New tups

This would be our biggest year lambing so far, with 30 ewes, including 10 who would be lambing for the first time, going to three tups. This gave us the opportunity to prove two of our home bred tup lambs, ready for potential sales in summer, as well as the first use of our new tup Zeus.

As in previous years, we used CIDRs to synchronise everything, to hopefully give us a nice compact lambing window.

This would be our fifth year lambing the flock outside so the "Eweber" was ready to go!

Early arrival

When we plan our lambing dates and the timing of the CIDRs we always make sure that we'll be ready a day or two before the first predicted lambing date. Although the average gestation in sheep is 147 days some of our ewes run shorter than this and there always seems to be someone who can't wait to get on with it.

This year was no exception and on the Thursday evening round (lambing planned from Saturday onwards) we found a first-time mother keeping by the wall with her lamb. She was doing a great job of staying nearby and ensuring the other boisterous gimmers weren't getting too close.

The next evening another first-timer joined her - the new mums were keen to get going!

The night shift

Checking the flock at least every 2 hours day and night is tiring but manageable - at least until something happens and you don't get the downtime for a doze in the early hours.

On the Saturday, the day we were meant to start, the night time checks threw up plenty to do. In the pitch black at 2am there was a ewe with a new set of twins to gather up, treat their navel with iodine, and move to a warm pen in the polytunnel. Looking over the rest of the flock one of the older ewes, Artemis, just wasn't right. She had separated herself, but not in readiness for lambing, which is never a good sign. She let me walk up to her without trying to get up and move and I could see she was trembling.

It had all the hallmarks of twin lamb disease, so she was also moved to the polytunnel and treated with a drench and injected with calcium under her skin. By the next morning it was like she had never been ill - she was up on her feet and devouring all the hay we put in front of her (as well as some additional ewe nuts). The only question was whether her lambs would survive.

Fast forward

From there the week passed in a blur. Another couple of dozen ewes lambed, we had a traumatic kidding season with the goats and several all nighters trying to keep kids alive, our cattle were brought in twice for their TB testing and we even manged to fit in a health and welfare review with the vet.

There were lambs coming in and lambs going out every day, ear tagging to be done, electric fencing to be set up for cattle moves, repairs to the pig paddock, and all of the usual other daily checks and feeding. It was a good job the weather stayed fine and our collected experience meant that one of us could manage things whilst the other caught up with a nap!

Most of the ewes were happy to join their lambs in the trailer but the odd few weren't keen on being caught and preferred to be shepherded out onto the track and walk the few hundred yards to the polytunnel. Their lambs already knew to follow closely and were strong enough to make the journey as well, despite just being hours old!

What about Artemis?

As the days had gone by it became clear that Artemis was a second cycle ewe, so she went back to the field with the others whilst we waited.

Then, pretty much bang on time, she popped out a pair of tup lambs. Pretty amazing considering she had been at death's door just days earlier.

How did we do?

By using CIDRs and two tup lambs there was always the risk that we would end up with a bunch of second cycle lambings if they missed the ewes coming into season before they had worked out what to do.

One of the two managed 4/4 of his ewes but the other only caught the last one of the five we gave him! Zeus, even though he initially had 21 to cover, got 20 of them first time around, as well as then picking up the other 4 missed by the slower tup lamb!

24 ewes lambed over a 7 day period, with the 5 second cycle ewes finishing up over 4 days. One ewe, that didn't get a CIDR, was close on the heels of the first group.

We had a total of 46 lambs (24 gimmers and 22 tups) and no losses, giving us 153% out to the field. This broke down as 110% from our first timers (where we would roughly expect one lamb per ewe) and a whopping 175% from our older ewes, over half of whom are 7+ years old now. Our 9 and 10 year olds all had good sized sets of twins!

This just goes to show how resilient and productive Hebrideans are! Most commercial breeds/mules would be sold to lowland farms or culled by 4 years old as they can't stay productive on the hills. Yet our little black sheep are still popping out robust twins at over twice that age and without any supplementary concentrate feeding this winter!

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