Floods cause close call
The Christmas holiday comes and goes and the horrendous wet weather has thankfully eased. We are currently enjoying crisp January weather and have, up until now, escaped heavy snow.
I have my pedigree Whiteface Dartmoor ewes away on keep for the winter just over the border into Cornwall. I had moved my ewes into a field adjacent to the Tamar with rain forecast. James – the farmer – had assured me that it never floods up this far. But only the next day he called me to get the sheep out and only an hour after they had gone, the river had claimed the whole of the field. A close call and my sympathies are with the farmers who were not as lucky as me and those who are still under water.
I was out rough shooting in a group and another farmer, who shall remain nameless, said in response to discussions about the weather and issues of dirty yard water that ‘the solution to pollution is dilution’. Not a sentiment I condone. But it did make me chuckle as dealing with yard run-off with the level of rainfall we have had has been a nightmare.
We are now scanning ewes and they are handling better than they look. The Bluefaces and Whitefaces have done well, but the Old Scotch and Swale ewes were not as good, with more barren than normal. Once again I think the weather took its toll and let’s hope the rest of the hill ewes fare better than these.
Mathew Cole, his brother Neil and parents Arnold and Bridget, farm 1,800 acres on and around Dartmoor. They keep South Devon and Galloway suckler cows as well as Scotch and Swale ewes on the hills with Mule lambs bred to sell. They also have pedigree flocks of Bluefaced Leicester and Whiteface Dartmoor ewes.
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