KEVIN, his family, Ian and Marcus have been busy preparing for the lambing of 500 ewes over a four-week period, and the first arrivals were due on Saturday.

One task was to clean all the barns housing the ewes. For this the ewes were turned out, in batches, into a small paddock next to the buildings so that the manure could be removed quickly before being freshly bedded up with clean straw.

It didn’t take long for the manure to be mechanically removed by Kevin and then taken in trailers by Ian to be piled into a heap in a designated area of our overwintered stubble field .
Then it was time to make up areas of individual pens, constructed of wooden hurdles, where ewes and their offspring will stay for a few days after giving birth. By doing this a close eye can be kept on each ewe and her lamb/s  in this “post natal” area.

Kevin’s father, Francis, has checked all the lightweight rings, made of stiff plastic pipe and netting  which can be easily placed around a lambing ewe to prevent her being disturbed by the other expectant mums and makes it easier for the shepherd to give her help if the birth becomes complicated.

More lights have been added to the barns, also running water, which will mean there will not be so much fetching and carrying to do.
Whilst on the subject of water, Wessex Water believe there is a leak in a mains water pipe which crosses the farm, but we are not aware of anything unusual, so they have been doing a search.
The old dairy, which used to house the bulk milk tank and other milking equipment when we had a dairy herd, has been given a thorough clean by Kevin’s mother. It is in this room that bottles of milk will be prepared for any lambs that may need extra, or are having to be bottle reared for a number of reasons. There are usually only a few of these, as where possible the best start for any lamb is to be able to suckle from its mother.
The locked medicine cupboard, which is in another small room, has also been given  a clean  and all the old empty bottles, cans and  used needles taken away for disposal by the vet.

The vet supplies us with special containers in which to store these items, which must always be put in them and kept locked away in the cupboard with any medicines in use. 
Half the flock remain at pasture, so these have to be checked every day and moved if necessary. It was the rams that recently needed  to be moved to a fresh field. The lambing ewes are being fed silage but twice a day they are given a concentrate in the form of large pellets, which Kevin puts into mangers around the barns. I have been told that the collie, Winston, helps with this job by moving in front of Kevin whilst he is pouring the pellets from the bags,  to stop the ewes knocking him over. 
Recently a large cover was erected which will be used to house ewes and lambs as soon as the maternal bond has been established. A night lamber was due to start work on Monday which will make life easier for Kevin, who is checking the ewes night and day at the moment. There have been a few early arrivals, with a set of twins on January 6 and  the night after three ewes gave birth, one a set of triplets, a set of twins and a single. By next week lambing should be in full swing, so everyone will be very busy for the next month. 
Looking at rainfall figures, December  was our wettest month of 2020, with 156mm rainfall, followed by October with 137.5, then February with 135mm. 2020 was a wetter than average year, with a total rainfall of 1,011.5mm here on Manor Farm (wettest Wiltshire average 900mm).