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great deal of satisfaction in it.
“I had a ram born in 1998 and he was
unbeaten in show in 1999 and then won again
in 2000, so Wally was a winner in two different
centuries.
“Wally was one of my special lambs.”
Nigel will keep the best lambs each year for
breed replacement and must try to introduce
different blood lines in to the flock regularly.
“When you are a small farm (Nigel has
85 acres) you are limited to what you can
produce,” he says. “That is why I have a
second and a third job.”
With a wry smile, Nigel explains that his
second job – electrical contracting – was also
inherited from his father, and he has since
added gardening to his repertoire.
It seems maybe life on a farm hasn’t changed
that much in the last half a century.
What has evolved, however, is the onset of
machinery in the day-to-day running of a farm.
“Farming has become more mechanical,” he
says. “Things have got bigger; even farms
have got bigger. To make a living off a farm
you need a minimum of 750 acres to survive
now.
“That is why estates are diversifying in to livery
and renting cottages or barns for storage.”
He has also seen some positives in
recent years, with the younger
generation showing an interest in
farming as a profession again.
“There was a generation gap,” he
explains. “Because farming in the
1980s and 90s wasn’t making a financial
return, the sons of farmers didn’t follow them
into the business.
“Now, 40 years later, it seems there is another
generation getting back into farming. There are
a lot of youngsters coming in, particularly from
agricultural colleges.
“I just hope they get the fulfilment I have got
out of it.”
One development that Nigel and Karen have seen recently is an increase in
dog attacks on sheep.
For the past 40 years they were lucky not to have any experience of it, but
over a period of 36 months they have had two gruesome attacks that have
left their flock grotesquely maimed, dying and terrified.
“We have lost four sheep to dog attacks,” Nigel tells me as he shows me the
horrific injuries inflicted on those animals.
“It is so disheartening to have raised those sheep for that to happen to them
and it’s really hard to see the injuries they have.
“Even if a dog just scares the sheep, they still suffer afterwards. A ewe,
especially at this time of year, will always protect her lambs.”
Karen, who sits beside her own dog as she talks about the problem, says that
it is only natural for the dogs to want to run and chase.
“It is just a game to them; it is a natural instinct, which is why it is so
important to keep them on a lead when you are near fields of sheep.”
The cost of this increasingly frightening phenomenon was £15m to the
sheep industry last year alone.