Day 61..
Land based machinery - in today's session we covered the topic of all-terrain vehicles (ATV's) and in depth the quad bike. Most ATV's are not fitted with a differential gearbox - which means that turning is difficult and requires the loss of traction on the inside wheel - one of the main reasons that an accident can happen. The operator must be able to shift their weight to maintain the correct centre of gravity and compensate for the forces experienced when turning and operating on slopes (hence no seatbelt). You should never carry passengers on the quad or in a trailed vehicle and you must be 16 or over to operate an adult machine. The two most important safety checks before setting out on your quad are brakes and tyre pressure - which should be between 2&7 psi and should be taken by a low pressure gauge!
Livestock husbandry practical - this afternoon we had a move around of some of the sheep with lambs - nursery pen went to the field and older bonding pens relocated to the nursery pen. We then moved all the first lambers into one straw yard as we needed to fetch in the next batch of 80 sheep due to start lambing in the next two weeks. These were still out grazing at sheepwalks east, so this meant taking the sheep race down to the field and herding them in for a health check before loading them onto the cattle trailer and being moved to home farm. Once back at the lambing pens, a recent mum of one was selected to see if she would take one of the orphan lambs, so to do this she was brought to a new pen and put inside a 'yolk' a wooden device that holds the ewe in the corner of the pen by restricting movement with her head in a 'brace'. This allows the orphan to come in and suckle the mother without it being bullied off where after 24 - 48 hours the ewe should accept the lamb as her own! If not, the lamb will go back into the 'lamb gang' (holding pen for orphans) awaiting another new mum!
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