The lambing season is finished for another year, with the last of the lambs born in mid-May. Overall, lambing went well and we had few issues to deal with, which was pleasing.

There were 330 ewes lambed down this year. Our ewe type is predominantly Lanark-type Scottish Blackface, but for a few years, we crossed the ewes with Swaledale breeding to get a bit of hybrid vigour back in the flock.

The earlier-born lambs were sired by Bluefaced Leicester rams and the Mule ewe lambs will be sold for breeding in autumn. The later-born lambs were sired by Blackface rams.

Favourable weather

The dry spring made a big difference right across the farm this year. Our spring-calving cows went out to grass in April, which is a good month earlier than usual and as such, it freed up a lot more time to focus on the sheep at lambing.

The dry conditions also allowed us to turn the ewes with single lambs out to grass the day after lambing down.

Again, this was a big positive, as it cut down the workload in terms of feeding these animals.

The ewes with twin lambs did stay in mothering pens for a couple of days before going out to grass, but housing space was rarely under pressure.

To help keep an eye on newborn lambs at grass, ewes were turned out to sheltered paddocks close to the main yard.

As these paddocks are smaller than the usual grazing fields, ewes and lambs could be easily caught if there was a problem and any animals needed attention.

Labour

Another reason the lambing period went so well was down to the additional help from my children, due to the schools being closed back in March.

Normally, it would be my father and myself doing the majority of lambing work every year. But having the extra help to call on this spring really took the pressure off and spread the workload.

This meant there was a lot more time to keep on top of all the smaller, but equally important jobs at lambing time.

These include tasks such as ringing tails after lambs are born and recording lamb numbers as part of the flock management data.

Castrating lambs

Last year, I decided to castrate lambs at birth using a rubber ring. At the time, my reasoning was that it would be one less job to carry out later in the year.

However, it had mixed results. There was practically no difference in the performance of our crossbred male lambs, which still performed well and put on condition.

However, our Blackface lambs did not do as well and were much slower to put condition on, delaying sale dates.

So this year, I reverted back to the normal routine and left ram lambs entire at birth. They were castrated two weeks ago, so hopefully, the male lambs will have higher weight gains this summer.

Dealing with mastitis and routine health treatments

The only real issue we had this year was a few cases of mastitis back in mid-May, when it was colder and there was a week when there was frost at night.

The ewes were brought in from paddocks and treated with Synulox and tubed. Thankfully, the ewes have recovered again.

Lambs

All lambs have now received their first worm dose for the year, with a white drench used to target nematodirus. Lambs have also been vaccinated for clostridial diseases using Heptavac P. Any time the sheep are brought in for a routine treatment, they are also run through the footbath, which uses a Formalin solution.

Clipping

Thankfully, we have had no issues with fly strike so far, although we are keeping a close eye on animals for this.

As my ewes are winter shorn, this helps to reduce the problems with flies at this time of year, as fleeces are shorter and cleaner.

Clipping is underway, with the hoggets shorn on 1 June. The plan is to start clipping the ewes this week. Ewes will be dipped around the second week of July.

Early fieldwork and silage

A dry spring and additional labour also meant we got an early start to the fieldwork, such as slurry and weed wiping.

I also reseeded 3ac of grazing ground. As the field is stoney, it was burned off and cultivated with a heavy disc, before sowing out with an air seeder.

Fertiliser went out in early April and gave grass growth a good boost. Another dressing of fertiliser went out in early May, but there was a much smaller growth response due to colder weather.

However, grass growth has picked up again and there will be a few paddocks to take out for silage this weekend.

Lime was also spread on grazing ground at 2t/ac. Soils are tested annually on-farm to try and keep fertility levels right.

Silage

Weather permitting, the plan it to harvest 40ac of first-cut silage this weekend.

Grass will be ensiled with a trailed harvester, although I may hold back some grass for baling if yields are good.

Once grass is in the pit, I will work out how much ground will be needed for second-cut silage.

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