Farmer Focus: Step count at lambing hits marathon level
© Kathy Horniblow How many steps are there in a marathon? Apparently, it is more than 42,000. That means, according to my phone, I’m completing two marathons every two days.
No wonder we farmers lose a bit of weight and are a bit fatigued during lambing.
See also: 20 tips for lambing from award-winning sheep farmers
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The daily steps are fairly spread out, though I do more during morning and afternoon feeding.
Ultimately, it’s the continual checking that makes them add up each day.
I try and keep to a good balanced diet to maintain my energy levels. I keep off the caffeine, and lamb is also definitely off the menu!
We’re onto the next 500 ewes now, in a different shed. Lambing in shirt sleeves is definitely more pleasant than wearing four layers of woollies.
That said, we haven’t put anything out yet (25 March), and grass is still a bit sparse here with the cold nights.
However, there will be plenty at the other farm to go at from 1 April. And the lambs will be super-strong by then.
We were hoping for a “normal” year after two bad ones, and although the warm weather has brought a few cases of pneumonia and mastitis in the early lambers, so far the lambs have been strong, vigorous and easily born.
Coupled with milky ewes, things are looking promising.
The blood tests done last month on the 500 ewes lambing now showed nutritional status was excellent and all within parameters. The usual challenges, though, are always apparent.
First-time lambers that are reluctant mums are always entertaining when you don’t really need it. Staff motivation and training is another. Let’s face it, farming is an unusual work model.
We always find humour is the best way to plough through.
Sadly, there’s not much humour coming from Whitehall these days. Verbal platitudes are one thing, but actions speak loader than words.
I think government arrogance is not a redeeming quality, yet with a massive parliamentary majority, that is what is produced.
We have a raft of world leaders at the moment who think they can do what they like. Perhaps as a simple peasant farmer, the one thing that is really obvious to me is the need for food.
Shortage of food is a real threat, and it will be too late by the time it’s seen in the shops.