Helping hands

Graeme Bethune explains how being well prepared for the challenges of lambing is vital for the survival of his sheep

BY THE time you read this I will be hip deep in new life! Lambs coming thick and fast, enjoying the May sunshine, the new grass and meadow herbs. I had put my lambing back a few more days, to get past the variable spring weather as much as possible, and to enable the new mothers to get that first flush of green in the fields which will give them the best nutrition to make lots of milk for their lambs.

Lambing is all about preparation and details. I work my lambing alone, so I must organise as best I can. My farm is 21 miles away from the vet, so if I need an item I cannot just pop out and get it, I must have it here already. The amount of lambing supplies I’ll need is daunting, so here is a rough list with a wee guide to their use.

Gloves: I use lots to protect my hands and prevent disease transmission to the sheep.

Iodine: gets sprayed on navels to prevent infection and to aid the drying up of the umbilical cord twig.

Syringes and needles: 2ml, 5ml, 10ml and 50ml for the administration of everything from antibiotics to stomach tubing. You can never have too many.

Dried colostrum substitute: for feeding to weak or abandoned newborns.

Dried milk: for bottle-feeding weak or orphaned lambs. (My secret favourite job because you get to cuddle the lamb.)

Lubricant: to help things go into and come out of the sheep (arms in, lambs out).

Antibiotic: only used for ill animals or for one that has had me arm-deep inside searching for a reluctant lamb.

Assorted lambing aids: lambing ropes

(to hold heads or feet steady while you search for other bits of lamb to orientate it into a better position), prolapse harness, head halter.

Oral digestive booster: helps the lamb’s gut fill with good bacteria to prevent watery mouth disease, boosting the work the mother’s colostrum already does.

Glucose, magnesium and calcium in injectable form: to balance temporary mineral deficiencies. A ewe can go from collapsed to up and normal in five minutes with such treatments.

Thermometer: for checking for infection and also for hypothermic lambs.

Warming box, hot water bottles and lamps: for orphaned hypothermic lambs.

Hurdles: many, many and in different sizes to make pens of different sizes in which new families can bond.

Bottles and teats for bottle feeding. Elasticator ring for docking tails and castrating boys, plus several applicators.

Two buckets for every pen, to hold water and food.

Supplement licks: a salty sweet block with mineral supplements which helps the ewes’ health in and around lambing.

Feed: dry feed for extra help, and lots of best-quality hay because the sheep are partially housed inside and the field they use is soon pretty bare.

Bedding: every pen and the shed has a deep floor of quality bedding, which is changed between every occupant.

Strong cleaning materials: Jeyes fluid, bleach, liquid soap, brushes, cloths, bowls, whisks, spoons and so on.

Paint sprays, so I can identify which lambs and mothers belong to each other.

Scales for measuring feed, colostrum and milk. Plus a kettle to make warm milk and colostrum. And me a cup of tea.

There is more, but you get the picture! The thing is, sheep managed fine without this for a long time, but many ewes and lambs died in preventable ways. I am proud to say I have, in some years, never lost a lamb who made it into this world alive.

Lambing alone is special as well as hard. To quote a film, “the hard is what makes it great!”. There are massive highs and crushing lows, but I am satisfied and happy. It’s a time of no compromise. Maximum care. Not many moments in life can you say that.