WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN JUNE
In early summer sheep flocks are gathered up ready for shearing. The thick woolly coats the sheep have grown over the winter need to be removed before the weather gets hot.
Shearing is a skilful job and hard sweaty work. Each sheep is held on its back to keep it still while the wool is clipped off with electric clippers. It does not hurt the sheep.
The sheep’s woolly coat, called a fleece, is removed in one piece. A thick fleece can weigh about 4 kilos.
After all that wool has been removed, the sheep are better able to cope with hot summer weather.
Outdoor-reared pigs enjoy rooting in the earth. Pigs are omnivores which means they eat almost anything – plants, grasses, insects, worms and small animals.
They love to lie around in the warm sunshine too. You can read more about
outdoor-reared pigs here.
But light-skinned pigs can get sunburnt so a shelter, called a pig ark, provides a cool place to snooze when it’s too hot.
Up on Bodmin Moor, the wild pony mares have given birth and have young foals beside them.
Local farmers have the rights to graze sheep, cattle and ponies on the rough moorland grassland. The grazing animals keep the moor from becoming overgrown with scrub and bracken so we can enjoy walking there.
Farmers will be getting on with some haymaking in the June sunshine. A good spell of fine weather is essential if good quality hay is to be made.
The long grass is cut and spread out to dry in the sunshine. It will be turned over and spread out again in the next few days to make sure it dries out completely. If it is a heavy crop, the grass may take several days to dry. The crop must have less moisture in it to make good hay than when silage is made, so its fingers crossed that the dry weather will last until it is ready to be baled.
When it is dry enough, the grass is gathered up into long fluffy rows and the baler is driven down each row, scooping up the dry grass and packing it tightly into bales.
The strawberry season is well under way, and they taste particularly good
this year. Growing the strawberries on ‘tables’ which raise the plants off the ground reduces damage to the fruit from slugs and makes picking the fruit much easier. For a quick and delicious strawberry dessert recipe, click here.
