Michael and Hannah have been busy making a new sheep crush for the new mobile handling system they have bought thans to a Targeted Agricultural Measures scheme grant.
Michael is incredibly thrifty, not in a mean or misery manner, he just watches the pennies and tries not to let anything go to waste that could possibly have a further use. I tease him about it but jesting aside I think it is an admirable quality, and probably a necessary farming one! He has spent most of the month of May in the sheep shed making a crush for the mobile sheep handling unit he bought recently with the help of a grant from the Department of Agriculture ‘Targeted Agriculture Measures (TAM) scheme’. As there was a grant available for the mobile handling system which features an electronic weigh scales and turnover crate it made sense to apply for it and upgrade the sheep handling system we have here. The fact that it is mobile is a real boon as Michael can hitch it up and take it to the out farm for working with sheep there. On one side of the sheep shed each large pen has a gate at the back leading into the sheep handling area where Michael is making the unit. Building the crush for the sheep to run up into the crate has taken a fair bit of time and it is not completed yet.
Reincarnation
Every day he is out of the house early and back in later than late, it’s a bit like lambing season all over again! Holes had to be drilled in the concrete floor to hold the steel pillars, which were initially in the wrong place, so more holes had to be drilled and those ones filled in. Every little detail has to be absolutely correct. Michael believes in doing the job right the first time round and not revisited it at a later stage. He has spent days in and out of the workshop cutting steel, welding and making gates. More holes were drilled in the walls for bracket fittings to hang the gates on. All the railings were welded to the steel pillars for the crush. These are very old railings made out of solid iron that have been here on the farm since the 1960’s, starting their life out as wine racks! Since those grand beginnings they have been used as cattle crushes, gates for the old sheep handling unit, silage barriers, feed racks, stock pens, but Michael thinks that this sheep handling unit will be the last reincarnation for them. Aside from the marathon effort he is making to complete the sheep handling unit there is the usual sheep herding work, the rams have been dosed and seemingly endless amounts of spraying done for neighbours and on our rented ground with more still to do.
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Pressure
Of course it is Murphy’s Law that something will go awry and the sprayer booms broke yesterday and the day was spent fixing them. The old sheep handling system is no more and the new one is not complete. Pressure is mounting as lambs will need to be dosed soon and, weather dependant, silage making is just around the corner. However I am the queen of optimism and tell him pressure is just for tyres while I cross all my fingers... And toes!
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Michael is incredibly thrifty, not in a mean or misery manner, he just watches the pennies and tries not to let anything go to waste that could possibly have a further use. I tease him about it but jesting aside I think it is an admirable quality, and probably a necessary farming one! He has spent most of the month of May in the sheep shed making a crush for the mobile sheep handling unit he bought recently with the help of a grant from the Department of Agriculture ‘Targeted Agriculture Measures (TAM) scheme’. As there was a grant available for the mobile handling system which features an electronic weigh scales and turnover crate it made sense to apply for it and upgrade the sheep handling system we have here. The fact that it is mobile is a real boon as Michael can hitch it up and take it to the out farm for working with sheep there. On one side of the sheep shed each large pen has a gate at the back leading into the sheep handling area where Michael is making the unit. Building the crush for the sheep to run up into the crate has taken a fair bit of time and it is not completed yet.
Reincarnation
Every day he is out of the house early and back in later than late, it’s a bit like lambing season all over again! Holes had to be drilled in the concrete floor to hold the steel pillars, which were initially in the wrong place, so more holes had to be drilled and those ones filled in. Every little detail has to be absolutely correct. Michael believes in doing the job right the first time round and not revisited it at a later stage. He has spent days in and out of the workshop cutting steel, welding and making gates. More holes were drilled in the walls for bracket fittings to hang the gates on. All the railings were welded to the steel pillars for the crush. These are very old railings made out of solid iron that have been here on the farm since the 1960’s, starting their life out as wine racks! Since those grand beginnings they have been used as cattle crushes, gates for the old sheep handling unit, silage barriers, feed racks, stock pens, but Michael thinks that this sheep handling unit will be the last reincarnation for them. Aside from the marathon effort he is making to complete the sheep handling unit there is the usual sheep herding work, the rams have been dosed and seemingly endless amounts of spraying done for neighbours and on our rented ground with more still to do.
Pressure
Of course it is Murphy’s Law that something will go awry and the sprayer booms broke yesterday and the day was spent fixing them. The old sheep handling system is no more and the new one is not complete. Pressure is mounting as lambs will need to be dosed soon and, weather dependant, silage making is just around the corner. However I am the queen of optimism and tell him pressure is just for tyres while I cross all my fingers... And toes!
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