Any gadget that makes things easier and saves time at lambing is a welcome one. Sam Jones, who lambs 1250 ewes at Brookhouse Farm near Redditch in Worcestershire, has come up with a couple of novel ideas which do just that.

The first is a neat alternative to watering individual pens. Anyone who has lambed sheep indoors will know what a relentless job haying and watering pens is. This wide-diameter pipe has holes cut in it to allow ewes to drink. It also has blocks inside that form a dam, so when the hose is turned on water fills each section until it starts flowing on to the next.

“The idea is that the ewes have fresh water all the time and there’s no mess with buckets,” says Ian Beecher Jones, Sam’s brother. “Time-wise it’s far quicker than lugging buckets or a hosepipe around.”

With nearly 120 individual pens, it takes just 20min to water them all. “As long as you turn the tap off three pens from the end it doesn’t overflow – hopefully.”

Another neat idea is a lamb trolley, great for transporting mother and lambs quickly and without having to lug hundreds of lambs to and fro. The mesh allows the mother to see and smell the lambs and, as long as it’s a fairly co-operative mother and not an inexperienced youngster, everything should go smoothly.

Have you got a novel idea that makes a big difference around the farm? If so, let us know about it. We’ll put the best ideas in the mag each week.