Farm Diaries: Farming is hard and not always rewarding!

Today was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong. I spent six hours taking down old fencing and putting up a new electric fence, sorting out the sheep, and moving them to their new paddock.

Ahh, a successful exercise I thought, wrong. Just when I thought I had everything had gone to plan, I returned with water only to find that all but one sheep had escaped. They had spread across two fields, turning my carefully planned mob grazing system (there are at least two spreadsheets) into chaos.

I managed to gather them all back and decided to re-fence, giving them a slightly larger plot and fresh water. Feeling a bit more optimistic, I went to get the fence tester and the dog for a quick walk.

As soon as I stepped out with the tester and the dog, I heard the unmistakable sound of sheep in the wrong field. My heart sank, “Oh bugger,” I muttered, though in my I head I was screaming far worse.

To my surprise (I was bloody annoyed), I saw sheep in the orchard (where they’d started the day) and even more at the bottom of the garden (where they should never be).

The whole day’s work of sorting and fencing sheep for what has been a largely successful period of mob grazing had gone to pot.

Frustrated and exhausted I looked at the dog and said, “Come on,” heading out into the field for a walk.

After ten minutes, I realised the dog was nowhere in sight. I called for him but got no response. My mind raced with thoughts of him escaping like every other animal on the farm seems to do on a daily, if not hourly, basis. (Don’t even get me started on the pony and the pigs.)

More than a little dejected I walked back to the house, where I found the dog comfortably lying on his bed inside. He hadn’t left the house at all, something I wished I’d done several hours before!

In the end, today has felt like a complete failure. I accomplished nothing, and all my efforts have been largely wasted.

However, tomorrow is another day. I’ll start again, hopeful that this time the sheep will stay put and my dog will follow me out the door.