6 minute read
24 hours in lambing
What a way to make a living
Dolly Parton had it good only working from 9 to 5! NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador Bizza Walters explains what her working day looks like as a contract shepherdess
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6.30am: My alarm goes off and I get washed and dressed, ready for the day ahead. I head outside with the dogs to check my small flock of Greyface Dartmoor sheep who have recently lambed, and feed them their breakfast. I turn them and my horse out into their field, and head back up to the house for my breakfast, pack my lunch and get ready to head to work.
8am: I arrive at work on a farm ten minutes away from home, and head straight out to the sheds to see the farmer and find out what’s happened throughout the night. I feed the big and individual pens their breakfast and make sure everyone has hay and water. This gets disrupted, however, when I notice that one of the ewes is starting to lamb. I can see from the marking on her that she is due to have triplets, so I watch her closely for the next 15 minutes until I feel it’s time to intervene. The first lamb was coming with a front leg back, so once I managed to pull this forward and into the right position to pull it out, the other two arrived shortly after without any help. Mum and triplets are doing great, and I document the birth in our lambing book.
9am: It’s time to head out with the quad bike and feed snacker to feed and check the ewes and lambs in the field. Once the feed has been dropped on the floor by the snacker, I have a thorough drive around each field to check for any issues such as poorly lambs or ewes. In the last field, I come across a lamb that has been separated from his mum and is looking a bit hungry. I decide to bring him back to the sheds to give him some milk and TLC.
Bizza lives in Warwickshire and is a Student & Young Farmer Ambassador. After finishing her recent stint lambing near home, Bizza began a contract in the Highlands of Scotland, and plans to go to Iceland for her next role.
10am: Once the hungry lamb has had some milk and is under the heat lamp to warm up, it’s time to clean out the milk machine used for the orphan lambs. I take it into the yard to clean it out with the hosepipe and refill it with water and milk powder. I then hook it back up to the Heatwave milk warmer machine and the orphan lambs are happily drinking away. I check through them all to make sure they are all fine and none are going without milk, and spend time putting the new orphans onto the machine so they get the hang of it. 11am: It’s now time for a quick coffee and biscuit break to keep us going until lunchtime!
11:15am: After a quick refuel, we have two ewes lambing – one is a single and one a twin, and both lamb unassisted, just how we like it! These are moved into individual pens, and we spray the lambs’ navels with iodine to reduce the risk of any infection. We then start marking up ewes and lambs to go out to the field. This involves tagging the lambs ears, ringing their tails, and
spraying them with a number to link them to their mums.
1:00pm: Lunchtime! Keeping an eye on the ewes via the camera in the sheds, we can have a sit down for a welldeserved lunch break.
2:00pm: Heading back out to the sheds, I notice there is a ewe who isn’t quite right. She is off her feet and looking very down. Upon closer inspection, I can see she is suffering with twin lamb disease; her lambs have sucked all the energy out of her. She is given some Ewe-Go and calcium to give her an energy boost, and we place a water bucket and some hay in front of her. Hopefully she’ll be back on her feet soon. There is another ewe lambing, and she has triplets unassisted. She is moved to her individual pen, and we will keep an eye on all three lambs to make sure they each receive enough colostrum.
2:15pm: We start to turn out the ewes and lambs we marked up before lunch. Any weaker ones go into the ‘nursery pen’ to spend a bit of extra time inside, and the rest are taken out to the field with the quad bike and trailer. 4:15pm: Once everything is turned out, there is a single lambing. She needs a bit of help because her lamb is so big! Once she has licked and bonded with her lamb, she is moved into an individual pen and we then start the afternoon feed in the sheds. The ewe with twin lamb disease is looking much brighter and has a nibble at some food. The big pens are fed in walkthrough feeders and the individual pens with ewes and lambs are fed on the floor in their pens. We top up hay, straw and water in the individual pens, and then head outside to feed the ewes and lambs in the fields with the quadbike and snacker. The lamb we bought in earlier is feeling much better, so we took him back outside to join his mum and he trotted off happily with her and his sibling. Everyone is happy out in the fields and they will be checked again first thing in the morning.
5pm: We bring some new bales of hay into the shed for the big pens, and this is put in their big ring feeders. Everyone is happily munching away, and all is quiet in the sheds. I go round the individual pens and make sure everyone is happy and all lambs are full.
6pm: And that’s my day at work done! We hand over to the night lamber and talk him through what’s happened throughout the day, and I then head home to sort my animals out. I take the dogs out for a walk to get the horses in, feed my Dartmoors their dinner and put them to bed in a smaller paddock behind the stables. We have a big woodland next to their field with lots of foxes in and the lambs are still small, so for my peace of mind I put them into a smaller, more secure paddock.
7pm: I head back up to the house for dinner and a shower and catch up with friends and family about their day.
9pm: Wellies and coat back on, and I head out for one last check on the Dartmoors and horses, and everyone is happy and sleeping. I then head back to the house and into bed, ready for another busy day tomorrow!
