Which group works hardest for BBOWT – our livestock or our volunteers? That’s a difficult one to call. In fact, on careful consideration, many parallels can be drawn between the two.

Out on reserves in all weathers, clad in a thick coat during the winter and shedding layers in the summer, spending a good deal of time munching (be it vegetation or biscuits) and working tirelessly to ensure that BBOWT’s nature reserves are in tip top condition for wildlife.

This spring however, when it was time for the annual ritual of sheep shearing, these two pillars of the Trust did, briefly, find themselves less well-aligned. For some weeks ahead of the big day, sheep had been slowly converging on Wells Farm from across Oxon and Bucks, readying themselves to be firmly but considerately manhandled by the mountain of a man that is Pete, our shearer.

As he rattled into our yard to setup, we started to round up our faithful fleeced friends with the help of the Oxfordshire Midweek Team – all long-standing volunteers well-versed in the vagaries of sheep herding. And so it began.

We started with the handful of Beulahs (our big white sheep from the Welsh hills) that are more or less resident at Wells Farm. With a shake of a bucket, some friendly calling and just a gentle bit of herding they gambolled into the pen. Fab.

Next came the Bucks' sheep – these were easy ones, the ones that flock together gladly, that follow a bucket of food at a gallop, that know what they’re doing and where they’re going. This was going to be a breeze. Or was it?

It seemed that something was in the air that day, the smell of clipper oil perhaps, as it took a good deal of coaxing and no less than four attempts to finally get the herd to co-operate. Both the sheep and the Midweek Team were now a little puffed out.

With those 35 Hebrideans (little black jobs) safely penned up, attentions turned to getting the next lot in – Warburg Nature Reserve sheep, well known for their friendly amenable disposition. Having no doubt got wind of the merry dance led by the Bucks' flock, however, and not wishing to go unmentioned in a forthcoming blog they understood to be in the pipeline, this flock was not going to be outdone.

The first four attempts to round them up came and went. The pen remained empty. Temporary fences were put up, hurdles were reconfigured and volunteers and staff were rehydrated. Attempts five to eight ensued - faces were reddening, legs (and patience) were tiring. And still the pen remained empty. All the while the clippers kept buzzing, the fleeces kept falling and the supply of sheep to be shorn kept dwindling.

Those that have had the pleasure of working as sheep dogs will know that often, once sheep get the idea that they can have a jolly time making you run around a field, they enjoy it to its fullest and so faith in the operation was waning somewhat.

With a motivational team talk, and a plan of action not much less complicated than that of the D-Day landings, attempt nine finally saw the team’s efforts rewarded – the pen was now stuffed full of sheep.

It was more or less plain sailing from there on, the Midweek Team providing the necessary logistical support (and shoving) to get all the sheep through, shorn and back out into the fields again, where they could process what they’d just been through.

A big thanks to the Oxon Midweek Team for their help at Wells Farm this year, and to Sue and Jan for their expert fleece rolling, lovely company and cracking cake enjoyed at Woolley Firs where the Berks sheep met the same fate the very next day. 

Of course, our volunteers’ involvement with livestock doesn’t stop at one day of the year. Across the Trust, day in day out, many of you are helping out with managing our hungry helpers. From moving animals between reserves to daily checks whatever the weather, from repairing fences to plumbing in water troughs, and everything else in between, we really couldn’t do it without you!

So on behalf of the Trust (and the animals) a huge thankyou!