by Tria Stebbing
A BUSY time with the flock. We have moved the rams back into their home village to take advantage of some good grass in the field next to ours. We had to set up quite an extensive electric fence to keep them in the area that was safe for them.

Allowing plenty of time, we took the stock tailer up to the paddock to load them up and, anticipating an issue, we were armed with buckets of feed and ginger biscuits. Two of the rams are always a bit tricky to load and then spook the rest, who become unsettled and run off. So we parked up and set up some hurdles, made a small enclosed area to coax them into and took a deep breath – with that they all calmly loaded themselves into the trailer ready for the short hop to the next field.

Has it finally sunk in that every time we load them up, the grass gets better? It was hoped that it would take a while to munch down the grass, but having been up to check on them earlier, it is apparent that it was indeed good grass, because most of it has gone.

Sunday morning was spent cleaning out the shelter ready to make up clean straw beds for the pregnant ewes. As they were due from the Monday onwards, we had left it very late, the mud putting us off doing much the week before. We are borrowing a shelter in the home village that previously housed goats and it is beautiful, if you like old barns. Cobwebs, old nests, holes and burrows under the floor, and useful nails hammered in many moons ago, all go to make a great shelter to lamb in.

We cleaned it all out, sprayed disinfectant and then set up pens with fresh straw. Put together a lambing box of essentials, a random scavenger hunt of gloves, iodine, kick-start, scissors, as well as old towels and hand gel. At last, we were ready for lambing, so after checking in on the pregnant ewes, we returned home for a cuppa, leaving them grazing happily in the paddock.

As the ewes were not far off lambing, him outdoors went down to check them before we turned in for the night. Shortly afterwards the phone rang and all I could hear was a cacophony of baa’ing, followed by a request to get there quickly. All that effort making everything nice, warm and sterile – and 63 had gone and lambed in the middle of the mud patch at the far end of the paddock. Two very big strong ram lambs were already in fine voice and up on their feet. We moved her slowly down to the comfort of the shelter, where she heaved a sigh before tucking into some much-needed ewe nuts and hay.

The Zwartbles breed never fails to amaze us with its perfect lambing and strong bond with its lambs, and we can thoroughly recommend them to anyone thinking of starting a flock of their own. One down – many more to follow.