1. Voiceover script
I've got a small flock of pedigree Kerry Hill sheep.
You can't get too sentimental about them. They're not pets. At the
end of the day, they've gotta lamb, you know, they've got to have a
lamb.
They're born in February March. The ram lambs, they go for slaughter
October November time.
Most of my lamb goes for freezer pack trade. I sell half a lamb for £45 to
£55 and this year I was selling whole lambs for £90.
The day after they've lambed I will put the rings on their testicles. If you
don't castrate them, by the time they're six months old their hormones are
really high. Come the autumn when the ewes come back into season, the
sons are trying to get into them. Whereas if you've castrated them the
management of them's a lot easier – you can put them in the next field to
each other and they're not trying to jump the fence.
You get a lot of predators coming round, especially at lambing time.
They'll be out for an easy meal – a small lamb on the field, a weakly lamb.
Everything that's caught in the cage is disposed of – it's shot. You'll find
it's a vixen that's got cubs. Or it'll be an older fox – there might be
something wrong with him – you know, he's lame, he's got a bad leg or
something like that, he's had a knock off a car.
But, er - he doesn't get no sympathy off me if he comes round here.
It's nature, isn't it. It's a battle. It is always a battle. There's always
something you've gotta battle with – whether it's the foxes or the
magpies pecking their eyes out, or the blowfly laying their eggs on
their wool.
But at the end of the day, if I do my job right, most of them'll have a
good summer getting fat out on the field, and then they'll be off to give
someone a nice Sunday roast.