Hello and welcome to the Cawood Farm web site. We are the Wheeler family, Chris and Helen, two sons Josh and Daniel (fair weather shepherds) and Tess who on most occasions so far when ‘sheep work’ is being done has managed to release one sheep before we have even started, causing mayhem.
We don’t quite know what to put on here so we are going to start off by giving you a short synopsis about us and where we started on the sheep trail.
We have got 10 acres of land and some farm buildings coupled with great enthusiasm and initially two dogs, two cats, two sons and a husband who is not keen on mowing!
The natural solution was sheep, as a hobby and a ‘live mower’. Our first excursion into this world was 8 texel crosses. It came as a bit of a surprise to us (and our neighbours when they marched down the road and into their garden) that they couldn’t be left to their own devises. Several books, foot trimmings, drenching, sprayings and welcoming the elusive shearer later we as a family felt this was an area we would like to learn and explore. We then decided pedigree sheep was the way and progressed into Ryelands. We had obviously done our homework but the ’cute teddy bear’ look of the Ryelands swayed us.
We bought 10 Ryeland ewes. They were much easier than the texels (they don’t pass us at head height over the railings at hoof clipping time for a start). They did however hold a secret surprise for us all when one morning we wondered which stork had delivered a lamb, over the next few weeks delivering another two. What a sense of achievement to raise them, even the one that the mother initially refused to feed.
We then started visiting shows and realized we had ‘the bug’ when we headed for the sheep tents first and not the refreshment stands.
We went to this years Ashbourne show in an attempt to gain a little idea of what exactly a good Ryeland sheep should look like. We met a few people, asked a lot of questions and generally made a nuisance of ourselves but the ‘Ryeland family’ were very patient and helpful. Further discussion at home and youngest son showing an interest in the young handler idea we decided we would traipse halfway across the country to Ludlow to the only all Ryeland sale. It was a very interesting day where we came back lighter in the wallet but two rams richer. They passed the girls inspection but they are handsome.
Currently we are back at play school with our boys playing with brightly coloured wax crayons and Radling harnesses which we had to have modeled by the mother-in-law.
We are very excited for the future and looking forward to what Spring brings.
We are novices on the beginning of a journey, we welcome companions and will try to keep you all abreast of the goings on at Cawood Farm on the calender on the right, buckle up it may be a bumpy ride. Please feel free to leave your comments on there as well.
Please follow our adventure