The first of our January lambs went to the butcher recently and their killout performance gave us a bit of a morale boost. There were only three lambs above the 44kg mark that the butcher liked, but at least it is a start to the year’s sales.

Needless to say, they were single lambs and were being creep-fed. The first two killed out at 23kg and 24kg, but this butcher pays for the full carcase weight and does not take “free meat” like some others who process lambs. We agreed a price and I think both of us were happy overall.

The third lamb was a little lighter and we decided to keep him for our own freezer. This is the first time we will eat our own produce, so let’s see if anyone can taste the difference. If the rest of the lambs continue on their current growth rate, we will have another eight or 10 gone in the next fortnight.

This is the first time we will eat our own produce, so let’s see if anyone can taste the difference

Lambing early meant February and March were two long, painful months. But it is great to start moving lambs at this time of the year, before stomach worms and blowfly strikes start to ramp up. All going well, we will not have the lambs in the yard every second week of the summer for something or other, like previous years.

After the torture of February and March, I decided not to lamb early in 2021, but will now defer the final decision until closer to July, when we begin sponging the ewes to start the early lamb process again. We will also have more sales figures then, to better consider the financials of the enterprise.

Another factor affecting this decision is that we have gone up in numbers this year, as 25 ewe lambs born in March 2019 officially join the flock.

They have grown into nice-looking Suffolk-cross ewes. Their mothers have plenty of maternal blood, being of Belclare, Llyen, and Logie-mule descent. We will breed them to Charollais rams and should have some hardy lambs, drinking ewes with plenty milk, and fast-growing into shapely carcases.

Never have I encountered a bunch of animals so determined to find holes in ditches and hedges

These replacement ewe lambs need to pay their way too, especially given the work it has taken to keep them in the field they are supposed to be in. Never have I encountered a bunch of animals so determined to find holes in ditches and hedges. Naturally, the rest of the ewes follow them whenever they find a gap, no matter how small.

It has reminded me again of the importance of proper fencing. I have a few busy weeks ahead with the sledge and the sheep wire.

After announcing on social media that our lambs were nearing sale weight, we received and confirmed three orders within 48 hours.

A small start and it will not make our margins that much higher, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully, these three households will become repeat customers for us and the local butcher, and this short supply chain will help reconnect more people to the primary source of their food. That would be a morale booster.