Marking up the lambs
“Double cropped fold to front - upper fold bit to both ... and a red stroke, mid rib, far side. ”
‘We’ve a couple of hundred to be done,’ says Sam, as he bends to pick up another black herdwick lamb. With his partner Lizzie, and some help from his dad Will, Sam has gathered lambs into the pens so they can be marked up. ‘This is what we have to do, so our sheep can be identified out there on the common.’
The lambs are noisy crowd, bleating around the ankles of Sam and Lizzie, and one by one they’re being marked. ‘Double cropped fold to front - upper fold bit to both,’ explains Lizzie as she describes the lug mark: the tiny cut that’s made in the lambs’ ears. This way of marking has been done for centuries, and the mark stays with the flock, passing from farmer to farmer. The lambs are also marked with red paste, which Sam adds to each lamb using a piece of wood. ‘The flock’s smit mark is a red stroke, midrib, far side. Then there’s red on the head for a tip, and an orange spot above the tail for a twin.’ These colours will help Sam and Lizzie look after the lambs in the best way possible - twins, for instance, won’t go up to the fell with the single lambs, but will be kept on lower ground for longer, where they can benefit from the more nutritious grass.
Rob and I have been here before with Sam and Lizzie as they sort their sheep in these pens that sit below Kinniside Common. Last time, the clouds were down and we couldn’t see far. Today, we can see the common rising above us, and in the other direction, the last bits of higher land falling away towards the coast. It’s a busy, hands-on few hours, but not without time for chat and plenty of laughter. One of the jobs for Lizzie and Sam is to castrate the male lambs - or most of them. ‘We’ll keep around ten,’ says Sam, ‘but not all of them.’ The castration is done using an elastic band, teased over the tiny testicles so that in time they will fall off. In practiced hands, it looks fairly straightforward, but it isn’t always easy - not every attempt is successful. Lizzie laughs as she lets a tup go intact. She’s been explaining what’s going on, but gives up eventually. ‘Well that was going to be castrated, but it got away.’
Sam’s dad Will takes on the role of bringing in lambs from the surrounding fields, ready to be filtered into the pen. He uses a whistle that sits in his mouth, and has a characteristic, high-pitched call that commands the dogs. It’s good to catch up with him as talks about the flock, and the challenge of the continuing uncertainty around the detail of the new Enivronmental Land Management schemes and how these will work - or not work - for commoners. Farming up here demands constant adaptation, and as commoners, farmers have to work together. In a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be seeing Will again as he and other Kinniside commoners discuss learning more about carbon sequestration on the common.