Suffolk farmer tackling flock and crop aboard Honda ATV

A Suffolk-based shepherd looking after approximately 1,000 sheep at one location plus many additional flocks grazing cover crops on other farms, says the job would be impossible without his Honda ATV.

Robert Spink, trading as Dunhill Farm Ltd, set up his shepherding business seven years ago. Operating from the family’s farm near Diss he built up his own flock of 500 ewes and also contract-rears up to 1,000 additional store lambs each year. Other activities include accommodating 900 nursery pigs on a bed-and-breakfast arrangement, housed indoors and bedded on straw. In addition, Robert provides a contract shepherding service for a 1,000-head flock of sheep owned by a local farmer.

Previously, Robert’s own flock lambed indoors, but a change to Romney ewes means that lambing this spring will be field-based for the first time, reducing the workload. His flock is grass-grazed on pastures either owned by the family or on rental agreements during spring and summer, but in autumn and winter the sheep graze cover crops established on predominantly arable land by an increasing number of local farmers.

Mutual benefit

“It’s a good arrangement,” explained Robert. “The cover crops provide much-needed ground cover when the land would otherwise be bare after harvest, and my sheep convert the vegetation to organic manure. It’s a time of year when the fields would otherwise be unproductive, and the fodder crops provide fresh feed for the flock at a time when I would otherwise be short of grass. Popular cover crops in this area include fodder radish and stubble turnips, as well as mixes such as oats, vetch and phacelia, or rye and vetch.”