Today we started out the day by finding that all the pregnant ewes had escaped through a collapsed gate into the lamb field. The sneaky ram (a very small ram, presumed to be a ewe, that was left in with the ewes and got them all pregnant!) was dead; it was probably butted to death by the ewes with lambs from the other field, if they perceived it as a threat. Another female had given birth in the night to twins; we moved her up to the paddock to be with O.A.P. and her lambs. We then tried to separate the mixed up flocks and carried on with the morning feed. We went up to the grazing area on Cobstone hill with the horse box and captured the wethers (male castrated lambs from last year) to trim their feet and worm them.
We loaded the wethers onto the horse box and made to leave...until the propshaft on the Landrover snapped! A short phonecall later, a swift vehicle change and we were back on target, delivering the wethers to the bottom field. I bottle fed the four most recently born lambs to supplement the milk from their mothers, and helped Tony to set the moth traps. I look forward to seeing some spring-time moths!
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