IT’S that time of year again ‘the three Ts’ - tups, teeth and testicals. All of these are important when purchasing breeding rams.

We have sold our draft ewes - drafts being ewes that are surplus to requirements - because last year’s hoggs are coming into the flock as shearlings.

This year’s gimmer hoggs - girl lambs born this year - have gone away for the winter. Ours go onto farms that have milk cows, because their cows are inside now so the hoggs get some nice grass. This frees up a bit of land at home for the tups and ewes and also gives the rest of the land a rest.

So far this year’s sales have been ok and some of the ewes were slightly up in price from last year, some are about the same, while the cattle prices are slightly down on last year, so on average not too bad.

But please don’t believe all that you hear about the prices at the auctions, only one or two make a lot of money most are pretty average.

Anyway I’m off to clean the dog kennels out and wash some tups’ faces.

* Jayne Kendall farms at Selside, near Kendal.