Last Saturday began like many mornings on the farm this time of year, with me and Dawn setting out to move a few of batches of lambs on to fresh grass.

The plan was to shift one batch from the recently reseeded red clover sward which they had been grazing for the past six weeks and bring them through the yard on the way so we could run them across the scales.

I wasn’t expecting much in terms of finishing weights, but I wanted a clear picture of how they were performing on the new reseed.

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The heaviest lambs I had bought in earlier in the year were only 32kg and that was six or seven weeks ago, so I didn’t anticipate any being anywhere near drafting weight.

The idea was more about monitoring progress than picking out finished lambs. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the scales.

Delight

To my surprise – and delight – a handful of lambs tipped over 50kg, which is exceptional weight gain over such a short feeding period.

Along with that, a strong proportion were coming in around 44kg to 46kg, showing that the red clover sward is clearly delivering the performance I’d hoped for when reseeding.

It’s always encouraging when an investment in soil and pasture begins to show a tangible return and these weights were as clear a sign as any that the sward is doing its job.

Since we had them in the yard, it made sense to take the opportunity to carry out a bit of routine health management.

All lambs were run through the footbath and any showing signs of lameness were pulled out for extra attention. Some only needed a spray of Repiderma, but those with more severe issues were given an antibiotic injection.

It would have been convenient to dose them while they were already in the race

As part of the handling, everything also received a mineral drench to keep them right as they move into the next grazing rotation.

I debated giving them a worm drench as well, especially as some were heading to a field away from the yard with limited handling facilities.

It would have been convenient to dose them while they were already in the race.

But after assessing them closely, they were all fairly clean and I didn’t want to drench unnecessarily, so I decided it was better to hold off and monitor them instead.

As usual when working with sheep, a job that I thought would only take a few hours ended up taking half the day - it’s a good job I don’t have a thousand lambs, but it felt like time well spent.

Strong weight gains, clean lambs and a bit of proactive flock health work made for a very productive few hours - and a reassuring sign that the red clover sward is working well.