Lambing 2025

With a few of our ewes getting older now we decided that Celestial and Hildegard, who has had problems with mastitis in the past, shouldn't lamb again, so they were kept apart at tupping time. Unfortunately Viking had also died earlier in the year, so Deish had to cover all 25 ewes by himself.

Once again we used CIDRs to synchronise everything, to hopefully give us a nice compact lambing window in spring.

Taxi for three!

As we lamb outside and then tend to bring the lambs and mothers inside for a day or so to ensure they are thriving, we have to work out the logistics of moving them all together. Our Hebrideans are such good mothers that the bond forms with their lamb instantly and they will readily follow us if we pick it up. There have only been a couple of occasions with a particularly skittish ewe where this has ever been an issue.

This year though we were using a field further from our big polytunnel and carrying the lambs all that way, especially if it was overnight, was hard work - for us and for the ewe to follow.

To solve this we brought the little trailer I'd converted a year or two ago back into service as our flock's personal lamb taxi, or Eweber! This worked a treat and made life so much easier.

Lambing outside

Since we gained enough confidence and experience to switch to outdoor lambing a few years back there's always been the challenge of how to deal with things should a ewe need assistance.

Thankfully, partly due to our breed's attributes (the largest pelvis to body size ratio of any breed), and partly due, we feel, due to the reduction in jostling for feed and personal space, we have seen a reduction in the numbers we need to help each year.

This year was no different, with just two needing intervention. One was a simple head-only presentation that just needed the legs fishing out. The second was more of a challenge! Our last but one ewe, Burnet, who was born here on the farm back in 2019, had looked like she wanted to lamb all day. In the early evening a water bag finally appeared but not much else. A lack of progress at this stage can signal problems so we opted to see what was going on.

We were able to approach her slowly and catch her without any stress and a quick check revealed that she had a very large lamb on the way. Despite the aforementioned pelvis size it was stuck! I managed to locate both front legs and bring them forwards but its head seemed too big to get through the pelvis. After a lot of pulling we opted to ring for the vet as the lamb wasn't going anywhere.

Thankfully, in the short time whilst we waited for a call back, and with the help of a lot of lube, we managed to deliver a huge tup lamb and get him up and breathing. It may just have been that she needed even more time for her ligaments to relax sufficiently to let him pass through.

Perhaps aptly named Hercules, he is our biggest lamb ever - weighing in at 5.5kg (which is huge for a Hebridean). Considering his mum usually weighs around 38kg, he was nearly 15% of her body weight! That's like a 70kg woman having a 10kg (22lb) baby!! The photo shows him at a day old compared to the year's smallest lamb (2.4kg), who was nearly a week old by this point..

96% done

The CIDRs worked their usual magic and 24 of the 25 ewes lambed over a 7 day period. Just one looked to have rolled over to the second cycle.

After a balanced start of 3 tups and 3 gimmers we then had a run of 14 tups with just 2 gimmers. Every time we went to check it was another tup lamb! Then the last 14 of this bunch were 10-4 in the other direction. But this just balanced out the previous year really.

With just the one ewe to go we were spot on 150% with 36 lambs out to the field and doing well, with no losses. A much better percentage than last year that probably reflects the less challenging winter.

The last ewe lambed on the second cycle, as predicted, with another set of twin tups to round off the year - 38 lambs from 25 ewes (152%), 14 gimmers and 24 tups!

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