Rebekah Housden: Lambing shows every day is a school day

By the time this piece is published, we will be through our first week of lambing. The sheds are full of healthy-looking North of England Mules, mainly expecting pairs.

I have done all the preparation – the “big shop” at the farm suppliers, the vaccinating, disinfecting and careful arranging of the equipment.

As well as following advice from our farm assurance inspector to get a certificate to prove my years of experience, I went on a vet-organised lambing survival course this year.

See also: Rebekah Housden – beer-related therapy (in moderation) can help

About the author

Rebekah Housden

Rebekah Housden is based at Roadhead in Cumbria, and has worked on a farm with 600 ewes for 11 years. She also shares a smallholding of 90 ewes. She is a first-responder, a parish clerk, runs a community bar and caters for rural weddings. 

Read more articles by Rebekah Housden

I always go to these sorts of things with an open mind. If you can take away just one piece of information or a new practice to try, the couple of hours on a dark evening are worth it.

Often there is a pie supper too, which always helps.

While there, an older lady told me I should be leading the course, not attending it.

Flattering, but if I’ve learnt anything, it is that sheep (and farming, and life)can always teach you something. As the old saying goes: “Every day is a school day.”

Sheep, especially, will find a creative new way to cease living. A disease or illness which you have never heard of before will suddenly appear.

On the course, we were able to inspect some (dead) Schmallenberg lambs – a virus that has not made a big impact in this area yet.

The timings of tupping do not really match up with when the midges are at their most active.

The Schmallenberg lambs were a stark reminder that we can ensure all the planning and preparation is in place, but we can’t stop nature throwing a spanner in the works.

One bite from a midge and all the calculations, careful handling and high quality of care go out of the window. We have to be willing to learn, we must be adaptable.

I enter the lambing shed knowing some things are simply out of our control.

The future of farming is a grey and blurred image, but we can only focus on one day at a time and give farming our all to produce the best.