Neil McGowan

Warm weather helped stock thrive in autumn after a stagnant summer. Discover grazing lessons, farming gains, and more in this season’s farming update.

Rain, crops, and an on-farm sale — it's been a busy season! With help from James and contractors, we’ve kept things moving, despite tricky weather.

It’s been great to watch bits of the Olympic Games. I can’t be doing with wasting money on extravagances like big opening ceremonies, so it was great to see the organisers in Paris just hire a few boats and get the kid from down the road to do some tricks on his bike.

The Highland Show signals the benchmark which a lot of our farm jobs are measured against – we are ahead of work in some areas and behind in others.

We are at peak lambing for the main Lleyn flock, but by the time you read this the bulk of the ewes should have done the job and we should be thinking about gathering the remaining ones into a couple of closer-by fields.

As I write at 2 am, I monitor the lambing shed camera, awaiting a Texel gimmer's second lamb.

The New Year was joyously welcomed at Kilry Hall, marked by lively dancing and playful antics, all orchestrated by Stewart, the Singing Shepherd from Stow.

In the pastoral landscape of May, Tups diligently carry out their crucial work overseeing the lambing season for the Lleyn flock.

The last time we wrote, we were complaining about the rain making harvest tricky, it has been a lot wetter since, with just short of 15 inches measured for the month of October.

The focus of the current activity centers around the eagerly anticipated Ram Sales. With just a week ahead, anticipation is building as preparations culminate for this significant event.