Tufty was seen by the vet yesterday morning. He could barely stand and the vet said that he must have been in pain. We lay him on his side, one of us held his horns and the other stroked his face as the vet administered the lethal injection. When he was still we all lifted him onto a wheelbarrow and took him into the barn and covered him with a large black sack

This afternoon we put Tufty into the back of the Land Rover and drove, through beautiful villages and landscapes bathed in autumn sunshine, to the Oakley Hunt Kennels just outside the village of Melchbourne.

Tufty will go into the animal food chain and be fed to the 80 hunting dogs. I confess the idea made me queasy but I suppose no more so than humans eating dead flesh.

The gentleman at the hunt assured me that the dogs are friendly and boisterous but listening to such loud barking was slightly unsettling. Click below

Dear old Tufty came to us as a young ram and grew into a fine and productive gentleman. Truly gentle he was never, as some rams are, aggressive.

Now he has lost all his strength and condition and he has become very thin and in the last few days almost unable to take more than a few steps.

The vet is coming this morning to save him an undignified end – which would mean starvation, pain and suffering.

The 1800 acre Hatley Park Estate was bought in 1946 by Sir John Astor the youngest son of Nancy Astor, who was the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons in 1919.

The estate is beautifully maintained and contains Buff Wood, a site of special scientific interest managed jointly with the Woodland Trust. The Park contains a herd of pedigree beef shorthorn cattle.

The arable crops grown in the fields are wheat, barley and oilseed rape.

There are plenty of well-maintained footpaths cross-crossing the estate and it was a splendid u3a walk on a sunny autumn morning.

I often see crows and jackdaws sitting on the back of the sheep.

What are they doing? In springtime they might be harvesting loose wool for nest building. At this time of year they are more likely to be feeding on ticks and parasites.

The sheep seem quite content to give them a ride and perhaps enjoy the gentle pecking.

Today we keep a flock of two-horned Jacobs.

I’m not complaining!