It’s great news! Stuart Luxton celebrates a wonderful start to the year

Hello again everyone. I am hoping that by the time you read this the winter monsoon season will be over and we will having some nice warmer spring weather - since I last wrote we have had more than our fair share of rain. On balance though, at least we have had rain - there appear to be parts of the world that have record breaking droughts. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to farm with no rain at all, it doesn’t bear thinking about.

Immediately after New Year in January we had yet another TB test. It couldn’t have been a better start to the year, a totally clear test - this coupled with a clear test in November means that we are free from TB restrictions for the first time since August 2016. It might have been good news for us but it was great news for 12 young men on the farm. We have a dozen young bulls of good working age now, able to be sold to other farmers. It was a great feeling to be able to put their nose rings in and tidy them up ready for viewing by potential customers. You can see them at www.luxtonsaberdeenangus.co.uk

Things have gone so well that we already have a few sales.  Last year’s crop had to be slaughtered - because of our TB restrictions there wasn’t much chance of selling them, it was a very sad time. We can also start to plan for a show season and decide which animals will be going on their travels this summer.

By the time you read this, the lambing season will nearly be upon us. We have scanned the ewes and they are carrying over two lambs each on average, with less than 2% empty, a few more lambs than last year but not too many.

We now concentrate on getting the ewes ready for their big day. We make sure that they are fed correctly and are in good health. We also prepare for looking after ewes and lambs if things don’t go perfectly.

We like to think that we are good farmers, but a year ago we joined a sheep producers’ club at North Park Vets. The aim was to improve management practices in line with modern guidelines. I have learned that we were indeed good sheep farmers and are very efficient at producing and rearing lambs efficiently without purchasing extra feed. But we have also realised that we can make improvements to what we do. There are new practices that should help to reduce the level of lameness in the flock while at the same time reducing antibiotic usage. No farmer likes having lame sheep on the farm, but in general where there are sheep, there are lame sheep. Anything we can learn that will help reduce lameness has to help reduce stress levels for the animals and for the farmer.

At the shop the mad Christmas period is over for another year and in theory we are in the retail backwater that is January. This year though, we have had a very good month. We had virtually nothing left from Christmas and we have a nice steady stream of customers to keep us out of mischief. It February we begin the extension of Farmer Luxtons and look forward to being able to provide more local products to more local people.

I look forward to next edition of Oke Links, as we will then be in the middle of the best time of year on the farm, the lambing and calving season.

Stuart Luxton