Farmer Focus: The season of electric fencing and tupping

After a busy spell keeping our ewes and cattle topped up with haylage because of limited grass growth, we’ve now moved into the season of electric fencing and winter grazing.

We’re very fortunate to work with some forward-thinking local arable farmers.

Grazing forage crops over winter not only provides high-quality nutrition for our sheep, but also helps improve soil health and manage crop residues for the arable farms.

See also: 3 myths around feeding ewes debunked

About the author

Louise Elkington

Louise Elkington runs 500 breeding ewes and a small suckler herd in Lincolnshire with husband Chris. Gelston Lamb sells all meat produced on the farm through pop-up shops, deliveries and catering. They have 54ha (133 acres) of grass on a farm business tenancy and agreements for stubble turnips and hay aftermaths.

Read more articles by Louise Elkington

Getting a good number of our animals off-farm over winter also means we can rest our pastures ahead of lambing.

Forage crops are also far more nutritious than grass at this time of year – helping ewes improve condition and lambs to finish without the need for creep feed.

Blood test results back from a sample of ewes, showed they were again low in iodine.

We’ve given the ewes a bolus and an iodine drench to get them back to where they need to be ahead of tupping.

We’ve also vaccinated our shearling ewes, who are joining the breeding flock, with Toxovax.

Like many things, it’s getting more expensive each year.

While it all adds up, investing in pre-tupping health is key to giving us the best chance of a successful scanning and a strong, healthy lamb crop next spring.

The bull has now come out and gone home.

We decided that buying our own bull wasn’t the most viable option this year and instead hired a Lincoln Red bull from a reputable breeder – a great solution that fits our scale and situation at the moment.

We now have the nervous waiting game until scanning day to (hopefully) confirm the cows are in-calf.

Our pop-up shops are getting busier each time; we’re really grateful for the continued support from our loyal customers.

We’ve also seen a shift back towards traditional joints and whole cuts, rather than burgers and kebabs. From our side, that’s a welcome change, as it’s far less labour intensive.

Social media is great tool for getting our name out there and connecting with customers, but keeping up with it can feel like a full-time job.