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Now call me self indulgent, but several people on here have expressed an interest in seeing what goes on during a typical lambing and I am happy to oblige. With the our heavily pregnant ewes due to pop any day soon, and me having to stay awake anyway, I thought perhaps I could start a lambing blog to help me through the night. So I will try and get some pictures of the lambing shed tomorrow as a starting point and see what the next few days bring. If anyone is interested in any aspect of lambing time or indeed the whole sheep year then please feel free to ask.
Right, enough for now. I don't really expect anything to pop until the weekend so the next few entries might be a bit boring. However, there is always a chance of premature births and we have already suffered the first prolapse, which is a sure sign they are not far off.
I'm on nights so I'm in.
ben awaiting the calving pics from my Dad this year, in full flow so to speak.
For a true lambing I want to see Blizzards, horizontal rain, knee deep mud and said farmer laying in a heap having run 7 times around the field 🙂
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Been there, done that Mike 🙂
Hoping all will go without a problem this year (YEAH RIGHT).
Hoping all will go without a problem this year
Don't tell me you said that last year....
Great idea, will follow with interest.
Good luck welshfarmer with lambing and a blog sounds a terrific idea. Shall look forward to pics too, nothing gruesome though.
Grand. I'll put the kettle on.
How many Lambs are you expecting to care for?
Great idea for a thread.
We are first time sheep farmers with our 6 Herdwicks so may need some tips 🙂
Let the herdwicks get on with it...
Pics of the Herdwicks please! Good luck crosshair.
Lambs 🙂
Had an amazing holiday on a farm in Northumberland when kids were 4 and 2 in lambing season. Every morning and evening we went to the shed to see what had arrived. The farmer and the team of trainee vets he had helping were great with the kids.
They saw birth and death, an amazing thing for them. Their only real memory though is of me trying to to catch a lamb in the barn that had got free. Quick little buggers, even at two days old!
As a kid (from age 11 until 33!) I would always spend the two week School Easter holiday working on my friends farm on Exmoor. They would lamb for the entire two weeks and it was the best time of my life.
Looking forward to pictures of the weather, lambs, sheds full of sheep etc...
My friend and his wife both died before 2000. So this will bring back great memories.
I used to love lambing
And watching the goslings hatch in the incubator.
Interesting the memory's people have because as the son of a sheep farmer, I have absolute zero interest in farming or any aspect of it...
Roll on calving; we have cattle in the field behind us and on a couple of occasions I've shaved while watching calves dropping out. Unfortunately the cows aren't too bright and on more than one occasion they've dropped their calves into a wet muddy ditch meaning a quick rescue and dry-down is needed by the farmer.
lol @ jam bo. I know how you feel sometimes
Anyway, today spring has sprung and the weather is fantastic here in our little corner of Wales. Our ewe with the prolapse isn't looking brilliant at the moment but she is eating OK, which is half the battle with sheep. When they stop eating it is time to really worry. Otherwise all shepp in the shed look happy and content and the rams and single bearing ewes are enjoying some early morning spring sunshine.
2 of our boys enjoying a spot of breakfast
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The single bearing ewes enjoying the sunshine. They are due to come into the lambing shed tomorrow, but if this weather continues I may lamb them outside as it is healthier (though not without logistical issues)
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Every morning and evening we went to the shed to see what had arrived. The farmer and the team of trainee vets he had helping were great with the kids.
Name and shame the posh bastards, (Northumberland farmers son here) most of my annual cash was from 12-14hr lambing days, anyway most people were always late....
These days I remember how much hard work it all was (Easter hols were never relaxing) and how 2 weeks lambing is really a month 🙂
Unfortunately the cows aren't too bright and on more than one occasion they've dropped their calves into a wet muddy ditch meaning a quick rescue and dry-down is needed by the farmer.
One of my wife's friends is married to a beef farmer, and one evening he happened upon just this, a weecalf struggling in a ditch unable to get out. So not wanting to ruin his clothes any more than he had to he stripped to the waist and picked the calf out over his shoulders and walked it back to the yard.
Once the photo had been posted on facebook there wasn't a dry knicker in the village.
On three occasions I've found stuck sheep out on the fells and rescued them. Once was a ewe stuck fast in a bog at the foot of a slope. A big group of walkers had just strolled past and done nothing so I thought I'd have a go. Not wanting to get my boots, socks and britches filthy I sat down and undressed down to my shreddies then waded in, approaching the ewe from behind. For one mad moment I thought about dropping my pants and simulating sex with the ewe but the group, who had stopped to watch, included some children. So I waded on, up to my thighs in bog and got over the ewe then got my arms around her middle and heaved her out with a squelch, which took some effort. I got a round of applause for my rescue but no thanks from the sheep, who just ran off and carried on eating grass like nothing had happened.
😀
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We took our little daughter to a live lambing thing at a vet school near crewe. Various pens in a barn with preggers sheep in every one and they turned the camera on the one that was currently delivering so everyone could watch on a big screen. Spent the best part of an afternoon watching a man with his arm up a sheeps vagina on a giant screen. never again 😐
I wike wambs
Awwwww, lambsies 😀
Mint sauce.
eddiebaby - MemberMint sauce.
Don't s'pose you've got a keyring I could bor.....nah forget it 😉
Was hoping these updates would be presented by Ellie Harrison, or maybe Kate Humble at least. Is disapointed 😕
Really miss lambing time. Spent several happy easters doing various lambing jobs when at Vet school. Sheep are one of the few species which start off quite bright (lambs) but end up really thick (sheep).
Life, death, great fry ups and tootling about in a tractor or haring around on a quad ready to leap off to grab the runaway buggers. Great fun.
Would love to follow Stw lambing live.
Not quite as strong as Jambo's sentiments but I don't envy you welshfarmer!
Although it does look lovely at the moment, I've too many memories of freezing, East Riding nights, shivering in a shed with dry, cracked hands, trudging through mud whilst fighting sleep deprivation!
This Spring is the first that my Uncle hasn't had sheep. Long story but I don't think any of us will miss it after the last two years!
I hope it all goes well for you and I will be checking in to see your photos.
You should name all the lambs after forum members and spray paint the names on them.
Lambs are cute and lovely - and they taste nice too 😈
Just to chime in, if nobody objects? I don't live far from welshfarmer and also currently in the throws of lambing, though the farm is mixed, with a couple of hundred acres of arable. Other half is a partner in her parent's farm business. I have a day job that actually pays, but help out as and when needed.
They're lambing about 800 ewes at home, roughly split 1/2 and 1/2 between texel and welsh mule ewes, texels are about done, they live with us down on the good ground, the mules are normally on rented ground about 15 miles away at 1200ft, but come down to be lambed (all indoors) and get lugged back up slowly once spring arrives. Mules just starting properly now, 300 or so left at a guess.
All will be fed and fattened to be sold as fat lambs, mule lambs (crossed with texel/charolais tup) will come back down to finish too. Some of the best texel tup and ewe lambs will stay as replacements.
Today is a proper spring day here too, we need it, grass was starting to get a bit tight to turn them out on, but it'll grow well if this weather holds.
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Don't you feel dead guilty and bad when you take their lambs away destined for the dinner table? Don't they bleat for days? I can't imagine their grief and imagine someone taking my baby away from me and never bringing it back. I think it's terrible but I do enjoy lamb, one of my favourite meats.
@Jekkyl. Good question. Weaning is always stressful, both for the sheep and for us. However, it is a necessary part of the sheep year in order to give the ewes a good well-earned break from the lambs before they go back to the ram in Autumn. We usually wean at the start of August so the lambs will have been with their dams for 4 months. Many will already be largely independent from mum and may have completely given up on milk. They say a goldfish has a memory of about 5 seconds.We generally find that sheep memory is more like 2-3 days. After that they kind of forget what they were upset about and carry on with eating grass and trying to think up ways to die.
And yes, I do feel guilty while weaning is in progress.
@crosshair. Nice sheep 🙂
crosshair - thanks and love the almost charcoal fleece. Do keep us updated.
welshfarmer - stunning pics there and such good weather for you, long may that continue. How far through the pregnancy are you able to tell whether it's one or two lambs? Do you have an instinct with any sheep as to whether the birth will be straight-forward?
Looking forward to hearing more and obviously hope that you manage some sleep. 😀
In my experience sheep are fatalists. I've seen fat sheep accept death upside down in the mud only to then exhibit the ability to extract themselves and carry on living exposed to a sufficient volume of abuse*.
*colourful language, quad bike engine, land rover horn etc
@cinnamon-girl We get the lambs ultrasound scanned at about 11-12 weeks, so a little over half term. We have mostly twins, 20 odd triplets and a quad. There may be more quads as it is hard to see all the lambs when there is so many. And you can often see if a ewe is going to have problems. Generally you won't see them lamb unless there is a problem, so any you notice lambing are probably going to be problematic....
Crosshair - please put up a photo of your herdwick black lambs when they pop out? They're my favourite sheep.
I live in the sticks in the Highlands next to the field my neighbor uses for lambing. I'm going to conduct a scientific experiment (with a very small sample size) to define the lambing lag between Wales and Gairlochy. I reckon three weeks difference?
Aah, do I miss lambing. Almost as much as I miss no central heating, the outside loo, no hot water cause the stove had gone out, constantly smelling of wet wool and shite.
People who only lived or worked on a farm for short periods of their life look back on it through rose tinted specs and with a romantic charm like they were in Darling Buds of May.
Will do! They don't start for another fortnight I think.
Fantastic thread. Thanks for this. I will share it with the Saxon Family.
Good luck with it all!
Fantastic thread.
+1
Looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Must organise a trip to a farm that allows visitors for lambing next year. My little fellow would absolutely love it.