Sheep as individuals...

Many YWT reserves are grazed by a mixture of sheep and cattle. Whilst this may not seem very wild - we are not the Yorkshire Farmlife trust - it is a very necessary and beneficial part of how our reserves are managed. Grazing at our reserves is about managing the landscape for the benefit of the maximum number of species, for example preventing areas being overrun with birch scrub.

There are other ways to do this that would use expensive mechanical equipment, but we don’t have such resources, and if we did, the terrain would often prevent us from even reaching some of the grazed areas. Grazing is a natural process. All you have to do is take the sheep to pasture and it looks after itself… well, not quite…

Hebridean Sheep

Sheep have little concept of planning so our reserve staff have to plan their every move. This is not like commercial producers, as Beth Wood, one of our Conservation Grazing Officers, explained to me. To start with we use Hebridean sheep. Not because they are cute (which they are), but because they are uniquely suited to conservation grazing. Hebrideans thrive on vegetation with poor energy values and can even help maintain the right balance of vegetation in ecosystems as different as the North Yorkshire moors and the dunes and marshes of Spurn and the Humber.

Crucially for Beth, who manages the lambing down at our Low Carr farm reserve just south of Pickering, they are easy to lamb, tending to single and twins that present few birth problems.

It is only relatively recently that the Hebrideans have been recognised as a specific breed with these special qualities. In 1973, only 300 individuals survived, mainly in small feral groups in the grounds of large country houses. None were left in Scotland. Now their future is all but guaranteed. The YWT flock, the biggest in the country, numbers around 600 across all the sites. It is fair to say that the YWT has been pivotal in the resurrection of the breed and the recognition of its role in managing fragile ecosystems. As a side effect, commercial farmers are showing renewed interest in the breed too.

The lambing

On the day I spent with Beth (joined by Penny Kirk, West Reserves Voluntary Trainee and David Powell, Living Landscape Officer - East) we started by going into the field holding the pregnant ewes. New births were easily found and quickly brought back to the polytunnel, along with their proud mothers, for recording, monitoring and tagging.

I was immediately involved, herding the sheep towards an open gate. Sounds easy, but we also had to separate the mothers from the rest of the flock. Beth got me to pick twin lambs up by their front legs (the safest and easiest way to carry them) and walk towards the gate, and then to the pen. Usually, the mother would follow. The minutes-old lambs would wriggle vigorously, but with everybody’s help we soon had them all penned up.

One particular individual decided another ewe’s lamb was hers and followed us back to the pen, so we took her in on her own, expecting her to give birth shortly. She didn’t, but here she is anyway. I think she just wanted to get on the website.

Looking after the mothers and children

Once the mothers and their children were all safely in the pens, we recorded their pen positions on a big whiteboard. Then we recorded the details for each lamb on paper including the number and sex of the lambs and the mothers ear tag number. This is where having volunteers is useful as Beth also checks mother and offspring.

Once the new arrivals had been dealt with, we moved onto yesterday’s arrivals. These needed a bit more attention. First, both ears needed tagging, but the tag for the left ear contains an electronic tag while the tag for the right ear is colour coded for the year of birth. Getting it right is important for checking the sheep in the future. Here, we see Beth’s “left arm ear tag wiggle technique” in action. This ensures we’re both standing the right way round so the yellow tag with the electronic ID goes in the left ear. It’s a Yorkshire thing!     

Finally, the Ewes needed worming - Penny helped with this as I recorded. As you can see this is not a one-person job. The records are extremely important as they match the ewes to the lambs and any issues. They can also be used for tracing family trees and preventing inbreeding. Then the pens need cleaning, and the mothers need to be fed and watered…

Lambing is not just a one-day job. It’s an intensive 7-day-per-week job from the end of April to mid-May with around 200 lambs arriving. Beth relies on volunteers and staff from across the YWT to help with all of this. Even the pens are built by volunteers! One lady, Vicky, takes a two-week holiday from work each year just to help. While we were there, Steve, a volunteer with extensive farming experience, arrived to do a livestock check, sharing his enthusiasm for getting the balance right between farming and wildlife conservation.