[Hillview Farm]

Today it has finally sunk in that this weather is not improving at all. I've tried my hardest to stay positive but its looking really bleak My ewes are due in just under 3 weeks and its suddenly hit me that they wont be turned out at this rate for a very long time. I planned to keep them in untill the lambs are all on the ground and doing well so I can move the group. But to be told its going to rain for the next 3 weeks was the icing on the cake!

I've got two new lambs coming this weekend and I wish I could be excited but i'm not worrying about my hay situation. And to top everything off I've got a ewe that is worrying me as she is acting out of character!

Someone please give me faith as i'm running very low! 

[Brucklay]

   For you - and I know what you mean - revised plan 6 or is that 16 - I try and wrap up well and get out there but easier said than done this evening when the logs were burning and I could see the snow blowing off a dyke at 50mph!!!

[Cosmo]

3 weeks of rain!!!   Who told you that, please say its not true and they are not reliable.

[Hillview Farm]

It was the herdsman of where me and my other half live ( He works here ) I really hope hes wrong!

I'd also quiet like it to be a little warmer for lambing as my ewes are were I work and I wont be able to just jump back into bed!

Thank you Brucklay. Hope things aren't too bad there!

[LouiseG]

    Sorry can't offer any better weather, we're still very soggy in suffolk. All our animals are starting to get cabin fever. We all know how you feel, best I can do is send warm cyber hugs x

[Remy]

My ewes have all been in since 5 March and 5 out of 16 have lambed.  I too have nothing suitable to turn them out onto while this weather persists, 8 are penned and the other 8 are in a large stable with access to a sectioned off outdoor area but it's now just a quagmire, and a nightmare with regard to keeping them clean (you know how messy sheep are!).  So I'm hoping as much as you that things improve soon! 

[Foobar]

Take one day at a time.  Get extra hay in and extra feed, and bedding.  If the ewes are well fed they will cope better in the rubbish weather.  Extra forage will be needed as the grass doesn't look like it'll be growing much anytime soon.

It has to brighten up eventually ... doesn't it? 

[Pedwardine]

All I can say is you aren't on your own. The thought of yet another potentially awful year for farmers of all kinds is getting to us all.Our fields are akin to the Somme and have been for some time now. Some of our permanent fencing is two thirds under water. It's bloody awful, no two ways about it.

[Hillview Farm]

Our fields are more like lakes right now and have been since oct. My poor girls have been in since december

I know everyone must feel the same! But as foobar said, Its got to brighten up!

[zwartbles]

Wet and mud everywhere!
No grass!
Grumpy sheep!

But this is what you might get at the end of it all 

Keep at it 

[andywalt]

Same here, a weeks hay and hard feed left, the lambs that have been out in the field are looking chilled, may have to bring them back in, and we are down south in Kent !  keeping the other ewes and lambs in, still another 9 to go from 20 !

[Rosemary]

I defy anyone to predict the weather three weeks in advance - I think some folk just like scaremongering. But it's less scary if you are prepared - so if you can get forage, feed and bedding in, you'll feel better.

I am soooo sorry for folk where the weather has been bad. Ours isn't great but it's not as bad as many. Thinking of you all 

[thenovice]

If you are local Andy, I have some spare conventional hay bales sitting in a shed, doing nothing. Just think, in a months times, we could be standing in the blazing sunshine, the grass growing, and lambs charging around. Things can only get better!   

[SallyintNorth]

As long as you can get hold of forage, can manage to keep them supplied with clean water and can keep on top of infection, your sheep will be fine. 

On the subject of infection - my advice, if you are going to be keeping young lambs in for more than 24-48 hours after birth, is to use prophylactic antibiotics with the newborns.  Orojet or Spectam or similar, one squirt per lamb within one hour of birth if you can manage it.  It will help fend off any outbreaks of watery mouth etc.  And keep the hygiene levels up - thoroughly clean out each pen after each occupant, put lime down under the new bedding.  Watch out for leakage from one pen to another - clean out pens of longstay occupants (adoptive families, mothers needing time to bond with their lamb(s), etc) every few days so you don't get a build up of any infective material.

On the subject of water, lactating ewes kept indoors need a phenomenal amount of water - some for the milk they're making and some to help them digest the dry food.  I expect to need to give each ewe at least two buckets of water a day.

Space for growing families could be another problem if you have to keep the sheep in longer.  Too many families in a smallish space can lead to lambs getting knocked about by other mothers.  If your space is too limited, you may be better to keep everyone in individual pens most of the time, and let a few families out to a larger area for exercise (and play as the lambs grow) at a time.

Lambings like this one test our mettle. Such a shame when a one like this is your first, but they won't all be like this, Rachel.     Chin up, chick.  Enjoy your lambs, whether they're indoors or out.

[kanisha]

two days ago i would have commiserated with you this weather at the end of  a long wet winter takes it toll on everyone after snow came constant rain and fields that looked like the somme. this morning the sun came out and so did everyones good humour. hang in there grit your teeth forget the forecasters as  they said we would get rain all this week.

The sun WILL come out and it will be good chin up I totally empathise  with you but don't let it drag you down