THE last week has ended with some welcome sunshine, although the wet, windy, dark, miserable weather seems set on continuing into the New Year, with a further top-up of 31.25 mm of rain. The line drawn on our barograph has certainly moved from flat and uninteresting to one indicating low pressure with constant steep rises and falls.

Kevin and Mark have been spending most of the week getting thoroughly soaked, picking up sheep fencing, checking sheep and moving wethers for sale or ewes for scanning. All the ewes were presented for scanning at the beginning of the week. After scanning they were put into groups according to the number of lambs each one was carrying, which will enable each group to be given the right nutrients, to keep the ewes and their growing unborn lambs in the best possible health.

The result of the scans was a little disappointing as the overall lambing percentage was down by about 10 per cent on last year's result, which was probably due to the weather. Sheep farmers are aiming for two lambs per ewe. Lamb prices continue to be low and after selling a small group of wethers as stores, it was found the prices were not good for those either.

On Roves Farm, Pippa's Polled Dorset sheep are lambing steadily, the first lamb being born a few days before Christmas. Polled Dorset Sheep were developed for meat in 1956 at the North Carolina State University. The name refers to the fact that it is hornless variation of the horned breed, which was brought about by a genetic mutation by which some of the offspring of a certain ram did not grow horns.

After some years a hornless strain was developed, making handling easier and individuals less able to damage each other. They also had good conformation, a thick pure white fleece and the ewes had excellent mothering ability. An interesting characteristic of the breed is its ability to breed more than once a year, making it ideal for controlling lambing and is the number one white faced breed in the US.

Here on Manor Farm, our Aberdeen Angus bull is now well settled in the barn with the 18 month old heifers.These animals have all been artificially inseminated once using semen from selected bulls, so Faithful, our bull, will hopefully detect and serve any that did not become in-calf to the first service.

The heifers born since the autumn are now all weaned and sharing a straw bedded area in one of the barns. David, our nutritionist, called in during the week to check all the cattle rations. It was decided that as the majority of our young heifers were now over three months of age it was time for them to be fed a different diet.

Since weaning they have been receiving a specially balanced concentrate, fed with add lib straw. Now the forage will be grass silage, but for about a week this will be mixed with chopped straw, as a sudden change of diet is not good.

The concentrate ration will also be changed to one containing less protein, as the balance will be made up by the silage.

Natalie, who is studying agriculture at Reading University, was fortunate to be part of a large group of students who attended the Oxford Farming Conference, held in the surroundings of the Oxford University Colleges. This conference has been held for more than 70 years, now having a reputation for strong debate and excellent speakers, including politicians, scientists, farming organisations and farmers. This year 'Bold Agriculture' was the emphasis with a focus on how farmers can become entrepreneurs. Natalie found the opportunity for networking particularly valuable, meeting and exchanging views with several high-profile figures.