3. All About Herdwicks
One thing I’ve learned, and fast, is that a smallholding or any kind of micro-enterprise which is agriculture-related will throw up unexpected things all the time. Flexibility and adaptability are key to finding your niche and what feels right for each individual.
Having started with the two little Valais Blacknose lambs and falling in love with them, one early morning just as dawn was breaking, my husband looked out the window and knew something was wrong. With a sinking feeling and running outside, he found one lamb - Jasper, unresponsive. He had got his horns tangled in fencing. The stress was enough to have caused his death. Sheep are very sensitive prey animals, and can literally die from fright. What was even more distressing was that he was still warm and so we had just missed the window for intervention.
These are the days that you are most harsh on yourself. What am I doing? I don’t know enough and now a beautiful cherished pet is dead. You feel utterly negligent and ill-equipped to deal with such things. I quickly realised that the other lamb lying beside his friend needed help as he was really stressed. Looking online for any lambs for sale locally for a fast stand-in companion, introduced me to another sheep-loving smallholder neighbour, who has now become a friend and advisor.
These relationships are so valuable because that experience and knowledge, being generously offered between people with common interests and concerns can get you out of trouble, and fast. Jeremy Keogh, like myself, had a few years previously ‘bought a few sheep’ as a hobby and found he loved them, and soon was breeding and selling lots of interesting breeds with wild markings and colours. He had a six-month-old male lamb knocking around and very kindly delivered him down to me that day. He settled right in, and Vincent as he was known, proved to be a great character - regularly peeking around the door to see if there were any biscuits available. Jingle and he became great pals, up to constant mischief and demolishing every young tree they found. He was a Valais Blacknose crossed with a Herdwick. His breeding wasn’t important the day he arrived, but Jeremy with his extensive knowledge and natural enthusiasm had introduced me to a little-known breed in Ireland.
As is typical of me, I delved straight into research. An ancient breed, they are like all other native breeds: incredibly hardy, highly parasite resistant, capable of living on very rough terrain with little need for supplementation, and thrive in harsh conditions, even being found living under snow. Small gentle sheep, I became intrigued, and when Jeremy told me he had two Herdwick ewes in-lamb for sale, I happily signed up for them.
The author Beatrix Potter bred these sheep in their native Cumbria. They are seen all over The Lake District in the UK, becoming the face of its tourist industry, which is so important for this part of Britain. When Beatrix died, she left large areas of land in trust, with the condition that Herdwicks be bred on the farms.
In light of the connection, I named the two sheep from Jeremy, Jemima and Beatrix. They are fully in charge of the flock, their no-nonsense personalities winning over. Herdwick lambs are born black so as to blend into the landscape. Their natural habitat is limestone based craggy hills, with loose dark-coloured rocks and so the lambs are very hidden when young. They gradually turn silvery grey over about four years. In March of 2023, Jemima had a little perfect black lamb, and soon after Beatrix had twins. They lambed outdoors with no help and the little scraps were up on their feet within minutes. I knew I would love the lambing season, but until you see it, it’s hard to describe the magic of these sweet animals just getting along with their lives without any fuss.
Modern meat-producing commercial sheep often have difficulty lambing because the offspring can be big. This is due to the standard practice of crossing many breeds to achieve desirable characteristics in terms of body shape for the highest output. However native breeds tend to have small lambs that are easily born, which then grow incredibly fast to catch up.
On January 1st 2023 we moved into organic conversion - a two-year period where organic principles are followed before gaining official status as certified organic. After watching the two Herdwicks plus Vincent (the Herdwick cross) munching all the weeds such as docks, nettles and thistles, we decided that expanding the Herdwick flock made a lot of sense. They are fantastic for grassland management, that is the control of weeds and grazing in such a way as to produce good clean paddocks. This is important for soil health which is important for the health of animals and plants. It’s a whole circle of environmental management that benefits everyone - animal and human.
Mid-lambing, the first few lambs to arrive
An autumn-time 2023 stock-take brought us to 26 sheep. Between the six Valais plus Herdwicks gradually bought over the Spring of 2023, plus the lambs born, we now had a closed flock with no more sheep needed to be purchased to expand numbers. This is to ensure biosecurity.
Sheep are vulnerable to disease and parasites. Organic sheep if sick can of course be treated, but the goal is to be preventative rather than reactive. Antibiotics can be prescribed and administered if needed but ensuring that they are healthy so as not to become sick is more important. They can be dosed with limited parasite control medications but not on an ad-hoc basis without good reason.
The best approach is to carry out faecal counts where a lab will test tiny samples for parasites and if above a certain level then medications can be given. This method of parasite control is successful because it stops resistance to anthelmintics (wormer medications) building up in sheep which is a huge problem. It also allows their immune systems to strengthen enough to naturally provide a defence.
The Herdwicks are a beautiful, versatile, easily managed breed and complement the Swiss Valais Blacknose really well. We hope to breed the first organic Herdwick flock in Ireland.