As usual this year, I grazed all of the ewes rearing twins in one group but lately I am disturbed to see a number of ewes in this group that seem to have only one lamb in tow.

Lambs are notoriously hard to count in the field and I won’t know for sure until we can count them leaving a race. I did find a skeleton of a lamb when spreading fertiliser. Also there is the paralysed lamb that I took indoors last week, but other that that, these ewes should still have twins beside them.

If lambs are missing there are a number of possibilities. The most probable is cold and rain exposure during one of those awful storms in February. While Charollais cross lambs are lively at birth and good thrivers, their light skin and coat leaves them weather vulnerable.

Another possibility is that Mr Fox paid me a visit or two. While I can’t rule this out I haven’t seen any fox activity and, anyway, usually foxes are more active when rearing their cubs in March and April. We did have buzzards around us this Spring but I am not even considering blaming them.

I know that in hill areas foxes are a real menace. Over the years I have seen people poisoning foxes, shooting foxes using the aeroboard on glass to mimic a rabbit’s cry, using electric fences to keep them out, painting lambs with fox deterrents, etc. One neighbour this year has applied “an oil from a man in Co Down” on all his lambs. To date reckons that he has lost no lamb to Mr Fox this season.

Another large flockowner in the Carlow area had a policy of leaving all dead lambs (and dead ewes) for the foxes. He argued that a fox with a full belly will not bother taking a live lamb. Also it got rid of unwanted carcases for him.

Today such a policy is not possible under the Department of Agriculture rules and the Quality Assurance Scheme. Dead sheep must go to a knackery along with the €15 to €20 fee, thank-you.

The other possibility is that I had a visit from a two-legged fox. Again I hope not but one never knows with pet lambs making up to €30 each.

The real test will come when I actually get an accurate count on the lambs.