As tupping runs over into December we’re still keeping a close eye on how our boys are doing, and keeping our fingers crossed that all is well and they are fathering lots of lambs.

Due to having 3 tups we had to split the ewes into 3 groups and keep them separate over the 5 week tupping period. When the time came to take the tups out, we gathered them all up together and marked and took ear tag numbers of all the early lambers, so that we can split them out again more easily when lambing time draws near. The tups were put back with some younger tup lambs to have a rest and recuperate, while the ewes were left to run together in one big flock again.

We do a batch of meat lambs every month so that keeps us ticking over, we pick a couple and take them to the abattoir in the first week of the month and then collect the meat and deliver it to our customers around the third week in the month. We are also constantly thinking and planning ahead so we’re preparing mentally for lambing, making lists of equipment we need to get together, discussing which fields to use and how to rotate, then changing our minds, then changing them back again. We might look like we know what we’re doing, but our brains are more scrambled than a pan of scrambled eggs!