Page 27 - The Farming Years proof
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CHAPTER 7
The good shepherd
With the second cut of hay being not nancially rewarding for the effort involved, it seemed logical to have store lambs to follow the hay. Store lambs would be born in the spring then fattened on au- tumn grass to be ready for the meat market from December and January. The grazing keeps the grass growth in order and thus prepares for next season’s hay. Sylvia was more enthusiastic that I was to incorporate animals into our farming programme but it was a partnership. Sylvia kept her enthusiasm up until 1984 when she had a ock of pedigree Dorset Polls and she sold the lambs mainly for breeding. The following tells you how we arrived at this point, when she sold the ock to another breeder and had an indoor job when she started Padders.
In early September 1976 we bought 83 store lambs for £1,237 at £15 each. Within a month we gave them supplementary feed of hay and rolled barley (1⁄2lb a head) to ensure they would be ready for the market. This involved the purchase of 3 troughs for the barley and 2 racks for the hay but they were an investment, we hoped, for future years.
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