THEY USED TO CALL sheep the golden hoof, for these were the animals that improved the fertility of the land on which they were grazed. Such traditional practices were abandoned long ago: sheep were temperamental and tricky to look after, while a tonne of nitrate fertilizer was cheap to buy.
Today, sheep husbandry remains just as tricky, but the cost of fertiliser has quadrupled, so suddenly sheep are in demand again. This past winter, two local farmers have planted green covercrops, typically a mix of fodder