This year marked 40 years of lambing sheep on this farm.

The first lamb was born on 15 March 1986 and looking back, it doesn’t seem like that long ago.

In the early years I had no sheep wire and no suitable housing. They had the free run of the farm and they all lambed outside.

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I started with 25 ewe lambs and I knew very little about sheep (I still think that I know very little about sheep).

In those early years there was a subsidy for keeping ewes so I pushed numbers up to over 200. I gradually got most of the farm fenced with sheep wire, but housing was well beyond my budget. So, I had no option but to stick with outdoor lambing.

I used to get up every night and walk around the fields with a torch. In pleasant weather it was not so much of a chore but in severe weather it was hard going.

I was a younger man then. It was no problem to chase a ewe around the field and catch her to help with lambing. If it were now the ewe would be winning the race.

There were nights when it was pouring with rain and I would try to bring in some freshly born lambs into a shed for shelter.

I remember one night carrying three lambs and a torch up the hill to the farmyard while bleating like a lamb.

I got to the gate and the ewe disappeared into the darkness. She had gone back to where the lambs were born. I had to bring the three lambs back down and start all over again. It was a difficult way to earn a living.

Reduced

As time went past, headage subsidy was done away with and I reduced numbers back to about 120 ewes and to be honest, I reared as many lambs as I did with 200.

More recently, we house all the sheep for lambing. My son William now takes the lead and I have been used as a helping hand.

Lambing sheep is definitely a job for a young person. I am more than delighted to see William taking the brunt of the work, although I don’t mind helping out and doing some night shifts.

Things have changed a lot since I was running the sheep enterprise. William is now up to about 270 ewes and all lambing in just a little over one month. Everything is tagged shortly after birth and matched up to ewes and rams.

With all that information gathered, William can identify the best performing ewes and rams and use this information to pick his future breeding stock.

Help

Last year he brought in two veterinary students to help him out during lambing, but they didn’t have much of a clue and he let them go after a week. They were more in the way than being any help to him. This year he is just using some in-house help (myself and his mum).

William and I split the night between us. I do up to 4am and William then works through until morning. Then his mother assists with feeding, bedding, and watering ewes and lambs. After that, I help him move sheep to the field and clean out pens.

We are also busy with cows calving, as well as the two calf rearing houses and all the fieldwork to be done.

I am lucky to have two other sons on the farm and they get through a lot of farm work, although they are not fussed on working with sheep.

It is so hard to get competent staff or people who are willing to work. At this time of year (even with the five of us on the farm) there is still lots to do for everyone.

I enjoy working with ewes and the whole lambing experience, but if I didn’t have some young people around me there would be no sheep enterprise.

To be able to lamb large numbers you need a youthful exuberance and an ability to manage with very little sleep.