Another year’s lambing is nearly finished. After the hardest winter for at least a decade it was hard to know what to expect. We had rather more small lambs than usual and some very uneven twins, but it was not a disaster. And we were helped by dry weather throughout lambing so we could get lambs out to the field quickly and they get off to a good start.

Of course, getting them born is just the start. Now we have to keep them alive and growing. One ewe has already proven that she cannot swim and left us with two orphan lambs. They say that a sheep’s principal mission in life is to arrange their own death and you see evidence to support that view practically every day.