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Lambs and sheep move to new pasture

lambs in transit

There is no time to rest with young lambs around.  And it’s not just about keeping a constant eye on our lambs to ensure they are getting enough to eat.  The lactating ewes need plenty to eat as all of their resources are going into making milk.  And the lambs like their milk!

And this is complicated by the fact that those ewes that lost their lambs need to be underfed to avoid mastitis.

Anyway, the lambs are doing well but one or two of the ewes were beginning to suffer.  This is despite twice daily high protein sheep nut supplements.  They had pretty much eaten all the grass in our paddock, so we decided to move them up to our other field.  This hadn’t been grazed since last summer, so there is plenty of grass.  It’s also much bigger and has two fallen trees (courtesy of the winter storms).  Great play areas for lambs.

sheep and lambs relax in orchard
sheep and lambs relax in orchard

We decided to move them by trailer, the prospect of keeping the lambs from disappearing through hedges a bit too worrying.

We also took the opportunity to spray them to prevent fly strike, fly strike being a horrible thing to happen to a sheep of any size.

All of the sheep and lambs wouldn’t fit into the trailer.  Even with two trips!  So some lucky lambs got to go by car.  Driven a few hundred yards in the lap of luxury, well the back of a Freelander!

Well, they all love it up there.  There’s lot’s of space, lots to eat and lots to do.

And we quite enjoy the short bike ride when it’s bottle and nuts feeding time :).  As do the dogs, Haribo proving to be quite the expert at loping along beside the bikes.  He’s even taught George, who was scared of bikes, that this is good fun, so they now both run alongside with big doggie grins on their faces.  Even Maxi seems to enjoy trotting along, albeit a few metres back and on the lead!

sheep and lambs have plenty to eat
sheep and lambs have plenty to eat