Mrs Down's Diary

"They are a nightmare to clip" John said "It is so fiddly clipping round their ears and their eyes to keep the fleece in one piece. I used to do it but I would hate the job now."

The reason he was reminiscing about his old clipping gang days, was coming across a number of Dorset sheep in the unlikely setting of a nativity scene.

Dorset can lamb out of season and so are ideal for being able to produce lambs, on tap so to speak, to provide newborn lambs for a Christmas/New Year production.

One of the ewes had only lambed minutes before our arrival on the scene, and I had all on to stop John climbing over the pen sides to give her a hand with her next lamb.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette January 14