The mature ewes took their time to start lambing. All are going well over their expected due dates. This was quite a frustrating time and resulted in several quiet nights in the lambing sheds. There were on average only 15 to 20 ewes lambing per day up until last weekend. Of course, when I wanted to watch the last rugby matches of the Six Nations, they really got going. I heard they were real nail-biters but I had to satisfy myself with watching the highlights.

The majority of the mature ewes should be finished by next week with only a few stragglers after that. As it stands, the first of the ewe lambs (yearlings) have begun to lamb. The recent weather has been a great advantage in getting ewes and lambs back out to fields promptly, with only ewes that lambs have been fostered on to being kept in for any real length of time.

The ewe lambs have been moved back to the main yard for lambing now that there is shed space available. One of the groups had been suffering from a lot of foot problems from the shed they were housed in before and have needed a bit of TLC since returning to the main yard. The main culprit for these foot problems has been foot rot and, as we all know, when it gets into a shed it’s a nightmare to control. I will have to install a large batch footbath adjacent to this shed before next winter.

Moving ewes from one side of the road to the other just for foot-bathing is often a hassle and gets put on the long finger. Foot rot is an extremely painful disease and affected animals lose weight rapidly. Animals with virulent foot rot are very lame, remain recumbent for long periods and may carry the affected leg. When both forelimbs are affected, animals walk on their knees.

The first sign of foot rot is swelling and moistening of the inter-digital skin. A break occurs at the skin horn junction from where infection spreads under the horn tissue so that the wall of the hoof becomes separated and the sole under-run. There is a characteristic foul-smelling discharge. I usually use a zinc sulphate footbath mixed to a 10% solution to control foot rot, but this time I made up a copper sulphate bath which I also mixed at a 10% solution as I could only source this at short notice. This change, however, seems to have done a very good job at clearing up any remaining problems. Along with this I also gave very bad cases an injection of some Amoxicillin.

As I’ve been busy lambing lately, I haven’t had a chance to measure my grass covers but I plan on walking the farm at some stage this coming week to see what way things are going. I may need to get some tillage advice from Gerald, as this week I plan on sowing some seed barley for the first time in over five years.