The Woolly Workers of Far Ings

When you hear the term ‘conservation worker’ do you immediately think of earnest young people wearing hard hats, stout boots and wielding scrub cutters? Well, think again! Over at Far Ings you can see workers of a very different type who live out on the old meadows day and night whatever the weather. They make a fine sight clad in smart woolly coats with most sporting at least one natty pair of horns. No need for scrub cutters with this intrepid bunch, the only tools they use for tackling encroaching scrub are their very effective sets of teeth.

Lounging in the sunshine, until....

These Far Ings workers are, of course, Hebridean sheep - a small, hardy and long lived breed thought to be descended from sheep brought over by the Vikings when they settled the Western Isles and Highland regions of Scotland more than 1,000 years ago.

... the Shepherdess shook a bag of food and the group came thundering over at great speed!

An unusual characteristic of the breed is that many have multi horns maybe four but sometimes more and it was this attractive feature that probably saved them from extinction.

The breed was the mainstay of shepherds in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland prior to 1750 but gradually, after the Highland Clearances when families were forced from their homes to make way for large scale sheep farming, landowners replaced them with larger breeds such as the Blackface and Cheviot. By the mid twentieth century these Hebridean sheep only survived as ornamental animals in the parklands of a few large country estates and in 1973 they were identified by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as a breed in danger of extinction.

However, all was not lost! Because of their hardiness and the fact that they thrive on vegetation too poor to be eaten by other breeds, Hebridean sheep are finding a new role in conservation. Their preference for grazing broadleaved vegetation such as dock makes them ideal for pasture improvement and for controlling the spread of invasive species and they can now be found on nature reserves all over Britain. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust itself has 500 of them spread all over the county with 24 currently at Far Ings in their winter quarters. These will soon be brought in and made ready to be sent out for summer grazing in other parts of Lincolnshire.

The sheep at Far Ings are used to stop scrub growing around the old clay pits as birds don’t like tall vegetation around the water bodies they use. They need a clear line of sight so that they can identify any predators. In other parts of Lincolnshire these sheep are used to restore low lying heathland and heather moorlands as, unlike other breeds, they prefer to eat the strong growing grass that smothers the heather rather than the heather itself. Over on the sand dunes and salt marshes of Spurn Point they are used to encourage a diverse plant life by preventing the regrowth of invasive sea buckthorn which would otherwise soon form a dense canopy.

Of course, you can’t have sheep without a shepherd! These sheep are cared for by Karen who has worked for the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust for 17 years based at Far Ings. As well as caring for the sheep she does general conservation work all over the county, tasks such as maintaining footpaths and bird hides and leading group visits to the nature reserves. She started as a volunteer but has now graduated to become the full time assistant warden at Far Ings.

Norbet, enjoying a hearty treat.

As shepherd, her work involves feeding and monitoring the health of the sheep, worming, foot trimming and lambing although she was quick to point out that there will be no lambing at Far Ings this year. Even so, there is a flock of Hebridean sheep there all year round for you to visit and admire!