The snow couldn’t have come at a worse time for us, as we were right in the middle of lambing. Lambs born overnight were not too bad as their mothers had sought shelter, but those born in to the day were running out of places. Losses were heavy, and of the 80 sheep still in the lambing fields, up to half could be empty. At the same time, conditions up to and since the snow have been good, and barring last Tuesday/Wednesday, lambing has been quite good. We will know the final score in a week or so.

Grass growth has started to pick up and ewes with lambs are now being mobbed up in to their groups for going to the hill. They are still in-bye at the minute and once grouped up will be grazed on a very loose rotation until the hill greens up a bit more.

Cows and calves will head to grass in the next week or so too. The current plan is to put all the autumn cows with their calves together in one group on a rotation around three fields, with the group size matching the field size. Some spring cows will be going on a rotation too, but a bit of fencing is needed first.

With soil indexes being as low as they are, we are spreading unevaporated pot ale syrup from a lagoon on the farm. Nutrient-wise, it is quite high in nitrogen and potash, with a moderate amount of phosphate. Applications are being split up and over winter we have applied between a third and a half of our annual doses on most of the grassland. The pot ale is quite acidic, so we are going to need a bit of lime to balance this, but we have now entered in to a comprehensive liming programme anyway.

We have two fields at Glenconglas (our other farm) we have earmarked for good-quality silage for the young cattle. It is getting 75kg of nitrogen this week, with the intention of cutting for bales in mid-June.