Eastside Farm - Through The Seasons
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Transcript of Eastside Farm - Through The Seasons
Eastside Farmthrough the seasons
& the Cowan familyEastside5
the heftBlackface sheep7
ewes in lambWinter14
lambingSpring20
Blackface sheeptupping timeLate Autumn8
marking and clippingSummer28
sheep salesEarly Autumn34
3
The Cowan family have run a hill sheep
farm in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh
for five generations now. Eastside Farm
is 1230 hectares in area (the equivalent of
2000 football pitches joined together) and
it encompasses some of the best known hills
in the Pentlands such as the South Blackhill,
Hare Hill, Scald Law and The Kipps. At its
lowest point the farm is 860 feet above
sea-level and rises to 1900 feet at the top
of Scald Law. It can be a forbidding terrain
but is very well suited to Scottish Blackface
sheep as well as numerous wild animals e.g.
badgers, foxes, mountain hares, peregrines,
red grouse and black grouse.
Today the farm is run by Alistair and Susan
Cowan, following on from Alastair’s father
before them. Eastside is family farm business
with family members pitching in at busy
times when extra hands are needed.
Farming has changed significantly over the
last few years with the number of shepherds
on Eastside falling from four in 1982 to just
one in 2012 due to the tough economics of
modern agriculture. The All Terrain Vehicle
Eastside& The Cowan Family
Image on front cover: Blackface ewe in the handling
pens at Eastside.
This page: Hill grasses on the East Kipp looking
onto the heather covered Scald Law.
Next page: Ewes and lambs gathered in preparation
for the sales.
5
(or quad bike) has allowed for the welfare
standards to be maintained with one man
covering a much larger area than a shepherd
on foot did previously. At Eastside, the sheep
are virtually wild, enjoying a happy healthy free
range life on the hills.
The Cowans have managed and added to
the diversity of the environment at Eastside
through the planting of trees and wildflower
meadows and careful hill-ground management.
It is their hope to preserve and enhance the
spectacular Pentland Hill landscape at Eastside
for current and future generations to enjoy and
farm.
This booklet gives a brief insight into sheep
farming through the seasons at Eastside. We
hope you find it informative and enjoyable.
Blackface female sheep are very hardy
and can withstand almost all the weather
can, and frequently does, throw at them.
They are the most common in Britain but as
the majority of these are found in the wilder
parts of Scotland, many people may be
unfamiliar with the way they look. Both males
and females have horns, although the male
(or “tup”) horns are bigger as well as their
body mass. They generally have black faces
and a white body although sometimes they
have white or grey faces too - very rarely you
might see a totally black sheep! Their wool is
very thick and warm and this helps protect
them from the weather.
As on many hill farms, there are no fences
on the hill pasture to enclose or separate the
sheep. Instead of fences, an ancient system
called “hefting” is used. Each hill has it’s own
“heft” of sheep that live within a certain area
and they recognize this area as their home.
Sheep will instinctively gather in their family
groups and often several generations of a
sheep family can be seen together. Through
many years of being herded to the same
place, knowledge of the “heft” is passed from
one generation of sheep to the next so they
know where they belong and where they feel
safe.
For example, the Kipps have a heft of 150
breeding ewes with their hoggs (one year old
offspring that are too young to breed from). If
you visit Eastside you will see some fences and
traditional stone walls (dykes) near and around
the farmstead. These enclose “improved
pasture” fields in the valley area. The ewes will
come off the hill into the valley fields where
there is better grazing during the day but head
back out to the hill at night by themselves.
Hefting evens out the grazing pressure and
allows the grazing resources to be used
efficiently. If the sheep were not hefted, they
would just hang around the best grazing in the
valley all the time and use it all up!
Blackface sheepThe Heft
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Late Autumn
This seems the most logical place to start
as it is when the male sheep, “tups”, are
brought together with the ewes to conceive
new lambs. The female sheep or ewes are in
the peak of health and condition at this time of
year from all the rich grazing they’ve consumed
in the summer. They will need all their extra fat
reserves for the winter to come and to provide
for themselves and the lambs growing inside
them.
The ewes come into season in November (i.e.
they’re receptive to a potential mate) and will
start looking for a handsome tup. However we
decide when the tups are allowed in with the
ewes - this way we avoid early surprises and
plan for the lambs to be born when the weather
is warmer and there is good grazing to be had.
Just before tupping season when
hormones start to run high, the
tups are moved into the big
sheep-shed to keep them out of
mischief!
Late AutumnTupping Time
Images on previous page: Eastside autumn flora,
Heather, bracken and hill grasses.
Images on this page from left: Blackface tups (or
rams), Blackface tups - the boys are just back from
5 weeks work on the hill.
For much of the year you might see the tups
taking things easy in the field in front of our
house. Just before tupping season when
hormones start to run high, the tups are
moved into the big sheep-shed to keep them
out of mischief!
When the time is right, each tup is allowed in
with his ewes. It’s important for us to make
sure that he stays in the right place and
doesn’t stray from his ground and his group
of 60-70 ewes. He’ll generally have about 6
weeks to “service” each ewe but with that
many there’s not much romance involved -
it’s hard work for him! Between Christmas
and New Year, the tups are brought back to
the sheep shed for a well-earned break. In
the winter of 2009/2010 the snow was so
heavy the tups were snowed out on the hill,
eventually coming back a few weeks later - a
little tired but in good health. Consequently,
lambing went on for a long time that Spring!
11
Images clockwise from top left: Blackface Tup,
Hill grasses turn red in the autumn season, The
farm track on an autumn afternoon, Old “dykes”
or walls surrounding the farm, The Hare Hill sheep
going home as the sun sets after the gather, The
farm track looking towards the farm and the Kipps
behind, Old “dyke” with autumnal bracken.
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Winter
Now that the ewes are “in lamb” they are
making the most of their hill environment.
The winter can be a harsh time at Eastside,
sometimes with deep snow or cold winds and
rain. Being in a cosy cottage toasting your toes
by the fire makes you appreciate that surviving
outdoors is a very different matter, requiring a
good knowledge of the local environment.
This essential knowledge is something that the
sheep at Eastside have passed from generation
to generation. In addition, the Blackface sheep
has an amazing wool fleece impregnated with
lanolin for waterproofing to ensure it’s warm all
winter. Each ewe has a whole hectare of grass
to herself (one and a half football pitches) and
she knows all the best places to find food and
shelter to ensure a good outcome for herself
Gathering is quite a spectacle,
with each heft of several hundred
sheep rounded up by the quad
and sheep dogs and herded to
the farm handling pens.
Mid WinterEwes In Lamb
Image on previous page: View from the Backhill,
South towards Ninemileburn.
Images on this page from left: Beech trees on a
sunny winter’s day, Sheep sheltering beneath the
larch and scots pines on the Blackhill.
and her lamb.
The ewes are under regular surveillance and
by the end of March each heft is gathered up
by the shepherd using a quad bike and sheep
dogs and brought in to the handling pens for
a check-up. Gathering is quite a spectacle,
with each heft of several hundred sheep
rounded up by the quad and sheep dogs and
herded to the farm handling pens. By this
time it is obvious which ewes are in lamb and
which are not.
All of the ewes to lamb are brought into the
fields in the valley and the barren ewes and
the hoggs (last years lambs that are too
young to reproduce) are put back out onto
the hill. This leaves the pregnant ewes for the
shepherd to concentrate his attention on.
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Images clockwise from top left: Old beech tree
on the Blackhill, Christmas at Eastside, Line of
beech trees from the Blackhill fields, Walker
on the Pentland skyline (West Kipp behind the
farmstead) looking South along the Pentland range,
The view from the West Kipp of Eastside farmstead
and beyond towards the Moorfoots, Track down to
the yard and ‘Archie’, A winter sunset.
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A rural wilderness, just 10 miles from Edinburgh
Spring
Our ideal lambing time starts in mid April
when the weather has hopefully improved
and grass on our hills is growing well to ensure
a plentiful milk supply for the new lambs. The
gestation period (length of pregnancy) for a
lamb is 5 months so this is why it’s so important
to control when the tups are put with the ewes
in mid November.
Most ewes are fortunate and their lambs
will come into the world without any human
intervention. Within minutes the lamb will be
on its feet looking for a feed of lovely warm
first milk or “colostrum”. Colostrum, as well
as being like nectar to a new-born lamb is full
of antibodies and protects it from common
diseases.
Most ewes are fortunate and their
lambs will come into the world
without any human intervention.
Within minutes the lamb will be
on its feet looking for a feed of
lovely warm milk.
SpringLambing
Images on previous page: A Blackface lamb and a
meadow buttercup amongst the spring grasses.
Image on this page: Ewes and lambs on a sunny
spring day.
In a normal birth, the lamb emerges with head
and two front feet first and this is what usually
happens. Problems can arise when the lamb
enters the ewe’s birth canal wrongly, perhaps
with one leg or both of the lamb’s legs left
behind. Sometimes twins fight for supremacy
and stall the birthing process. In these cases,
intervention is required but the most difficult
part can be catching the ewe first! Even in
the process of giving birth, a ewe can outrun
a shepherd on foot so a quad bike and dogs
are essential. Fortunately, with the Blackface
breed, the majority of lambs are born without
any problems.
After a normal delivery, the ewe busily licks
the lamb and bonds with it. If this process is
disturbed, by a dog or a hill-walker frightening
the ewe away from her lamb then sadly all the
shepherd will find is a small, hungry orphan
that has to be brought in and bottle-fed in
the sheep-shed. Sometimes, with a bit of luck,
ewe and lamb can be reunited but it is all extra
hassle for the shepherd when he least needs it.
With problem births, the ewe and lamb will
often need to be brought into a small paddock
or the sheep shed. The lamb will need special
attention, especially if it’s exhausted after a
prolonged birth. The shepherd will help the
lamb to suckle milk from the ewe or, if it is very
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weak, he will milk the ewe and give the lamb
a reviving feed of colostrum with a tube fed
carefully down the lamb’s throat. After one
or two such feeds, the lamb revives and the
bonding process begins.
Sometimes, in spite of the shepherd’s best
efforts, a lamb is stillborn. The ewe will be
distressed and nudge the lamb in vain to
wake it. At the same time, another ewe may
have twin lambs but not enough milk for them
both. If this happens we can use a technique
called “twinning on”. It sounds gruesome
to describe but can ensure the successful
adoption of the twin with insufficient milk
from its mother. The dead lamb is skinned and
the skin placed on the twin lamb like a second
coat. This fools the dead lamb’s mother into
thinking it is her own. As the Blackface ewe
recognises her lamb mainly by smell, any lamb
that doesn’t smell right will be swiftly rejected
with a butt of the head. Placing the skin of the
dead lamb on the twin means it smells correct
to the mother and she’ll busily nuzzle and feed
her seemingly miraculously recovered offspring.
Even although it’s Spring, the sheep can
experience blizzard conditions. More frequently
there is a dusting of snow that melts quickly
but Blackface lambs are remarkably resilient
to harsh conditions and as long as they have
a belly full of milk, they will survive harsh
conditions quite happily.
Images on this page from left: The farm track at
sunset with ewe and lamb in the Blackhill fields for
observation, Once lambs are more robust they are
released onto the open hill. This ewe and lamb are
at the top of the West Kipp.
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Images clockwise from top left: A golden spring
evening, Blackface ewes are very good mothers
always keeping an eye on their lambs, Lambs-a-
leaping, The shepherd checking the ‘Low-End’
sheep with help from Jill the collie, Orphan lambs
or ‘pets’, The bigger orphans get trained to drink
from a milk bucket, Pied Wagtail chicks nest in a
gap in the dyke, A lamb needing some care in the
shed.
27
Summer
A ll the ewes have lambed by mid May and
the lambs are growing well on the plentiful
grass. By June, they have quadrupled in size and
are robust enough to be gathered in with their
mothers for marking. It is only then that the
shepherd will know how successful a lambing
he/she has had as all the lambs produced from
each heft will be counted and tagged with the
farm’s unique code.
Wool clipping (sometimes known as shearing)
begins in June with the hoggs (the one year old
female sheep that are too young to reproduce)
first in line. The hoggs have had an easy time
compared to the ewes as they haven’t had to
produce and rear lambs. This means they start
to grow new wool more quickly. This layer of
fresh new wool between the skin and the old
Clipping is a highly skilled job
that requires much practice to
perfect. The trick is in keeping
the sheep comfortable at all
times otherwise they will struggle
- making it a very difficult and
exhausting job indeed!
SummerMarking & Clipping
wool is what the shearer will cut through to
make sure the wool is clipped quickly and
efficiently. It is called the “rise”. Clipping is a
highly skilled job that requires much practice
to perfect. The trick is in keeping the sheep
comfortable at all times otherwise they
will struggle - making it a very difficult and
exhausting job indeed!
By mid-July it is the ewes’ turn to be clipped.
With the arrival of the warm summer weather,
the ewes will be glad to get rid of their winter
coats and will have produced enough “rise”
to make the shearer’s job easy. Often just
before clipping, a ewe will get itchy and roll
onto her back to scratch but get stuck in that
position. If she stays like this she will perish
as the gases in her stomach can’t escape and
build up until she suffocates. Turning her over
resolves this problem very simply - she will
burp heartily then run off!
The newly clipped wool will be rolled up and
packed into large wool bags called “sheets”
for transporting to the Wool Marketing Board.
They will sell it on to make carpets. Blackface
wool is abundant but coarse so this is the best
use for it. Rolling up fleeces will give you lovely
soft hands as the wool is full of “lanolin”, an
oily substance in the fleece which waterproofs
the wool and keeps the animal dry. Lanolin is
extracted from the wool in the washing process
and used in making moisturising face and hand
creams.
31
Images on previous page from left: Clipping is a
highly skilled job, Harebells in hill pasture.
Images clockwise from top left: Sheep are
gathered from hefts individually for marking and
clipping, During marking lambs are marked and
given a health check, Jill helps out, In summer sheep
are clipped (sheared) for their wool, Wild orchids,
The Blackface tups (rams) after a close shave, Wild-
flower meadow.
33
Early Autumn
A t this time of year, sheep numbers on the
farm will be nearly 3000. Our next job is
to sell many of the now well grown lambs and
some of the ewes. This is to reduce the flock
grazing on the hill to a number that can be
healthily sustained during the winter.
All ewes will have been born on the farm and
then live here for five years. When they are five,
they’ve had enough of their hard life on the hill
and will be sold to a low-ground farmer where
they will live and breed for another few years.
Within the UK, there operates a tiered breeding
system to ensure the supply of prime lamb.
This system starts with upland breeds such
as Blackface. Once the upland sheep are sold
to lower farms for breeding, they are crossed
After a full year at Eastside, many
ewes will have a fine ewe-lamb to
join their hefts on the hill and the
cycle will begin all over again.
Early AutumnSheep Sales
Images on previous page: Hay store from the
Eastside track looking towards the Kipps.
Images on this page from left: Shepherd sorts the
stock, Sheep await marking in the ‘stack yard’.
with other breeds (e.g. Bluefaced Leicester)
for increased yields of wool and meat. This
system has been perfected over hundreds of
years and is the envy of much of the world.
If an Eastside ewe has produced a good ewe-
lamb, the lamb will be kept as a replacement
for the old ewes moving down to pastures
new. About half of the total number of
ewe-lambs born are kept as replacements.
Otherwise, the ewe-lambs will be sold at the
market to another upland farm for breeding.
When a ewe has produced a fine, strong
male lamb, the lamb may be kept as a tup for
breeding. However, most of the male lambs
are sold as “store lambs” at the market to low
ground farmers who fatten them for meat
production.
After a full year at Eastside, many ewes will
have a fine ewe-lamb to join their hefts on the
hill and the cycle will begin all over again.
37
Images clockwise from top left: Blackface tup
in the sale ring, Bought tups return to Eastside,
Autumn seed heads on the hill, Ewes are sorted
for the tupping, Harebells flower on the hill, Autumn
light from the farm track looking towards the ‘Low
End’, Lambs are ready for the sales.
39
Susan CowanEastside Holiday CottagesPenicuik | MidlothianEH26 9LN
01968 677 842
All photography copyright of Michael Rummey photography,
Graphic design by Tigerchick