the last lambs
- Prepare for main lamb sales. Focus on getting lambs in top condition.
- Dipping time. Dip sheep in a plunge pool, to protect them from future disease.
- Tag the lambs to be sold (label in ear) in advance of lamb sales
- Give lambs a dose of fly repellent again
- Weigh lambs, sort lambs, ready for market
September
- Sell at the biggest lamb sales of the year at market . Also sell old ewes.
- Buy young rams
- Buy mule lambs from Lazonby Market, Cumbria.
- Get ewes in tip top condition . Flush them on new pastures and with supplements to put on weight
October
- Tupping time. Put rams in with the ladies. Let the action begin!
November
- Lambs go out to keep (on another farm, to feed on winter crops)
- Clear ditches, repair fencing
December
- Continue with ditching, hedging, fencing.