I don’t need to remind you all of the terrible weather that we have had over the last month. The River Tale keeps flooding and therefore our 11 acre field keeps disappearing under water.
Even though the shearer came and dagged all the sheep out, they were getting in a terrible state with all the mud. We put out hay feeders for all the sheep, as they needed dry matter to eat. It helps to prevent the wet grass going straight through them !
It was getting so difficult to get to the fields with hay and even with the quad bike, the tracks were nearly a foot deep in mud and water.. Normally I would bring my in lamb
ewes indoors somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks pre lambing. This year, that couldn’t happen. I had to get them in as well as 40 or so store lambs. The lambs were going backwards and I needed them to be fattening not losing weight. So we set up the barn in anticipation and in they all came in the first week of January. They are now settled into their new routine.
The scanner also arrived this month and we now know the number of lambs each ewe is having. Although I have had them scanned a little bit too late so the scanner hedged his bets on a couple!
I am pleased with the way my ewes are looking and now need to be vigilant leading up to lambing – in theory we start 28th February.
Please remember that you are all welcome to come up to the lambing yard at any time to see what goes on and hopefully see some lovely newborn lambs. Just ring.
Janet East
