Lambing 2023

Night-shift, lambing 2023, the lull in-between checks........ Let's write my first blog!

As I sit in the warmth of my living room, not 50m from the main lambing shed, sporadically checking over the expectant ewes via our "lambing cam", I can't help but think back to lambing when we first moved to Kypie in 1991.

For years, lambing commenced on the 25th March, coinciding, like for many family farms, with the two weeks of Easter holidays. The weather was usually kind and we would return to school with a lambing tan, having spent most of our holiday's lambing outside. I swear that you could see the grass growing before your eyes! The 400 or so Grey Faced Mules would lamb with very little intervention, they were hardy, good milky mothers and the newborns were quick to learn the ropes. On the odd occasion that something needed a helping hand, I can remember just how fast they could run, even with a stuck head protruding from under their long tail. Skilful driving and youthful enthusiasm was required to rectify the situation and it seldom ended badly.

Throughout the years, we evolved to lambing inside at night and out during the day. This worked well and aided somewhat in temporarily taming their wild nature.

On the odd wet year, it was impossible to get any vehicle onto the lambing field, so mothers and newborns were coxed inside which could try the patience of a saint!

Since about 2005 and, following foot and mouth, we swapped the Grey Faced Mules for pedigree Suffolks, adding Texels a few years later and more recently, the addition of Blue Texels (and a handful of Hebrideans). Lambing is now the focus of attention from late January until the end of February and is very much an inside job! Neatly organised pens, patiently waiting, much more accustomed to being handled ewes and the excitement of welcoming the future of the breeding flock and potential ram lambs for the following years' Kelso Ram Sales. Yes, it's hard work but it's still up there with one of my favourite times of the year!