The Teams from Asphalt Production, Sales, Technical and Paving Solutions joined up with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to shear 160 Hebridean sheep for their Lend- A-Hand day. Andrew Watkinson, Colin Burdett, Gary Hayhurst, John Beard, Jason Barker, Jonathan Godley, Leo Medley ,Matthew Crowder and Edd Hobbs became sheep shearers for the day.

The sheep are used to graze 160 acres of heathland pasture; the grass needs to be kept short to encourage Sky Lark and Lapwings (endangered birds).

Jason Barker, takes up the narrative:  “We arrived on site and were met by Mark from the Trust who inducted us and then told us what we would be doing.  He set us up with the first task of herding the sheep into the pen; he told us this normally takes 3 attempts. When we got to the field we were told the sheep were being elusive as they had already had 5 attempts. We then got involved and had circa. 6 attempts with the Team from the Trust but we only managed to get 30 sheep in the pen.

The Team from the Trust suggested shearing the 30 sheep then having another go at rounding up the sheep after they had calmed down. Everyone from the CEMEX Team got involved with the shearing process. We started to learn how to handle the sheep, apply fly repellent, check for foot rot and fold the fleeces.

The next challenge of the day was to round up the remaining 130 sheep. We had several more attempts but the sheep were still faster than us so we changed our strategy and decided to use a 50 m length of chicken wire and make a portable fence, with each member of the Team acting as a moving fence post. This strategy worked and we corralled the sheep in the bottom corner of the field.  We then moved all the shearing equipment down and started the shearing.

We all assumed roles in the shearing process and proceeded to shear the sheep.  The Wildlife Trust thanked us for our help and commented that they wouldn’t have been able to do it without our help. We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and won’t forget it for a while.”