What a glorious week! We badly need some rain to help the recently planted crops of chicory mix and grass to germinate, but a spell of warm, sunny weather in September has been great to enjoy the countryside.

There has been an abundance of butterflies and moths this season, which is wonderful news when all we seem to be told is that many of our wildlife species are in decline. I have recently seen large whites, common blues, tortoiseshells, red admirals, peacocks and speckled woods just to name a few of the butterflies. Although I have seen many different moths I have not been able to identify many, but I have seen large yellow underwings and silver- Ys.

I have however identified a spider I have not come across before, which is a crab spider. At first I thought I was seeing a yellow flower, but when having a closer look I could see it was a yellow spider with it's prey. They are called crab spiders as they are squat and scuttle sideways. Crab spiders rely on superb camouflage to ambush their prey and can change their body colour in the space of a day. This may explain why I thought I thought I was seeing yellow flowers, when the moving one was actually a spider.

Kevin and family have recently had their 120 ram lambs and ewe lambs born to ewes in their elite flock early this year scanned by Signet for muscle and fat depth. Signet Breeding Services is a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and provides genetic evaluation to livestock producers to help them identify sheep and cattle with superior breeding potential. This has four aims , to improve growth; increase maternal efficiency; enhance animal welfare and reduce the carbon footprint of ruminant production.

Ultrasound scanning provides measures for body composition in sheep breeding programmes, to improve carcass yield and conformation, whilst at the same time optimising fat levels. It was thought that the optimum weight for scanning is between 35 and 45 kg (about 21 weeks of age ), but it has been found that scanning at an earlier age is fine as long as the lambs are well grown.

Most of Kevin's lambs scored very well with 10 per cent of the ram lambs getting a particularly high score for muscle depth . It was found that this 10 per cent had all been sired by one of the two rams used on the elite flock. This confirmed that this sire was dominant in passing his genes for better body composition to his offspring.

At the end of the week Kevin separated the elite ewes from the main flock ready for tupping - the mating season. These included all the older elite ewes and the younger ones, due to give birth to their first lambs next February. Some wethers (castrated ram lambs ) have been moved onto fresh turnips and the ewe lambs to be sold for breeding have been wormed and crutched. Crutching is when the wool is sheared from the rear end of sheep, between the back legs and around the tail , to remove clumps of wool stained with urine and faeces .

Ian and Kevin have been doing more cultivating, preparing the ground to be planted with winter wheat and winter barley, on both Manor and Chiverlins Farm . Ian has also sold our group of yearling Freisian / Holstein heifers (young female cows), subject to the results of a pre-movement TB test , which will have to clear in order that the heifers can be moved from our farm to their new home. We shall therefore have to hope that the test will be negative.