In 2007, a new grazing scheme began on the Nature Reserve with sheep being introduced to a 20-hectare area during the winter. The sheep graze back the more dominant plants to allow others to grow, thereby improving the biodiversity of the area. The sheep tend to join us in mid-autumn and stay until late winter. During this time, they need to be checked daily and this is only made possible by the help of volunteers. You don’t need to be a vet to check on the sheep, just to count that they are all present and that none is obvisously in poor health.
Assistance is required mainly at weekends but also on dates during the week. It can take anything from 45 minutes to a couple of hours to check the sheep, depending on how leisurely you do it and also how keen the sheep are to hide from you.
Checking up on the sheep is known as lookering so if you’re keen to help look after our winter woollies and, when it comes to sheep, you’ve always seen yourself as a bit of a looker, then do get in touch.
We get our sheep from the Scottish Wildlife Trust through their ‘Flying Flock’ scheme.
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