I began last Friday with the plan of letting the rams off to my ewe lambs. Just as I was about to let them out, a car arrived into the yard with two occupants. My first thought was “what are these guys going to try to sell me”. Oh, how dealing with a couple of salesmen would have been so much quicker than getting informed that I had been randomly selected to get an unannounced cross compliance inspection.

First up was a full stock count, which was made somewhat easier as I had already planned to bring in the ewes to put through the footbath while I was reapplying raddle to the rams.

All my housing was inspected and measured for winter storage, along with the dung steads which had only been emptied a few days previous and it was noted that I had a bit of tidying up to do around them.

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With the day gone, they informed me that they would return on Monday to go through all the farm records along with anything else that may need to be looked at.

The waiting over this weekend is definitely one of the most stressful periods of time that I have endured. Not even the Leaving Cert has come close.

I try to keep all my records up to date and correct, but the waiting to see if I have filled out everything properly is nerve racking. You never know if there is some area that you have overlooked.

I know that these unannounced inspections are the best way to check all sectors, but leaving it hang over a weekend causes extra stress.

Surely finishing the inspection in two consecutive days would make things a little less stressful for the farmer involved. Here’s hoping that by the time you are reading this, I have passed.

I let the rams off with the ewe lambs after all the drama of my unexpected guests and they will run with them for three weeks.

The lambs have a condition score of just over 3.5 and with the few lighter ones removed to be run as dry hoggets for this year, what has gone to the ram is averaging just over 50kg.

I am repeating last year’s trial with the different breeds of rams – Charollais, Vendéen and Île de France. There are 90 ewe lambs per breed group and it will be interesting to see if we have the same results next year as the one just gone by.

With all this going on, I haven’t had a chance to measure my grass, but as of last week I am on target to have 50% of the farm grazed by the end of this week. This is probably a bit higher than what is recommended for sheep grazing, but with the high number of ewes due to lamb down in a short period of time next spring, I think having a good supply of grass ready to graze is essential.

This is presenting two benefits. Firstly, fields are cleaned out quicker with good utilisation while ewes are being serviced and are in early pregnancy, guaranteeing they are receiving high quality grass. Secondly, the heavy covers can be cleaned out fully while the ewes are in mid to late pregnancy when forcing them to clean out properly won’t have a negative effect on them.