My first placement started on 27 March at Brighton House farm, which is located in West Yorkshire and managed by the lovely Fort family. They run a family farm and are very passionate about their large pedigree Lleyn flock.

I was excited as I come from a farm of pedigree Suffolks and Simmentals. I knew very little about the different management practices and systems for such a large flock size. I was enthusiastic to learn about the Lleyn breed itself as I knew very little about it.

Lambing season was just starting and Beverley Fort showed me around the farm, which is home to their 1,200 lleyn sheep. They are housed in four different buildings according to how many lambs they are carrying and whether they are first-time lambers.

Avoiding pinchers

The shearlings are housed away from the ewes as they are prone to pinchers, in which an older sheep tries to take the shearlings lamb as her own. Beverly designed a chart which explains the different markings on the sheep’s back:

  • green means it is having one lamb
  • plain back is for twins
  • orange is for triplets
  • for quads or more, they spray the number of lambs on the back.

    • My first task was to get the lambing pens ready for the expecting ewes. The pens are bedded up and given a clean bucket of water morning and night. The bucket is tied the top of the pen gate to prevent new-born lambs drowning.

    100 lambings on the first day

    It wasn’t long until one of the 1,200 ewes decided to lamb, and it had triplets. I pulled out the first lamb under the supervision of Beverley and the other two were lambed naturally.

    I injected it with betamox to prevent joint ill and sprayed 10% iodine around the navel. I then checked for any other remaining lambs by feeling the sheep’s belly. I also checked the udder to ensure that the sheep will be able to feed the hungry triplets.

    As soon as the first ewe was looked after, I spotted another ewe lambing. It was like a domino effect; after my first day, we had lambed 100 sheep.

    I’m really enjoying the experience as I am constantly learning new techniques and information.

    Jodie McGeever is an animal science student at UCD and travels on the professional work experience programme supported by the Irish Farmers Journal and the Agricultural Science Association.