Happy New Year to everyone from Glensaugh where we are all back to work after a cold and snowy holiday. Loch Saugh (photo) has been frozen since before Christmas and there is general snow cover, although not as deep as in many places further north. Prolonged snow cover makes it necessary to feed our hill ewes, all of which are now receiving a ration of hay.

The sheep from the WP 3.6.2 experiment have been taken off the hill altogether because of the hostile conditions and difficulty of access for feeding. Last week Javier Perez-Barberia and Russell Hooper were snow- shoeing around the hill changing batteries on the met stations while Donald was out on his touring skis checking the whereabouts of the missing ewes. These were found in a defensive huddle on exposed but blown ground on the hill top from where a track was dug through the drifts to bring them down to the safety of the deer pens.

The annual blood test for Johne’s disease (a chronic wasting disease primarily affecting the small intestine of ruminants) has been carried out on our suckler cows. This year’s test showed only one reactor, the best result we have had so far, indicating that we might be making some progress in controlling the spread of infection. Our thinking has always been that rabbits are to blame in spreading the disease and reduction of their numbers might be helping us to control Johne’s spread. This is of course sheer conjecture and would be expensive to prove, though rabbits are known to harbour disease-causing organisms.

Our second application to the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP), which was for the planting of additional areas of woodland, has been approved by the Forestry Commission and will allow us to plant areas in addition to those approved in last year’s application. We now have enough forestry approvals to keep us busy until 2011 although there is scope for further planting and planning for this will be progressed later this year.