thehutts

Low Bleakhope

Flexigraze volunteer group — The group learn about farming at Low Bleakhope

The hill land — Part of the hill showing the terrain and a sheep stell

Sheep Shearing — A demonstration of shearing

Today was an opportunity for a few of the volunteers from Flexigraze to find out a bit more about where some of the sheep start their life as well as about upland farming in Northumberland. The destination was Low Bleakhope, situated deep in the heart of the Cheviots and a long way down a private track. The farm covers about 4000acres (1600ha) of rough ground with heather, grass, bracken and bog. The group was taken up above the farm to get an understanding of the type of land and the importance of hefted flocks in this difficult terrain. After lunch we learnt a bit more about the farming year and had a demonstration of shearing.

The farm itself is not just remote and hilly it also has to rely on its own power generation being well off the electricity grid. Here solar, wind and a new water turbine all help augment the traditional diesel generator although recent lightning strikes have disabled much of the electronic systems that help it all work together meaning costly and time-consuming repairs.

Many of the Flexigraze sheep come from Low Bleakhope, bought in during the autumn and then used to graze our conservation sites. Most of the volunteers there today help check the stock on these conservation sites and it was good to see where these sheep start their lives.

Blog

Sheep in the buttercups

It was peaceful out on Prestwick Carr in the evening sunshine during yesterday’s stock check. The check took in fields with two small flocks of sheep, contentedly slumbering in the buttercup filled meadow or on the drier edge of a rushy pasture. Elsewhere the Exmoor ponies were finally in the field by the viewing platform and were duly shut in there for a while.

The site is rarely dry and occasionally you find yourself in a rather more soggy area; it’s here that the cuckoo flower was still in full bloom and the rather old-looking specimens of the first brood of green-veined white butterflies were to be spotted. In the southern buttercup fields silver-ground carpet moths flitted up into the air as they were disturbed. Their wings were more beige and brown than silver though the colouration does vary. Elsewhere a couple of female scorpion flies were spotted though none of the more distinctive males were seen with their scorpion like tails.

Photos (c) Duncan Hutt

Blog

A Spring Evening on Prestwick Carr

A quick check of the sheep and ponies at Prestwick Carr yesterday evening confirmed that all was well, although one sheep played dead to make us get almost up to it before it jumped up and ran off with its field-mates.

Five lapwings put on a fine display over the site, wheeling around and calling overhead while a skylark sang from on high. A kestrel hovered over the site too and a few mallard lifted as we crossed a field to count the sheep.

News

New Web Site

Flexigraze has finally entered the world of the Internet. We have had a blog for a while but have never had a proper web presence. We have now developed a simple web site to give a little more information about what we do and how we do it. As a not-for-profit Community Interest Company we are here solely to help provide grazing on those difficult to manage sites as well as to help provide a link between farming and food through our grazed sites. In order to remain a viable organisation we need to maintain, and if possible expand, our range of sites and also to sell more of the lamb that we produce. The new site should help make it easier to find out about our work. The new site can be found at flexigraze.org.uk