Lambing at Meadow Bank

GETTING TO KNOW EWE

Clarke & Pulman is built on relationships, relationships with you, our customers. We pride ourselves on getting to know you and understanding your business needs. It’s what sets us apart from our competition.

So as lambing season approached, we thought we’d roll up our sleeves and get closer to the action to understand just how hard work this time of year is on our sheep farmers.

Brothers, Richard and John Hargreaves, along with Richard’s son Bob, were kind enough to welcome Ali from our Marketing Department and Abbie and Richard from our Sales Support Hub, at one of their busiest times of the year to have a chat about lambing.

Brothers, Richard and John Hargreaves outside the lambing shed where they have 32 cameras constantly monitoring the ewes and their lambs.

Situated at the base of Pendle Hill, Meadow Bank Farm spans over 600 acres of land for grazing. This year, the Hargreaves will lamb 1100 ewes of a variety of breeds, including Swaledales, Bluefaced Leicesters, Dutch Spotted, Valais Blacknose and North of England Mules.

Many of the lambs are bred as pedigree sheep, although some are bred for meat. However, before any breeding occurs, the Hargreaves’ must decide which sheep to pair up, to produce the best lambs genetically.

A scientific approach

Although most of the lambs are bred ‘naturally’, some of the breeds such as the Dutch Spotted, are artificially inseminated. Artificial insemination (AI) can be used for genetic gain and is a more costeffective option in comparison to buying an expensive ram.

AI enables a single ram to serve more ewes than he would be able to naturally. Before insemination, the semen is screened to confirm it is sufficient, but also to ensure the tup isn’t carrying any diseases that could be transferred to the ewe or lambs.

Semen can be bought in, or can be taken from rams already on the farm. The farm has a variety of rams, which were all bought due to their strong genetic bloodlines.

The farm also uses embryo transfer between ewes. Embryo transfer

is a process in which fertilised embryos are flushed from a donor ewe and are either transplanted into a recipient ewe, or are frozen for future use. Freezing allows the flushing of the embryos to take place outside of the breeding season, allowing a single ewe to be flushed multiple times before the season starts, as each flush cycle takes around 20 days.

Lambing season is one of the busiest times of year at Meadow Bank Farm, where the brothers will lamb around 1100 ewes from a variety of breeds including Swaledales, Bluefaced Leicesters, Dutch Spotted, Valais Blacknose and North of England Mules. Many of the lambs will be bred as pedigree sheep.

The delivery

Labour is usually a quick process, with the majority of lambs being born within an hour. Once born, the ewe and its lambs are put in individual pens, where the lambs' navels are sprayed, tails are docked, and depending on the breed, the male lambs are castrated.

The lambs are given probiotics, and are vaccinated against Orf – a virus that can spread from sheep to humans.

Finally, the lambs are tagged and all of their details are recorded. Within 24 hours, the ewes and their lambs are ready to go outside.

“The highlight of lambing for me is when a top quality, pedigree lamb is born with all the right markings. It’s just fantastic and it keeps you going” says Richard.

Once born, lambs stay with their mothers to feed until the Summer. After this they are separated and any lambs that aren’t needed as replacements are sold in Autumn to breed from, or for meat.

If a ewe has triplets, one lamb is taken and put on a milk machine to ensure it feeds enough to grow and be healthy.

The maternity ward

The lambing takes place inside in the lambing shed, where there is always someone keeping an eye on things. One of the most common issues in the birthing process is that the lambs can become stuck in the amniotic sac and start to suffocate. There must always be a person on site to help if this happens.

“We have 32 cameras inside the lambing shed which helps us to constantly monitor the ewes and their lambs. The sheer number of hours we spend with the sheep is the hardest part of lambing. It’s an exhausting job. It lasts around three to four months every year, with different breeds lambing at different times”, explains Richard.

“It was fascinating to learn about the breeding process and see how much careful planning and strategy goes into sheep farming. It’s not all cute fluffy lambs and bottle feeding, there’s so much hard work, long hours and paperwork that people don’t see”, reflected Ali.

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