Seahorse, the French has the same Subsidy Support System that we have in this country, they also have individual tagging for their ewes and all progeny. This is workable if you only have a small flock of sheep, we on the other hand and many other have over 1000 of them and to try and individually tag all those ewes and their lambs at birth is not workable, let alone, cruel. To sell sheep at present the tags have to contain our herd number, for example UK123456, and then individual numbers on the other side, and purple if the farmer is Farm Assured. We have to tag calves within 7 days of birth, not the easiest when you have a rather snottery Limousin cow breathing down your neck! (my wellies have Nike soles on them!!) The French have a different approach to farming, a far more relaxed way of life, but, their farms are on the whole less intensive than many in Britain, they carry a lot less stock than we do, and in all fairness many farms in the UK are overstocked, we were at one time very overstocked. We started of farming with 140 acres and now have nearly 3000 acres, and 1000 breeding females and 60 cows and nearly 100 followers.
We are lambing at the moment and calving as well, calving heifers as well which is a bit of a telling time, 90% have been ok, but you always get the one or two who are not for this mothering business at all, so Tigger steps in and takes over as mother. I am passionate about my job, beyond compare sometimes, but, it is farmers like my husband and myself and many others within the industry who go unseen. I hate it when DH sells the calves from the cows as I cannot help but cry when I hear the cows roaring for their calves and they look at me as if I should bring them back, and some take the huff believe me! We stopped selling cattle for the Fat Stock Market, I couldn't stand it, physically I could be sick thinking about them going to the slaughterhouse, even if we have to get anything put down I am violently sick, some say I am soft, sad, and have been called bloody pathetic by some lovely people, I am soft, and I come from a farming background, my dad was the same. Sometimes we get ewes that are so keen on their lambs that they pull the navel cord and out comes the guts and gore, now, you can sew them up and sort them, 9 times out of 10 you have to do away with the lamb. Now, the last time this happened, DH was in bed with the most horrendous dose of the sickness and trots!, so it was down to me, oh dear I cried for an hour after the deed was done. A lot of people only see the "bad side of farming" it is not all bad and us ranting and raving about subsidy and the government and the Countryside Alliance!, many of us work away in the background trying to change the publics perception of us and what we produce, and get a fairer deal (price wise) for farmers.
Mums in farming, where do I start, my day starts anywhere from 5.30am and can finish anywhere up to midnight, but, I would not change it for the world and I do have other qualifications as well. Saying that, I'd better go, as I have calves to register with BCMS, we seem top be having a run of heifer calves at the moment, DH not chuffed as he wants bull calves as they are worth more when we sell them, me, I'm just happy that they are alive and well and had a good sook.
If people want to know more about what I do then please ask, and I will answer if I can and if not i'll get DH in and ask him.
Thanks for asking Seahorse