Farmer Focus: Hats off to sheep shearers in sauna-like shed
Joe Mault © Richard Stanton It’s dry, hot and our ground is burning, turning a lovely shade of reddish brown. It’s the constant topic of conversation among neighbours, how desperately we are in need of rain.
I know of plenty of local dairy farmers who are now fully feeding winter feed stocks, opening first and second cuts, and eroding silage pits quickly.
See also:Â Farmers help out as wildfires spread
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North Wales is also literally burning, as mountain fires rage once again on the Carneddau Mountains and Harlech.
We know all too well the devastating effect of wildfires following the huge fire on Llantysilio Mountain in 2018, where 290ha (717 acres) of mountain land were destroyed.
I admire the firefighting teams who battle such difficult conditions. I have already voiced my opinion about the fuel load that’s been allowed to increase through poor policy decisions for our upland areas.
We have finished shearing and all of our first cut has been done. Fair play to the shearing gang for doing an already exhausting job in such challenging conditions.
Our south-facing sheep shed has a reputation for being a sauna on hot days; with little to no breeze, it became even hotter.
I was shocked to see the level of dust kicked up from gathering the fields of sheep too. At times, it was difficult to see the sheep running down our tracks towards the handling yard.
I wonder how this dust will affect the quality (and payment) of the wool, as I imagine there will be a need for extra washing and processing.
Maybe I will quiz the Wool Board at the Royal Welsh Show this week, while also congratulating it on an increased price paid to farmers.
The weather also affected our first cut: quantity was not as expected, and we will find out any effect on quality when we test it later on. We’ve also made some hay.
We have not done as much haymaking in recent years, but a silver lining of the hot weather has been making some lovely stuff.
We are staying optimistic about getting a second cut alongside our cereal wholecrop later this year.
A nice and sustained couple of weeks of rain would be just the ticket to kickstart that growth as, at the minute, the spring-sown crops look stressed and parched.