Farmer Focus: We have no grass – and fortunately, no worms

Well, what can we say? Not a huge amount has changed with the weather side of things.

Costa del Gelston is what we now call the farm. Grass just isn’t there, it’s burned off and in survival mode.

Despite our best efforts of two-day moves and 26 days’ rest, it just shows that without Mother Nature playing ball supplying us with rainfall, you are knackered.

See also: How to use and go beyond worm egg counts in sheep

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.

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On a more positive note, lambs and ewes look remarkably well and, for the first time, lambs remain un-wormed, to-date.

Regular faecal egg count (FEC) tests are showing there are no worms – one group at 0epg, the other sitting at 175epg of strongyle.

We did test the ewes just to make sure haemonchus wasn’t to be seen, and they came back at 0epg too. It just shows regular FEC testing is very worthwhile.

Indoor ewes have now been weaned and are drying off in the Gelston Sahara.

We’re hoping it rains soon, so hay aftermaths can grow back enough to move sheep off farm and relieve some of the pressure.

It seems bonkers that there is nothing from Defra regarding grazing AB15s (two-year sown legume fallow), as my late father’s farm is down to all AB15.

Why haven’t they said that livestock farmers in very dry parts of the country can graze it?

We have applied Clik Zin again to fat lambs to keep on top of the dreaded maggots.

Lambs seem to be flying – they do like a dry, warm time and are growing well.

We had our first draw of new-season lamb two weeks ago, which was perfect timing as we had just finished the last of the hoggs.

No problems with feet this year either, which is a relief after last year’s painful job of sorting scald in lambs almost every week.

The butchery trade is still strong, with demand high for local, quality meat. But we are in desperate need of extra staff.

Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of people wanting that kind of work.

Cattle are looking very well, too. We wanted to graze them behind the sheep, but there is nothing left after our ewes.

Some arable farms near us have started harvest and we’ve been informed we will have some land clear in 10 days to start drilling turnips.