191%

It has been an extremely busy few days for our girls.  Not only have they had to navigate their way through the mud to end up in the lambing sheds, they have since been shorn and scanned to see how many lambs they are each having!  Our scanning result is 191% which we are really pleased with considering what they have had to put with this summer with all the rain.  Even one of our favourite girls is having quadruplets!

Scanning is a really important part of our management as it enables us to divide the flock according to how many lambs they are each having and feed them the right amount of food.  This obviously saves us money but also ensures the ewes who are having singles do not end up having enormous lambs and troublesome births.  From the photo you can see the different coloured dots on their backs - red is for singles, blue is for triplets and our quad (2 blue dots) and no dots are having twins.  The green marks are the ewes whose offspring we will keep as replacements to breed from in future years.  How many are Basil's offspring remains to be seen, can't wait!

As I write the snow is falling outside and we have probably had about 4 inches this morning.  This is when it is nice to know the ewes are inside and we can keep a close eye on them.  We have lambs outside still but they will be tucking into their fodder beet and hay which will be keeping them warm and giving them energy.  Basil doesn't think a lot of the snow, it sticks to his fleece but makes him look even more handsome!

Our baby is due today, so having our tractor on standby is rather a blessing.....

Roly was lucky enough to see an elusive visitor to the lambing sheds yesterday morning, have a look at this you tube clip.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Happy New Year!

I have just looked at the weather forecast again and no rain is forecast for a few days, a great start to the new year for us.  It is hard work in the mud taking care of livestock.  The sheep don't like it either and seem to be looking at us and asking to come indoors.  We've had to move them twice off the fields which have flooded onto higher ground and they do not like walking through puddles let alone floods, so they took some persuading!

We have selected about 30 ewes who are already indoors who seemed to be struggling more than the rest with the wet weather and we thought they could do with a bit of TLC.  They are happily munching their way through our hay and seem much happier.  Our lambs have certainly got the taste for fodder beet and came running over to greet us on the quad bike this afternoon.

Roly is busy building the pens in the lambing sheds ready for the main flock to come in next week.  They will be shorn and then scanned to tell us how many lambs they are each having.  We can then divide them into pens and feed them accordingly.  We hope to have good scanning results as there have been reports in the farming press of low percentages due to the Schmallenberg virus which has now been confirmed in every county as well as poor nutrition from the grass as a result of the wet summer.

We are really looking forward to having all our 'shepherds for the day' who have booked up to be with us and our guests who will be joining us in the evenings during lambing as well.  We still have some spaces for the evenings so get in touch if you would like to join us, see www.camillaandroly.co.uk for all the details and how to book.

Not long now until our new addition to the family arrives, we are so excited and can't believe Molly will be a big sister!

Very happy new year

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle