Farmer Focus: Lucky with lambing labour in tough spring

Over the past few weeks most of our work has been lambing and calving.

The bulk of lambs came in March and overall we had a good season.

But for a few days in early March we were so glad to have an indoor lambing system, as the weather threw everything at us.

Given this extra indoor work, we were very fortunate to have lambing staff this year. Sam was with us for five weeks and joined in with our family life.

See also: Expert advice on assessing and managing lambing difficulties

About the author

Dafydd Parry Jones

Dafydd Parry Jones and wife Glenys, Machynlleth, Powys, run a closed flock of 750 Texel and Aberfield cross ewes and 70 Hereford cross sucklers cows on 180ha. Their upland organic system uses Hereford bulls, Charollais terminal sires and red clover silage, multispecies leys and rotational grazing.

Read more articles by Dafydd Parry Jones

Calving started in April, but it didn’t get off to a good start, with a premature calf, a deformed calf and a dead cow.

We had various issues. I reported in a previous article that our herd scanning results were better than expected, and I suspect nature will try to balance things up somewhere along the line.

During mid-April, we ploughed two fields in preparation for crops of arable silage, undersown with a grass/clover mix.

A retired friend of mine came for a few days with a 50-year-old MF135 and plough. The topsoil on the farm amounts to no more than around five inches (12.5cm), so we have to be very careful not to plough too deep.

I think a plough that can work at around 4 inches (10cm) is ideal to maintain soil fertility and all the essential soil biology that lives just below the surface.

We intended to experiment by using a min-till method on one field.

However, having experienced such good establishment of productive red clover leys over the past 20 years using the ploughing method, we were concerned that we would not achieve similar results.

In our organic system, the red clover leys are such an important part of how we farm.

We’re looking forward for Montgomery hosting another Welsh sheep event in mid-May.

This is the third occasion the county will have hosted this popular on-farm event in recent years due to its central location in Wales.

It also underlines Montgomery’s reputation as a county renowned for its high-quality sheep production.

Mi welwn i chi yna (We’ll see you there).