It's the annual ‘gather’ of the native Herdwick sheep. A spectacle that has graced the Lake District fells for over a millennium. This annual event, known simply as "The Gather," is not just a practical necessity. It's a living testament to the resilience, skill, and deep-rooted connection between the farmers and their Herdwick sheep.
At the break of dawn, shepherds set out on their journey to the peaks. With their trusty sheepdogs by their side, they navigate the rugged terrain, herding together small pockets of Herdwick’s into one collective group. The process is not just about rounding up the scattered flocks; it's a communal effort. With farmers working together to bring in their sheep from the unfenced common lands.
The Herdwick sheep, renowned for their hardiness and resilience, play their part in this ancient tradition. Their innate ‘hefting’ instinct drives them to roam free among the fells, blending seamlessly into the landscape with their thick woollen coats. But when the call of ‘The Gather’ echoes through the valleys, they gather together to descend from the high fells for lambing and shearing.
The timing of these events is crucial. Typically occurring in the early spring as the weather becomes more favourable. Narrow paths, known as "trods," favoured by the sheep but absent from any map, become the highways of the flock as they make their way home.
As the flock finally reaches lower ground, the wildness of the fells gradually gives way to fields and paddocks shaped by human hands. With the touch of a skilled shepherd, the sheep are guided through the final gate, marking the end of their journey. The ewes are then bedded down to mark the beginning of the lambing season. Then, before the sheep are allowed to roam free once again, the Herdwick's thick coats, a necessity for survival in the harsh mountain climate, are sheared away, in preparation for the summer months.
The importance of ‘The Gather’ extends beyond its practical purpose. It's a celebration of tradition and the enduring bond between shepherds and sheep. For over a thousand years, this ritual has played out on the slopes of the Lake District, a living link to the past. And while technology may have its place – it's the age-old skills and knowledge passed down through generations that truly drive the Gather.
Herdy Co-founder Spencer Hannah paid a visit to Cartmel's Young Farmers. To discuss new and innovative ways of supporting the upcoming generation. Resulting in a lively, honest, and engaging session.
There are many issues facing young farmers throughout the UK today. A report published by Natwest claimed that young farmers face limited opportunities and have increased difficulty accessing funding. Plus, they have varying levels of business skills.
Spencer has previously spoken to numerous young farmer groups throughout the county. Telling the story of Herdy to help inspire and captivate. Detailing herdys brand values and especially the emphasis placed on supporting local farmers. Firstly through the herdy fund, which gives a percentage of the companies profit to supporting upland fell farming. And secondly through herdysleep, which pays farmers above fairtrade prices for their Herdwick wool. Which is then used as the main component of herdysleep mattresses.
“From day one Herdy® has supported sustainable rural community, celebrated the culture and heritage of our local upland fell farmers and championed the Herdwick. Young Farmers unlock new opportunities for rural communities nationwide - and beyond. By doing our talks we can hopefully inspire them, arouse curiosity and encourage them to dream big and roam free with their own ideas”. Spencer Hannah
The session aimed to generate blue sky thinking amongst the young farmers. Creating a supportive environment where no idea was a bad idea. Encourage them to come up with creative ways to help future proof their businesses in this ever-changing climate.
The young farmers split themselves into groups to discuss their ideas. Focus was placed on how to use the local landscape as a tool in diversifying, what does Cumbria have to offer that nowhere else does?
Some of their ideas encompassed topics such as offering unique tourist attractions. Plus, promoting lost craftsmanship to a new audience.
The groups were then asked to compile a stage by stage plan of how they would go about achieving their new business venture. Using assets and skills they already have but in new innovative ways.
This generation understands the importance of diversifying and planning for the future. Millennials and Gen Z are clearly more tech-savvy and conscious about the environmental impact of common farming practices.
They also understand the importance of educating the general public. Getting the message across that supporting cheap processed foods, or poor quality imports can have a detrimental effect on the farming community and the local economy.
Herdys hope is that the young farmers went away from the session feeling positive, motivated and confident about the future of the local Cumbrian farming community.
In February of this year (2021), Herdy co-founder Spencer Hannah had a good chat with some of our Herdysleep wool farmers. They talked about all things Herdwick sheep and wool (of course), working on Glencoyne Farm in Ullswater, the balance between farming and the environment, diversification, and the general future of sustainable farming.
Chatting with Spence were Sam and Candida Hodgson, with their two kids Emilia and Josh plus Emilia’s boyfriend, Kit. Sam and Can are farming tenants of Glencoyne Farm, a National Trust farm spanning 1,258ha, making it one of the Trust’s largest hill farms in the Lake District.
Sam and Candida Hodgson took on the tenancy of farming Glencoyne Farm in 1996, after farming separately beforehand.
Can: “We were originally farming on a little farm. Sam was with his brothers on several farms, but I was on a little farm, and I’d gone to do teaching training knowing that I’d have to supplement my income on this little farm. And so this [working on Glencoyne] was meaning that I could actually farm full-time, and I didn’t have to go supply teaching.”
Sam: “In 1996 we came to Glencoyne Farm. I happened to go to Kendal Auction Mart just to see the old sale we used to go to prior to coming here, and we were all Swales (Swaledale sheep).
“Troutbeck Park (near Ambleside), which I always had a soft spot for, was selling draft Herdwicks and were making very little, so I bought 50. After that we put them on Gowbarrow (a fell above the northern side of Ullswater) and the rest is history. I’ve over 500 of ’em now.”
Swaledale sheep are another mountain breed commonly found throughout Cumbria, alongside the beloved Herdwick and the Kendal Rough Fell. Swaledales were originally bred in the Swaledale valley, in the Yorkshire Dales.
Sam and Can went expanded on why they continued to buy in more Herdwicks onto the farm throughout the years.
Can: “We chose them because we knew Gowbarrow had a lot of ticks; it’s a brackeny fell (in other words, a fell covered in bracken, a type of coarse fern common on high moorlands and some fells in the UK). Herdwicks are really good at withstanding ticks. Well, they’re good at withstanding bad weather, poor ground… They’ll survive whatever!”
Sam: “That’s what I like about Herdwicks, their constitution is really healthy. They have a really strong constitution, you can bounce anything of ’em.”
Can: “We had those 50, then we just kept the females and the flock’s grown and grown, and they now go over the whole farm. They have very low input, so they generally don’t get any (additional) food. Except this year we’ve got rather a lot of twins and they are getting some cake, which Herdwicks shouldn’t really need.”
When Herdwick farmers and breeders talk about “low input”, they’re referring to the fact that Herdwick sheep are highly self-sufficient and largely look after themselves on the fells. As a result, they generally lead “semi-wild” lives on the fells, grazing on whatever they can find. They only come down to the farms in the valley bottoms for tupping (mating), lambing, and clipping (shearing).
Candida mentioned that their Herdwick flock this year, in 2021, were expecting more “twins” than usual, and are thus receiving “cake”. You might be wondering if that means the Herdwicks were being treated to some Black Forest! But no, “cake” here means a protein feed. Sam goes on to explain why Herdwick ewes pregnant with more than a single lamb, “twins”, might need additional feeding.
Sam: “We give the twins it, because the nutritional needs of a yow (ewe) with twins is phenomenal so you have to feed them that. I’ve been a hill farmer all my life and there’s nothing worse than a sheep that has no milk and it walks away from its lambs because it’s so poor. So you have to keep them fit and healthy. So that’s why we give ’em cake.”
In fact, whilst Sam and Can have been increasing the numbers of Herdwick sheep in their ranks, they’ve actually been reducing total flock numbers on their farm.
Can: “In a period of time over the years we’ve been in environment schemes on this farm. We’ve enhanced the schemes, and gone more extreme in them. So when we first arrived we already took a slight reduction in stock to adhere to a conservation scheme.
“And then we off-wintered off the main fell behind us and we weren’t paid for that. But after two years the conservationists came back and said, ‘That fell is in really good heart. We’ll give you more money to maintain it at that level, because it’s doing so well.’”
Before the Lake District was permanently settled by small farmers, it was a place people brought their flocks—on foot—to graze in the summer months, with the shepherds living in temporary shelters called shielings. This is because the Lake District fells and dales can carry more livestock in the summer—when the grass grows—than in the winter.
Today, this tradition continues in a different form: many of the younger Herdwicks (lambs and shearlings) are “wintered” or “off-wintered” away on low coastal areas or in the Eden Valley—where the grass still grows throughout the winter—before returning in the spring for the first growth of upland grass. Young adult tups and yows (rams and ewes respectively) who are strong and healthy will go back to the fell tops during winter.
Sam and Can work hand-in-hand with environmentalists and conservationists; reducing stock levels and keeping sheep away from certain parts of the farm is one of many ways they’ve enhanced the area’s environment.
These environmental schemes are monitored by a variety of organisations.
Can: “Up on the Helvellyn massif, it’s a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) so Natural England will monitor it. There’s also Glencoyne Wood, which is an SAC (Special Areas of Conservation). So there are people monitoring these schemes. They run for 10-years, and then rewrite and change things according to what they want to achieve.
“When you come onto a farm, you’ve gotta take a while to get to know it. You’ve got to learn where the sheep go to lamb, you’ve got to learn the places where they get stuck and attacked by flies, and you’ve got to try and keep them out of there. You’ve gotta learn where the actual heft on the fell is—where the sheep actually go and spend their summer—and where you’ll find them again.”
The Hodgson’s were also quick to point out the paradoxical nature of reducing flock numbers.
Can: “With the (environment) schemes you have a lower stocking rate. So the sheep tend to be fitter. That’s why, I think historically, you wouldn’t expect a lot of twins off Herdwicks. But because we’ve reduced the stocking rate there’s less competition on the fell, so the sheep are fitter and tend to have more twins.
“It’s a bit of a Catch-22! All the people who have environment schemes, that’s been the problem with the fell sheep: if you take them off the fell they become fitter and have more twins… then they can’t go back on the fell.
“With a Herdwick you actually want them to have just one good lamb, go up the fell, and spend the summer up there.”
People are increasingly conscious of Climate Change as well as the effects industrialisation and mass-scale farming has had on the environment. From a layman’s point of view, what are the “eco credentials” of a Lake District-based Herdwick farmer? What can farmers do to protect and enhance the environment they work in, reduce their carbon footprint, and make things more sustainable?
One thing the Hodgson’s have done for many years is plant trees.
Sam: “We outgrow the trees. We can work hand-in-hand with environment, and also have really good sheep. Because I think in the future the hefted flock of Herdwick sheep up there will be completely unique, and they’ll be a massive selling point or a luxury product. Meat might be a luxury (in the future), so it would be a premium product.”
Can: “There’s the peat bogs, which need protecting and are carbon sinks, and there’s the flood mitigation. The denser the pasture, the more tree cover, the slower the run-off. So less likely for Carlisle to flood.”
Creating sheep-free areas, where trees are allowed to take root and grow, isn’t without its challenges…
Can: “With the increased tree cover, we’ve got areas where there are no sheep. So, with Glencoyne Park, Herdwicks do know there are barriers, and it’s quite hard to contain them. Because if you make a sheep-free area, the first thing a Herdwick does is to target the sheep-free area because obviously there’s more grass in there.
“Equally, the red deer do that as well. The red deer work in partnership with the Herdwicks, so the red deer knock the top stones off the wall and then the Herdwicks follow in, so we have a bit of a problem there. We are increasing the tree cover on this farm, we’ve got areas of natural regeneration and we’ve got some replanting going on.”
Tree planting and regeneration is something the Hodgson’s have always done under their own initiative, regardless of any schemes they were participating in. It comes with additional benefits, too, such as reducing flystrike in sheep.
Can: “We’ve always done that under our own initiative. Within the environment schemes there’s always been potential to have areas with no sheep in.
“There was a LEAP scheme (Livestock Exclusion Annual Premium) where they’d actually pay you just to keep the sheep out, and it was a Forestry scheme. So we put 67 hectares into that. Stopped our problem of sheep drifting in and getting flystrike in this wooded area, and now we got regeneration coming up.”
“Flystrike” is a particularly nasty condition. It’s caused by flies, particularly Blowflies, depositing eggs on a sheep’s soiled fleece or an open wound. The eggs hatch into maggots, which eat the sheep’s flesh. The entire life cycle from egg to adult can occur in less than 10 days in optimal conditions. Blowflies are especially prevalent in wooded areas during spring and summer, so it’s in a farmer’s interest to keep sheep out of wooded areas, allowing for both new regeneration and reducing flystrike.
Sam, in particular, was keen to point that when it comes to Climate Change, we’ve all got a part to play, not just farmers.
Sam: “We do it (tree planting) as part of farming. It’s really important that everyone does their little bit […] what we’re doing, it doesn’t seem that much to us, but it is when it’s added all up together. So people have to be aware of climate change and be prepared to do things for it.”
Spence: “Absolutely. If you look in urban developments, in cities and towns, for the last few decades everyone’s got rid of their front garden and turned it into a car park and paved over it. So water can no longer sink into the water table anymore and that’s caused huge problems. But nobody ever thought about that at the time, they just thought of the convenience of having some extra parking space.”
A water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation, or the upper level below which the ground is saturated in water. Urban areas in recent decades have seen the average level of the water table rise, caused by people removing areas of soil and planting (which absorb water more readily and keep the water table level low). It means during events of heavy rainfall—a feature occurring more frequently as the climate warms up—the water has less available area to sink into the water table, therefore ground flooding occurs more often.
It’s all too easy to consider the effects that only farming has had on the environment, especially as global temperatures rise. But perhaps it would be beneficial for those of us living in more urban areas to consider our own impact in the local environment and the global climate.
“What we’re doing, it doesn’t seem that much to us, but it is when it’s added all up together.
“So people have to be aware of climate change and be prepared to do things for it.”
The change in climate has definitely been noticeable at Glencoyne.
Can: “Things change, the climate’s changed as well, even in 24 years.”
Spence: “You’ve seen that change?”
Can: “Yeah.”
Spence: “What’s been the most…”
Can: “Heavier rain. Just bursts of heavier rain over days. With Lakeland rain you’d imagine just two weeks of drizzle. Whereas now you get these torrential several days (of rain) and everything’s running, land slides, and yeah…”
The Hodgson’s at Glencoyne have always been conservation and environment-minded in their farming, even before it was considered necessary or even “trendy” to do so. It’s only in recent years that public policy has caught up with this way of thinking about farming and the land, which has been reflected in how farming subsidies in the UK have evolved.
Can: “When we first came here, we’ve always been conservation-minded. We started here with 2,000 sheep, that was what the Trust limited here and was what the Headage Payments were paying. That’s all the subsidies. You got paid per sheep just to keep it, you didn’t even have to have a lamb. That wasn’t obviously going to last forever. And then the subsidies went to “land-based”, so areas. And that’s where it’s at the moment. Now the Basic Payment’s being phased out. In its place is coming ELMS (Environmental Land Management Schemes).”
Sam: “No-one knows quite what they are.”
Can: “There’s been a lot of ‘Oh it’s going to be this, that, and the other’ but of course there’s been no figure crunching, nobody actually knows where or what the money will be directed at. It says that farming, generally, is going to be pushed to more conservation.
“When we started we were already talking about conservation. I mean, even just talking about it, we were considered ‘green lunatics’. The only people more lunatic than us at that point were the people going organic.”
Spence: “And who were judging you as the green lunatics?”
Can: “Most of the farmers? Of the Lake District?”
Spence: “And that was how many years ago?”
Can: “We came here 24 years ago.”
Spence: “Do they think you’re loonies now?”
Can: “Less so. The farm we have has significantly less sheep but we have maybe the shiniest tractor.”
What does the future hold for farming? Are changes in farming subsidies a good or bad thing? Have the Hodgson’s been working on diversifying their income?
What about the dreaded “B” word?
In the EU Referendum of 2016 it’s estimated that farmers, on the whole, voted largely to leave the EU by 53%. Now that the UK has officially left the EU, how has this decision affected farmers?
For a start, subsidies are changing.
Can: “The Basic Payment’s been pulled and phased out, that will take an income hit. The Environment Scheme we’re in currently goes to 2024, so we know that’s guaranteed. We’ve diversified into a small camping pod business, which in the light of COVID does seem like it will be quite a successful venture.
“The talk about ELMS (the new farming subsidies scheme based on environmental health) is as a ‘public good’. How can you quantify a ‘public good’?
“We put in a new footpath with Natural England funding. We secured £80,000 for the National Trust to put a new footpath in. For most farmers that’s insane, why would you encourage more people? But actually you see thousands of people using that path, it’s a really lovely walk, it accesses Glenridding to Aira Force, gets them off the road.”
Sam: “Very unsure, of the future. I think you’ve gotta be positive and have your plan in here.” Sam taps at his head.
Inevitably in a farming family, when there’s talk of the future, conversation leans towards the next generation.
Sam and Candida have two kids, Emilia and Josh, both now young adults. And they have ideas of their own, like incorporating more tech into the farm.
Emilia: “The lambing sheds have cameras in them now. So we can monitor them, like, we’ve got some that are due to lamb now.”
Spence: “So you’ve done that for your benefit?”
Emilia: “Yeah, so I don’t have to get out of bed at 5am!”
As “digital natives”, the younger generation invariably have more familiarity with modern technology, and are able to visualise how to incorporate tech into farming and any diversification ventures.
For example, the Hodgson’s recently set up some self-accommodation camping pods on the farm.
Can: “You know, we sort of fell into the camping pod thing. We looked around and saw an advert for camping pods from the Lyth valley and thought, ‘They look nice.’ The agency crunched the figures and went, ‘You’re looking at about this much per pod per year’, and we were like, ‘Wow! That looks… easy.’ So we got planning permission.
“The planning came through and LEADER (an EU initiative for rural development projects, Liaison entre actions de développement de l’économie rurale, or “Links between actions for the development of the rural economy”) were still offering a 40% grant, and we we’re kinda thinking, ‘Well, might as well.’
“And so we put these three pods in, not because we’re going, ‘Oh, we must diversify’, it’s because it’s sort of like an easy way to (make money). And it’s separating our business, so we’re not totally dependent on subsidies or the conservation.
“We started in 2019, we had August, September, October, and November, and you’re just thinking, ‘That was easy!’ Not too bad to clean. With COVID, the cleaning’s been more onerous obviously, and the season was much shorter, but again you’re thinking… manageable.”
Can: “Emilia’s quite good on the computer, I’m not, but she’s better on the computer.”
Emilia: “I’m alright…”
Can: “We have our booking system through Cool Camping Bedful, they have a dashboard and they basically have a cash counter as the money’s coming in.”
Sometimes, it takes a fresh mind to question things one may have done habitually and unquestionably for years.
Emilia: “You (Sam) used to feed the calves a bite of cake (protein feed) everyday, and we turned round and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ And you said, ‘I don’t know, I just always have.’ And now we don’t feed them that anymore and they’re fine!”
With the proliferation, and normalisation, of social media into our daily lives—even in deeply rural communities—the younger generation understand how even small acts of kindness can butterfly-effect into a movement.
Emilia: “It’s like taking the time out of your day to show somebody clipping (shearing) and explaining it to them. Then they’ll go away and think, ‘Wasn’t that nice of him?’ And they’ll talk about it.”
Spence: “Exactly.”
Emilia: “And it gets passed on and passed on and they’ll go, ‘There was a really nice farmer in the Lakes, who showed me about clipping, and that meant a lot.’”
When the topic of conversation delved further into diversification, for Sam and Can that nearly always means further investment into the environment.
Sam: “When everyone talks about farm diversification, in my mind diversification was into the environment. So I looked to try and maximise what I could get from green payments, to work alongside the farm. That progressed. It’s a bit like a snowball, it starts off little but it gets bigger and bigger.”
Can: “Luckily with that tree and hedge planting scheme there’s been a lot of wonderful volunteers recently and you can volunteer under COVID guidelines. In November there was about 40 turned out to plant just because they wanted to get out. And it was a lovely thing to do. I got all those trees planted for nothing, quite a few friends came along and our group was probably the slowest ‘cos we were so busy nattering!
“I’ve got this other hedge to put in, I’ve contacted my friend who knows a lot of the volunteers. She went, ‘I’ll just ring round! There’ll be lots of people who’d love to come and plant small trees.’ Y’know? For me to go and get a contractor to plant those trees would be quite expensive.”
Unfortunately, like a lot of good intentions and public policies, there are short comings and oversights to these new area-based environmental schemes.
For a start, if your farm is small, you’ll miss out.
Sam: “This sounds really bigheaded I know, but I don’t think I’m far from the mark for this type of farm. If they (the government) could support how we farm, and all other farms in similar ways in the hills, the blueprint’s not too far away.”
Spence: “So the way you farm, you’re saying…”
Emilia: “If everybody was enabled to do that with support…”
Spence: “And why are they not enabled to do it?”
Sam: “Well, probably size is the major thing.”
Can: “It’s scale, if you haven’t got the area your support’s just not big enough.”
Spence: “So if you’re a farming family and from one generation to the next you’ve ended up having this farm passed onto you, which just so happens to be the wrong shape and size right now…”
Emilia: “You miss out.”
Can: “I think the trouble is, what we do works really well… but it’s easy for us to say!
“It’s like Great Mell Fell, you know out by the A66? Completely smooth, round hill. That’s part of the farm. We used to have 400 sheep on it, we wintered them up there, and then we walked them back here to lamb, along the road. It’s down in a woodland regeneration scheme, wood pasture regeneration, and we get paid to have no sheep on it.
“Now we’ve got 6 tubby highland ponies up there. They have the life of heaven up there. We get paid more for doing that than if we had those 400 sheep up there.”
Spence: “But the little farm down the lane that could be right round the corner, is missing out?”
Can: “Can’t access (the support). We took on the tenancy of this farm and it happened to be 3,500 acres, it is one of the Trust’s bigger farms. The smaller farms, they can’t do that, because if they did that they’d have no sheep on their farm.”
In the future, will it possible for farms—especially in the Lake District—to farm without subsidies?
Possibly not.
Can: “If you’re small, you haven’t got the sufficient area of tree or hedge, you haven’t got room to manoeuvre. We’ve had the luxury of land, in here we can say, ‘Oh we can shut 60–70 hectares up’, and just shut it up! Because it’s big enough.
“All these conservation payments are area-based. We made the whole of Glencoyne Park sheep-free, that’s 176 hectares. So you got a premium for just cattle grazing, but it’s on quite a big area. I remember when we first suggested it to Natural England before the new scheme came in, we said, ‘We’ll just take all the sheep out of there!’ Because at that point it was a very high payment to do that. And she was like, ‘No chance, you’re not gunna get the money to do that.’ The next scheme came out, the payment had gone down a bit, but there was the opportunity to take the sheep completely out of there. But every time you do that the whole dynamic of the farm changes again.”
Perhaps the future for small farms is in collective co-operation and distribution.
Spence: “It almost sounds, doesn’t it, like the future for small farms is very, like you said Sam, it’s the valley that matters rather than the one individual farm.”
Sam: “The whole ecosystem. It’s like, all of Ullswater is what’s really important. So if every farmer is doing relatively well, it’s good for everyone, isn’t it?”
We think it’s important to preserve and protect a sustainable future for the Lake District’s upland fell farming community.
So we’ve set up a co-operative of local Herdwick farmers, including the Hodgson’s, and buy 100% of the wool from their farms at a fairly traded rate, which means reduced overheads for the farmer and a better return for them. The farms keep small flocks in a lower density, which also lessens the impact on the environment.
Does what we do with Herdwick farmers and using Herdwick fleece in the Herdysleep mattress help?
Sam: “It’s helped this valley! The Herdwick breeders!”
Spence: “So that’s an important point, isn’t it?”
“It’s helped this valley! The Herdwick breeders!”
Can: “I think it injects something positive in that, yes as you say wool has been very low value for a very long time, barely covers the cost of shearers, has to do be done for welfare issues.
“But I think, anything that shows that it’s a really good natural product.”
“Now I know it’s expensive to clean, and expensive to process, but it’s like Herdwick carpet or whatever, they’re very hard-wearing. We’re gunna have to get away from making clothes out of petrochemicals, and get away from people changing their clothes all the time, because clothing’s a nightmare for the planet, isn’t it?
“Where we clip, we’re on a footpath through the yard, and people come through. We always block the path because we gotta keep running the sheep into the shed so we have to go and let people come through whilst we’re clipping. Obviously they love watching the clipping anyway, you’ll always have the Herdysleep wool sack especially if we’ve got one with the Herdy face on it, and you can actually say, ‘This is actually going to be in a high quality mattress!’”
Sam: “I know you might not think it’s much but you giving what you do for Herdwick wool, it does bolster. We have a smile on our face, when we think about Herdwick wool.”
Spence: “Well if we bought the wool from the Wool Marketing Board, we’d have to commit to a bale, and in fag-packet accounting we can either give you the margin, or give the Wool Board the margin.
“Now we’re a Lake District brand, we live here, we employ here, our brand is born in the Lake District and we are using a wool from the Lake District. So we think the margin should go to the farmer, not a middle man who’s selling it at auction. Plus, on the scale of wool trading, Herdwick is unfortunately right down at the bottom, because it’s a contaminant wool, you can’t do a fat lot with it.”
Sam: “The only time that Herdwick wool was worth a bit would be when the Japanese were putting it in futons, 30 years ago.”
And no, they don’t burn the wool. Despite the persistent myth it rarely, if ever, happens.
Can: “Oh it only took a couple of farmers to do it, high profile burning of wool. And people are, ‘Do you still burn your wool?’ No, we’ve never burned our wool! It makes a horrible smell.
“The only time we’ve ever burnt wool was when Tesco’s Christmas ad…”
Sam: “Oh god, yeah!”
Can: “They wanted that Pogues song, y’know, ‘Brussels from Birmingham, Carrots from Cumbria’. I think we were ‘Carrots from Cumbria’, and they had a snow scene on front of the house. They brought a bit of artificial snow on front of the house, and they had a couple of kids and a dog for y’know 10 seconds!
“They wanted the chimney to have smoke. The special effects guys had lit the wood burner… of course it got too hot, no smoke. It was burning too hot. Sam goes and gets a handful of damp wool, sticks it in our wood burner… acrid smoke billowing out the chimney! Everyone’s going, ‘Oh god, what’s that smell?!’ And the photographer’s going, ‘Great! I like your smoke!’ Horrible…
“Yeah that was the only time we burnt wool. And it stank the house as well.”
Happily, there are additional benefits to the arrangement Herdy and Herdysleep has with the Ullswater farmers and the Hodgson’s, like raising the profile and awareness of the Herdwick sheep breed and their cultural importance.
Sam: “When we meet people on the fell, for example there was a woman who came down, and she was commenting how beautiful the sheep were.
“I think people are starting to realise they are kept really well.”
Can: “It’s like the World Heritage bid, it definitely focused on the Herdwick, and I think anything that raises its profile gives it a value. If it’s so associated with this landscape, and people are aware of it as a breed…
“And I think, if anything that anchors them to the hills, and the place, and the importance… anything like that is really important to do.”
Guest blog text, lambing tips, and photos courtesy of Lincolnshire Wolds farmer James Read
Lambing time is a very special time, with loads of new life coming into the world. The whole of the country is starting to get its lush green appearance, bluebells are in the woods, and everywhere you look there is an explosion of positive new beginnings.
As a farmer I’ve seen thousands of lambs being born throughout my career but never will I tire from seeing them take their first steps in this world. The first lambs of the year are always a special moment, however many years you’ve been farming.
This year has been very special for my wife and I as we’ve had a new little helper in the form of our son, Tom, who is five. In this last year Tom has really started showing more interest in the sheep, and this lambing time—while he was on his Easter holidays—he was a great little helper. From helping his Mum bottle spare lambs to holding sheep down for me while I assist in lambing them, or even catching quick lambs. He has even had a go at pulling a lamb out, covering himself in after birth I hasten to add!
Tom probably hasn’t done much school homework this Easter but what a great life lesson he’s had; he’s learnt all the joy of new life and bringing lambs into the world, but also the downs when/if one of our Herdwick lambs doesn’t make it. Tom has seen the roller coaster ride that lambing is, and seen first hand that farming is very rewarding but also very hard work.
If you want to know what lambing is like, especially with Herdwicks, here’s some tips below.
1. A Herdwick is a very independent creature and does not take kindly to a lot of human contact, especially when it is about to have a lamb.
2. Herdwick ewes are made really to have a single lamb that can survive and thrive on the fell. Looking after two offspring on such terrain is probably more than they can cope with. Herdwicks will quite often have two lambs on lower pastures, though. This is another reason not to go too close to them as they will soon disregard one of their lambs if they see danger.
3. There is an age old saying among Herdwick farmers: when a Herdwick lamb is born all it needs is a teaspoonful of colostrum (mother’s first milk) and the lamb is up and away. This is so true.
4. If a Herdwick ewe does not want to lamb in a certain field it will be adamant and meet you at the gate every time you go in. We had one like that this year, she would not stay in the field. She’s got a real long fleece and you can hardly see her legs. Sally has called her Dougal for those of you who can remember the long-coated dog on the Magic Roundabout!
5. Never get lulled into a false sense of security thinking you know what a Herdwick is thinking. If you do have to assist in lambing them you need your wits about you when trying to catch one and a good sheep dog like our Wisk. When you have successfully lambed a Herdwick, always take the mother’s head around to the lamb for her to lick, not the other way around like normal sheep. If you take the lamb from the back to the front the Herdwick will think “where’s he got that from?” and disregard it.
6. Herdwicks have quite a distinctive smell which can enhance the odour of your lambing waterproofs. The smell can make them so pungent that they could walk to the washing machine without you in them!
7. Never watch a Herdy lambing, they are quite private sheep. The last thing you want to do if you are walking on a fell is to pretend you’re Bill Oddie and do a running commentary while taking a video or snapping your camera. The Herdwick could be off into the sunset.
8. When a Herdwick lamb is born you need to mark it within 24 hours, as after this period it will turn into a lamb that could outrun Usain Bolt and you definitely won’t be able to catch it.
9. You never have to worry about Herdwick lambs in bad weather, their thick black coat makes wire wool look pathetic. On a cold wet day, a Herdwick lamb will be jumping around like it’s in the Bahamas.
10. Herdwicks are made to make you smile and as I close the field gate on a night, I often look to the starlit sky and wonder if there is another crazy shepherd on a planet out there lambing Herdwick sheep with a smile on their face too!
This guest blog was written by James Read, a Herdwick sheep farmer based in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
As you walk across the Cumbrian hills this Christmas, or for that matter anywhere else, you will probably notice most of the Herdwicks or other sheep have brightly coloured bottoms: red, blue, yellow, orange, the list goes on. This is because they have just been mated by the ram (male sheep) or—as we call it in the trade—they’ve been tupped (or, if you really want to use slang, “the tups are loosed”).
Mr. Read loosing the tups and sorting the ewes for tupping, looking dashing in his Herdy flatcap.
Most farmers will put paint on the tups’ breast plate or harness the tup up with a crayon attached. This then tells the farmer when each particular ewe has been served. The Herdwick’s mating cycle is around 14 days so after that time the paint/crayon will be changed to another colour, so the farmer then knows the ewe is on the second cycle. The farmer can also see if the tups are working properly or he can pin point with a colour which tup has served which ewe to breed the best show-winning animal.
I always think Herdwicks look fantastic with the combination of bright colours from the paint against their lovely slate grey wool shining in the autumn sun. Herdwick tups can serve up to 60-70 females over the breeding cycle, so if you think you’re having a great time at the office party this year drinking, dancing, etc., I can assure you Herdwick tups in the hills are having a better one!
On our farm in the Lincolnshire Wolds, where we have 300 Herdwick ewes, tupping time is coming to a close. We loose our tups at the same time as farmers in the Lakes do, as we get terribly cold North-easterly winds, so the later into April we lamb the better. Herdwicks have a 150-day pregnancy, give or take a day or two, so our last lambs should be born in mid-May.
Christmas time is much the same as any other time on a sheep farm: animals have all got to be checked, fed, and watered, just the same as any other day. On Christmas Eve I try and have a real good thorough look at everything and do any jobs that I think might want doing in the next 48 hours. On Christmas morning after Tom (our five-year old) has woken us at 5am to open his presents, I normally shoot round quickly to check everything. I tell Tom, before I leave to do my rounds, that no more presents will be opened until he’s fed the chickens, walked the sheep dogs with his Mum, and my poached eggs are waiting on the kitchen table (I wish!)
The sheepdogs always know it’s Christmas as my wife seems to have bought them every treat ever invented, and the pack can hardly control themselves leaping up and down in the kennels as Sal and Tom walk from the house. Probably my favourite bit of Christmas day is our afternoon walk with the dogs and all the family; special times that should be cherished.
5-year old Tom sporting his Herdy bobble hat with new sheepdog pup, “Will”, and the Herdy-themed Christmas tree.
This Christmas, Tom's had a great idea to give the Christmas tree a Herdwick theme. After showing his lamb at Eskdale Show he seems to have contracted Herdyitis, which is great to see, and it gives us all a break from his obsession with tractors! After getting third prize at Eskdale he had to stand up in school assembly and tell everyone about Derrick his Herdwick lamb; since then he has been a proud young Herdwick farmer.
How long our tree will be in one piece this Christmas is another story as we have a new arrival on the sheep dog front. His name is Will and he’s eight weeks old. He is the fluffiest sheepdog pup I’ve ever had, but to match the fluff he’s got the sharpest teeth and the toughest jaw I’ve ever seen! He can unwrap presents quicker than Tom or turn himself into the best lumberjack for domestic Christmas trees you’ve ever seen! Looks like I might have to put up with him sharing my armchair for a while as I’ve been told that he’s not allowed to go outside with the other sheep dogs for quite some time. Don’t know whether my household insurance policy covers fluffy little monsters though!
Anyway, have a great Christmas, think of the Herdy Fund, buy something Herdy, and spare a thought for us Herdwick sheep farmers, keeping British farming going and a fantastic sheep breed alive.
This guest blog was written by James Read, a Herdwick sheep farmer based in the Lincolnshire Wolds. As you walk across the Cumbrian hills this Christmas, or for that matter anywhere else, you will probably notice most of the Herdwicks or other sheep have brightly coloured bottoms: red, blue, yellow, orange, the list goes on. […]
The guest blog post below was written by James Read, a Herdwick farmer and sheep dog trainer based near Louth in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
I am a fifth generation farmer who farms in the picturesque Lincolnshire Wolds near the town of Louth. Our farm is 400 acres of a mixture of arable crops and livestock, which includes 250 Herdwick breeding ewes. I am also a keen sheep dog trialer, and train and sell sheep dogs for extra income on the farm.
The Lincolnshire Wolds is probably the last place you would imagine Herdwick sheep to be farmed but with our rolling hills and the chalk soils the Herdwick sheep seems to be quite at home here. Obviously the climate and the hills are nowhere near as dramatic as the Lake District, but with our cold Northeasterly winds and the grass on the chalk soils not quite as lush as some parts of Britain, it makes the ideal habitat for a hardy breed such as the Herdwick.
I discovered Herdwicks about eight years ago when a friend of mine, Katy Cropper, lent me some to train my young sheep dogs on. Herdwicks are great for young sheep dogs because they are such an independent breed; they don’t mind being on their own so they spread out more from the flock, which brings out the herding instinct more in a young dog and makes them “tuck the flock in”, as you might say.
My wife Sally is also a massive Herdwick fan and over the years has encouraged me to buy more and more of them. Now, eight years later to Sally’s joy, the Herdwick is the only breed we have on the farm and our fields are full of their little white faces. We do sell quite a few Herdwick lambs to other farmers for their wives for Christmas because of their idyllic looks, which brings me on to the Herdwicks other little trait: ESCAPING!
James, Sally & Tom Read
You can put a Herdwick in a lovely green lush grass field, but if it gets in its head the idea that it doesn’t want to be there it will escape. They can be very naughty and they are the Houdinis of the sheep world. Some of the farmers I have sold Herdwicks to have often phoned me to say their wife’s Christmas present is nowhere to be seen and it turned up in the next parish.
This story takes a bit of believing but I was once helping my friend who has a few Herdwicks on his small holding. We were worming his sheep when two of them shot under the gate and off down the village. It was early spring and the Herdwicks were full of spring grass. They then decided to dart off up someone’s driveway. Said owner of the drive then appeared out of his garden waving his garden hoe at the sheep, so they then decided to run around the corner and straight through his front door that he had left open in the spring sunshine. Luckily the bloke found the funny side of it as my friend and I had to retrieve the two naughty Herdwicks out of his living room!
Tom Read 3rd prize 'Young Handler' Eslda;e Show 2018
I have a five year old son, Tom, who is hopefully going to be the sixth generation on our family farm (no pressure of course!) Tom is obsessed with tractors, like a lot of young lads, and he can tell you every make, model, and horse power of every tractor ever built. To be honest he hasn’t really taken much interest in the sheep although he thinks it’s great fun if we have to assist a ewe at lambing time, and has quite often had a go at pulling a lamb out. For the first time this year he has shown more interest in the sheep and has wanted to show his pet Herdwick lamb.
Sometimes, although it is quite rare for a Herdwick, the ewe will have triplets. This year, not knowing what was going on with her pregnancy, a particular ewe rejected her third lamb. So, with us lambing the Herdwicks outside and it being a cold dull April day, we had to take the poor cold rejected lamb into the house next to the Aga. Tom fell in love with the lamb straight away and named it “Derrick”. Later that evening Derrick was doing well, having drunk his milk replacement, so I decided to tip him up to see what sex he was. To my surprise Derrick was a girl and I explained to Tom that we would have to change her name. Tom, of course, was having none of it and stuck with Derrick, so as a compromise Sally and I suggested “Bo Derrick” (1980s actress).
Proud Father
We go to quite a few agricultural shows during the summer. The farm can have its quiet times when the lambs are all weened and the ewes are clipped, we get a bit of family time together. There is nearly always a sheep dog trial that I compete in alongside the agricultural shows. When Tom starts showing sheep it will not only bring his competitive side out, it is another thing that we can do as a family.
Tom has competed a couple of times showing Derrick/Bo Derrick the Herdwick lamb, and done very well in what’s called the Young Handlers. The judges probably focus more on the child than the sheep, asking the youngsters questions about their sheep. Tom is quite bold and like a lot of other five year olds can talk for England, slipping the odd tractor in here and there! The parents job is to make sure your child and sheep are well turned out, both of which having a good shampoo the night before. Mum ironing his white coat, brushing his Herdy flat cap, and Dad polishing his boots and tying the Windsor knot in his tie.
Our next show to parade Tom and Derrick/Bo Derrick is the Eskdale Show, which we are quite nervous about, as it will be the first time competing against other Herdwick lambs. Coming from Lincolnshire we will be the “under dogs” . I’ve done a bit of homework and I think Derrick will have to have a good face wash and a bit of a manicure, pulling out any black hairs from his face. The children don’t have to wear a white coat or tie there but we will still be making sure Tom is turned out well with no chocolate or breakfast around his mush. We are really excited about venturing out of Lincolnshire with our Herdwick lamb. Tom is very competitive already at only five (don’t know where he gets that from!) and it would be good to get a win under his belt, but it will be down to Tom and Derrick/Bo Derrick to bring home the Red Rosette as there is no sheep dog trial at Eskdale for Dad to win.
The guest blog post below was written by James Read, a Herdwick farmer and sheep dog trainer based near Louth in the Lincolnshire Wolds. I am a fifth generation farmer who farms in the picturesque Lincolnshire Wolds near the town of Louth. Our farm is 400 acres of a mixture of arable crops and livestock, […]
This weekend is the Keswick Mountain Festival: a celebration of outdoor pursuits and glorious scenery. The Lake District is a landscape lauded all over the world. This was confirmed on 9th July 2017 when UNESCO granted the Lake District the status of World Heritage site as an important Cultural Landscape.
This is an important distinction: it recognises that the landscape of the Lake District isn’t totally natural, but rather a fine balance between the landscape as developed over millions of years and the guiding hand of man. A crucial component of the Lake District’s “look” are the Herdwick sheep, which roam freely across the fells and dales, grazing on grasses and other vegetation, and essentially serving as gardeners of the Lake District!
The management of Herdwicks on the Lake District fells is more involved than you think…
Once the last lambs of the flock have popped out and had their la’l bellies filled with colostrum milk from their mothers, it’s time to “doctor” them. They get injected with vaccines for preventable illnesses, wormed with an oral drench (as the parasites come to life again with the warmth), marked with the flock’s “smit mark” with greasy paint, tagged with their two 14-digit microchipped tags, and notched in their ears to show which farm they belong to. They’re sometimes sprayed too to stop blowflies laying eggs on them, otherwise some would be “struck”. There's a lot of “ick” to be protected from!
After doctoring, the yows (ewes) and their lambs are moved to the high fells. On the hardest Lakeland farms most, or even all, of the yows and lambs go back to the fell. For other farms the ewes with singles go on the hardest “intakes” (walled off land on the fellside), and those with twins go on slightly better fields where they can keep milking.
Herdwick lambs that go to the fell start learning to hold to their “heaf”, because their mothers return to the same area on the fell where they were born and reared, and teach their lambs the same attachment to place. If the lambs didn’t go to the fell and learn like this, the system would break down.
This “hefting” system allows the Lake District with its massive areas of Common Land (unfenced and collectively farmed, the largest in Great Britain) to be farmed. Each farm has a “stint” on the Common or multiple Commons and an agreed number of sheep that can graze that stint. Think of it as timeshare for fell farmers! This was based historically on the numbers of sheep that could be grazed in the valley bottom in the winter months.
Herdwick sheep stay with the farms through changes of tenancy or ownership because they are “heafed”, and it is in everyone’s interest that they do. So the sheep you see on the fells are descendants of the sheep that lived on the same land, and the surrounding fells, centuries, maybe even thousands of years ago. Perhaps we should get some Herdwicks on “Who Do Ewe Think Ewe Are”?
Farming the Lake District revolves around one simple reality: the short growing season for grass on the fells (mountains). Lake District farmers take advantage of this growing season in just the same way that the first settlers did maybe 5,000 years ago. Lambing is timed so that the lambs hit the ground as the grass starts to grow, and are reared through the lush and pleasant summer/autumn months when their mothers will get enough nutrition to milk them.
By December at latest the farms can only carry the core ewe flocks with help from the summer’s crop. So, in May and June, the valley bottom meadows are cleared of sheep, the walls repaired, the sheep kicked up the hill to the new grass, and the meadows allowed to flower and spurt into life. Soon, they are lush green carpets of grass and flowers, which will be made into hay (or haylage) in July or August.
And then, that’s when show season starts…
This weekend is the Keswick Mountain Festival: a celebration of outdoor pursuits and glorious scenery. The Lake District is a landscape lauded all over the world. This was confirmed on 9th July 2017 when UNESCO granted the Lake District the status of World Heritage site as an important Cultural Landscape. This is an important distinction: […]
The Matterdale and St John’s Sheep show takes place as part of the Patterdale show and is for the Matterdale valley which includes Patterdale and Ullswater.
It took place on the 23rd August this year and we sponsored the Supreme Herdwick Champion award, as we do every year, and Spencer made the presentation for that.
This year the sponsorship money we donated to the show was used as prize money to create a new category for the show, which is a really big deal. They decided to create 3 naturally coloured yows - which is a two year old ewe. The decision to create the new category was made by Mark Potter one of the founder committee members for the show and a born and bred Matterdale upland Herdwick fell farmer.
The criteria for judging Herdwicks are similar to those for any animal show – it’s about the head, the body and legs all being in the right proportion and the right shape and size and form, with a good mouth – a healthy jaw structure and teeth. Champion sheep are examples of excellence but it’s not just about the sheep - these sorts of gatherings are important in the valleys to give all the farmers the chance to get together, show off their livestock and reinforce those community links.
The Matterdale and St John’s Sheep show takes place as part of the Patterdale show and is for the Matterdale valley which includes Patterdale and Ullswater. It took place on the 23rd August this year and we sponsored the Supreme Herdwick Champion award, as we do every year, and Spencer made the presentation for that. This […]
Way back in pre-history someone worked out that there were two smart ways to identify sheep. Herdwick sheep are identified by lug marks (ear notches) and smit marks (coloured markings on sheep, comprised of stripes and spots of different colours in different places).
Herdwick sheep are the native breed of the Lake District, as they live on the fell (mountain). They are extremely hardy; as a result, they can be safely left on unfenced terrain and will not usually wander off their traditional heaf. Ewes teach this behaviour to their lambs.
Further reading: Learn All About Herdwick Sheep
Quite often due to this unique grazing nature they become mixed (not least during gathering when the flocks are brought down by the shepherds working together), so they need to be identified by their shepherds. Traditionally, in the Lake District, this is done with lug marks and smit marks.
Horned sheep have another form of marking that is to burn a mark into the horn, a painless procedure. This however is not used on Herdwick sheep as the ewes have no horns (sheep with no horns are said to be "polled").
These coloured markings on sheep are recorded for each flock on each farm in a journal called The Shepherd’s Guide. Because the fells are free range with no fences, some sheep can stray large distances, so to work out who’s sheep you have discovered, a shepherd consults The Shepherd’s Guide and then informs the rightful owner according to custom and rules. This ensures that the right ewes and lambs return to their native heaf and not the wrong fell where they would not settle.
If this was a free-for-all it would be chaos, so this is where rules were developed for the management of the fells. Each flock has its own lug and smit mark that identify individual sheep to their farm; these have to be sufficiently clear and distinctive from other marks.
For hundreds of years The Shepherd’s Guide has been published, which sets out the marks for each flock (some farmsteads have more than one flock of sheep and manage several different marks to keep their individual flocks separate from each other). They comprise breeds like the native Herdwick, the Swaledale, and some cross breeds.
The sheep are marked regularly throughout the year to ensure that everyone can identify them, but particularly after clipping when the old mark is lost with the fleece. Nowadays, oblivious to the fact that shepherds have had this covered hundreds of years previously, EU regulations insists that all animals are traceable to their farmstead for food safety reasons and stipulates that every sheep has to have a microchipped tag with 14 digits and a farmstead official number (two tags for adult breeding sheep).
If you've always wondered why some sheep seem to be "spray painted", now you know! What else do you want to know about Herdwick sheep in the Lake District? Let's chat in the comments below or join the flock on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or email us.
Non-farmers stand three deep by the pens at the summer shows, and many of them are trying to understand what farmers are dong, and why. This is an attempt to explain it.
On one level, showing sheep is a complete waste of time, an exercise in vanity; many hours of work resulting in perhaps a first prize of £6. Many hard-nosed commercial farmers would turn their noses up in disgust at such foolishness. Most people, of course, have to lose. On a wet day it can be miserable, cold, and a drag. If your sheep don’t quite make the grade it’s tough to be exposed to the contempt of your peers (most are encouraging and friendly enough, but you know when your sheep are not impressing anyone and aren’t as good as you hoped).
Further reading: Learn All About Herdwick Sheep
But, perhaps worst of all, there are different schools of thought on what makes a great Herdwick. Often, after all your work, you may have to endure the judgement of someone who you think is just plain wrong, and picking the wrong sheep. That sucks, and saying so makes you look like a bad loser.
So why would anyone put themselves through this? What’s the point? Why do farmers do it?
Pride.
And because it’s incredibly difficult, can be immensely satisfying, and can earn you the respect of your peers.
A respected Herdwick breeder once said that when he was young one of the breed’s most notable breeders complimented him, and he “felt 10 ft high”. Lake District Herdwick farmers spend their lives trying to make a living from sheep in the Lake District landscape. They understand that money matters, and that what they do is commercial, with an environmental outcome, but they also represent an ancient landscape culture; a body of ideas, practices, and beliefs.
Everyone has to believe in something and have a focus. Breeding, rearing, showing, and selling mountain sheep is the culture of the Lake District Herdwick farmer. Anyone who has ever tried to breed, rear, and show something to a high level will know that it is addictive. Men and women devote their whole lives to inching closer to an idea (perhaps always unattainable) of perfection.
But with sheep on traditional hill farms it’s actually deeper than that, you are often building on your father’s, or grandfather’s, work, and in fact on everyone that has gone before you (because, remember, the sheep belong to the farms and the land, and have been there for many centuries).
Whether you are lucky enough to inherit an already great flock of sheep, or inherit/rent a substandard flock, your work is to improve them, or at very least hold their quality. Unlike in most of the modern world, individuals don’t matter so much, but are part of a much longer span of time, a chain of people. Surnames and farm names are interchangeable, and lots of farmers get called by their father’s names… the point is simple, the here and now is just a small part of what they are, and what they do. It may seem provincial, narrow minded and not very adventurous to anyone not used to their world, but it is their world, and it created, and still sustains, the Lake District.
Herdwick farmers start preparing their sheep for shows 2–3 weeks previously. In reality, actually it starts the year before, or many years before, with the breeding and purchasing decisions made. Lots of work happens in the last week, mostly redding and washing, but all sorts of other little cosmetic tweaks. Sheep are like racehorses or athletes; they can’t look at their best all the time, so presenting them in perfect condition, not too fat, not too skinny, with just the right amount of wool, is an art, a complex cumulative mix of judgements and decisions. A great shepherd can have their sheep in their peak condition at just right time, never looking better than the day that matters.
The physical appearance of sheep matters. It makes a massive difference to what they make at auction, because farmers sell most of their sheep for breeding to other farmers, mostly at livestock markets where their value is judged by peers based overwhelmingly on looks.
Scientists, biologists, environmentalists, economists, butchers, geneticists, and other experts don’t get it; they think farmers judge and care about the wrong things! They say farmers should care more about profit, carcass quality, carbon, ecosystem services… But they don’t get what the farmers do, how they do it, and where they culturally have evolved from.
To use some very un-farmer-like words, breeding sheep is their culture… their art. Herdwick farmers can spend hours looking at, talking about, and thinking about sheep and what they look like. Sheep are why they get up in the morning, why they put the walls back up, and why they keep going when times are hard and money is tight. Sheep are for them more than walking lumps of wool, bone and meat, and more than simply economic units. They are subject to fashions, and gossip, and their value can be inflated by winning shows and attracting the attention of buyers. Shows put all of this to the test, and in the most public of ways, in front of peers. Fail and your shortcomings are laid bare, succeed and you have shown worth.
The great stockman don’t die, they live on in their sheep, in the bloodlines they create, and in the stories and respect they leave behind. To earn that respect, they’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of great sheep to breed.
That’s why they show sheep: to slowly try and earn that respect, that status.
Join the conversation in the comments below, or join the flock on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can email us too, old school.
Farmers clip (you might call it “shear”) their sheep in the first or second week of July (weather allowing). The right time to begin shearing sheep on any given farm varies depending on the breed, the weather, and how “forward” the land is. Because Herdwicks graze some of the hardest mountains in the UK they are some of the last sheep clipped. Whilst Texel or Suffolk sheep in the lower land might be clipped in May, a few Herdwicks are clipped before July, but many are clipped in July, August or September.
Once, wool was a key cash crop from Lake District farms, with wool being a major part of the income. They say caravans of horses or donkeys led bales of wool across the Lake District fells to Kendal (which was built on the wool trade) until the 19th century. Much of the wealth of the monasteries that owned much of the Lake District in the Middle Ages was created from wool.
Further reading: Learn all about Herdwick sheep
It costs roughly £1 to get a sheep clipped, and the Herdwick wool is worth 41p per kilo (a fleece weighs a couple of kilos). So farmers don’t count on wool generating anything more than a token payment. Some years they don’t bother to sell it because the price is so bad.
Others have burnt it.
Apparently synthetic materials can be produced much cheaper than wool, can be washed, and manufactured, and Herdwick wool is wiry, dark, and hard (which makes it ideal for sheep on mountains, for tweed type jackets, insulation, or carpets that last for a very long time, but less than ideal for competing with fleece and other man-made products).
If you look at old pictures of Herdwicks you will see they had more wool because sheep, like everything else, respond to market incentives; Lakeland farmers have bred sheep with less and less wool as it has become worth less.
Some Lake District farms have lots of trees and woodland so you get lots of blowflies and bluebottles that will prey on any sheep with dirty patches of wool and lay their eggs. You don’t want to know what maggots can do to a sheep but it’s part of the summer work to prevent this. By late June the flies get worse and worse, so there’s a real urgency to get the sheep clipped so they can look after themselves better.
Clipping day was always, and still is, a collaborative activity, with many farmers working together as a team to clip each other’s sheep. Today, electric clipping machines are used but it is still bloody hard graft, and as many helpers as possible is a good idea.
Lots of young, and not so young, shepherds earn their keep through the summer in gangs of shearers that travel from farm to farm doing the work. The work is hard but the banter is fantastic, and some farmers wives still compete with each other to put on the best clipping time tea (no one has the heart to tell them that being full of cakes and scones is not great when you have to bend double all afternoon).
A good shearer can shear as many as 400 sheep a day (some more) but 200 is a fair score, and would break most people. So a team of 4 men can shear well over a 1,000 in a day. And that requires a whole bunch of other people to gather the sheep, sort the lambs off, push the ewes onto the clipping trailer, wrap the wool, mark the sheep after they are sheared, lead the batches of sheep away and generally keeping things moving. Traditionally you would also dip the sheep to prevent flies soon after clipping.
Shearers get paid by the sheep, so they do not appreciate standing around whilst you go get the next lot of sheep, because time is their money. It’s the time of year when tempers are short but everyone soon calms down, and the work gets done. This a is a frantic time, but good fun, with the buildings alive with the hum of the shearing machines, sheep bleating, dogs barking, and men shouting.
Sheep have to be dry to be clipped, and many are sheared in fields with mobile clipping trailers being erected.
We're fixing this by using locally-sourced Lake District Herdwick fleece in our Herdysleep mattresses.
Have you ever been to a Shepherd's Meet or Sheep Show and seen sheep getting clipped? Have you ever worked with raw fleece? Let's have a natter in the comments below or join the flock on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or email us.
There isn’t really a quiet time on a traditional hill farm, but the nearest Lake District fell farmers get to one is in May and June after the new Herdwick lambs are born. It’s not so much that there isn’t lots to do, there is, but compared with the stress and work of lambing time it seems easier, and the grass growing and sun shining lifts your spirits so it’s a pleasure to work outside again.
Further reading: Lambing Time On A Herdwick Farm
It’s like the farm has come back to life, and when the grass starts to grow you don’t have to worry about the sheep getting enough to eat and milking their lambs. However, a cold snap in May can cost some ewes and lambs who struggle with the shock of it when they are in full milk.
When the last lambs are born and strengthened up, farmers are suddenly able to chill out a bit, and need not check them every hour or two.
In May it’s time to gather into the sheep pens the fields full of ewes and lambs that have been in the valley bottom meadows. The valleys echo with ewes and lambs calling for one another as they get themselves temporarily muddled up and un-mothered.
The lambs all have to be “doctored”, that is, injected with vaccines for preventable illnesses, wormed with an oral drench (as the parasites come to life again with the warmth), marked with the farm’s flock “smit mark” with greasy paint, tagged with their two 14 digit micro-chipped tags (a legal requirement), and notched in their ears to show which farm they belong to.
Further reading: Coloured Markings On Herdwick Sheep
With hundreds of lambs that’s quite a lot of work, and lots of opportunities for mistakes. People talk about “easy-care” sheep, but the truth is all sheep need fairly regular maintenance and monitoring. A spray is used to stop blowflies laying eggs on sheep as in June and July some would be “struck” without this and would eventually die a horrible death.
When the ewes and lambs are “doctored” they can be moved to the higher ground. On the hardest Lakeland farms most, or even all, of the ewes and lambs go back to the fell at this stage. On “easier” farms the ewes with singles go on the hardest intakes, and those with twins go on slightly better fields where they can keep milking.
Herdwick lambs that go to the fell now start to learn to hold to their “heaf”, because their mothers return to the area on the fell where they were born and reared, and teach their lambs the same attachment to place. If the lambs didn’t go to the fell and learn like this, the system would break down.
This “hefting” system allows the Lake District, with its massive areas of common (unfenced and collectively farmed) land, to be farmed. Each farm has a “stint” on the common or multiple commons and an agreed number of sheep that can graze that stint. This was based historically on the numbers of sheep that could be grazed on the valley bottom land in the winter months. Traditionally this system was managed by peer pressure and by “courts” where offenders were punished. Today it is dictated by Natural England.
Further reading: Learn All About Herdwick Sheep
Herdwick sheep stay with the farms through changes of tenancy or ownership, because they are “heafed”, and it is in everyone’s interest that they do. So the sheep on one farm are descendants of the sheep that lived on that same land, and the surrounding fells, centuries, maybe even thousands of years ago.
The farms left by Beatrix Potter, and others, to the National Trust have “landlord flocks”, which makes Trust the owner of thousands of Herdwick sheep. A Lake District fell farmer’s job is to keep this going, and pass it on intact.
Farming the Lake District revolves around one simple reality: the short growing season for grass on the fells.
Farmers take advantage of this growing season in just the same way that the first settlers did maybe 5,000 years ago. Farmers time lambing season so that the lambs hit the ground as the grass starts to grow. The lambs are reared through the green, lush, and pleasant summer and autumn months when their mothers will get enough nutrition to milk them, then sold in the autumn in good condition before the growing season ends. That’s when the farm’s carrying capacity reduces massively.
By December at latest the farms can only carry the core ewe flocks with some help from farmers feeding them the summer’s crop. So, in May and June, the valley bottom meadows are cleared of sheep, the walls repaired, and the sheep kicked up the hill to the new grass. The meadows are allowed to flower and spurt into life. Soon they are lush green carpets of grass which will be made into hay (or haylage) in July or August.
Then, farmers breathe a sigh of relief that they have reached spring (about three months after Southern England) and have a little fun by attending, and maybe showing, at the Spring Tup (Ram) Fairs at Keswick and Eskdale. Traditionally these were gatherings when the borrowed tups were returned to the breeders/owners after being used by others. But they were probably always social occasions as well, and a chance to catch up with old friends and have a beer or two. Keswick Tup Fair happens on “the Thursday after the third Wednesday in May”… Figure that out! Before mobile phones and email, the shepherds in the different valleys had to know a set time when they met up, so such rules emerged.
The proudest thing you can call a shepherd is “a good stockman”, and winning a tup fair is one way to show your skill. It is also a serious business showcasing your tups that will be for sale in the autumn. This year (2012) the Keswick Tup Fair was won by the Blands from West Head, one of the biggest and best Herdwick farms, and one of the oldest Herdwick farming families.
Further reading: Showing Herdwick Sheep
Did ewe know about all the ways Herdwick lambs are cared for? And the unique "hefting" system of the Lake District?
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