Seeing off orf on the farm
Cwmfron is on a tributary of the River Severn. In my childhood I remember my father and brother catching many decent sized trout by “tickling” them.
Today you would be hard pressed to find a single sizeable fish.
I welcomed an assessment by Severn Rivers Trust, whose aim is to improve fish stocks in the river. It puzzles me that, with all the testing and sampling carried out by the Environment Agency, the cause of the decline in fish stocks has not been detected.
I hope an answer can be found.
On Gower fine weather in the first week of September allowed harvest to be completed and Welsh Mule yearlings prepared for sale.
Silage analysis shows a range of protein from 15.9% to 10.4% so winter feeding will need careful planning, as the cost of soya has risen steeply.
At Cwmfron we have had cases of “white eye” in nearly every group of sheep.
If it is not caught quickly the animal becomes blind.
The most serious cases respond well to long acting oxytetracycline.
We sorted our problem with orf in the Welsh ram lambs, but then one of them decided to attempt suicide in a novel way.
He managed to get his head into a hole in an ancient oak.
No matter how we pulled and twisted him there was no way we could get him out.
In the end we had to use the chainsaw to cut the tree around his head and pull him free. Never a dull moment.
Jolyon and Alex Higgs farm beef and sheep in Llanidloes while their son Tom farms beef, sheep and cereals on the Gower in partnership with Alex and her parents.
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