Matt Baker
THE COUNTRYFILE PRESENTER GOES BEHIND THE SCENES ON HIS SHOWS AND FAMILY FARM FENDING OFF THE COLD ON THE FARM
Everyone and everything around the farm is wearing a winter coat to keep out the northern chill of the last blast of winter. Pavlova the mini donkey foal is sporting the thickest, looking more like one of my daughter’s teddies than a real donkey.
This time of year is the bleakest on the farm – trees and hedges stark against the grey skies, and what little grass remains is worn and brown. Mud is the predominant feature everywhere.
Many a welly has been lost in the mud vacuum of a gateway – the welly stays where it is, and your foot carries on, suddenly landing in the cold squelching brown sludge. Not the greatest feeling, I can tell you.
Of course, the dogs are constantly splattered with mud and seem to take real pleasure in redecorating the house every time an outside door is foolishly opened.
An unplanned lambing has been underway since the beginning of December, again not an ideal situation in such dreary weather. At least the flock are happily warm and dry in their agri polytunnel. It turns out an old tup [ram], who was supposedly in a different paddock, had been visiting after dark…
Hampshire Down Sheep are able to breed almost year round, meaning the warm summer nights of July have a lot to answer for, as does the wily old tup! Finally caught out, he was banished to the woods, but too late to stop a Christmas spent in the lambing shed.
“Feed in the correct order or you will hear about it, with barks, neighs, bleats and brays”