[sokel]

We went to pick our snow blower up the other day in Preston and we where talking to the bloke, his mate is a sheep farmer and with all of the bad weather he was digging sheep out. He has had to bring everything in out of the weather. They are now lambing and the ewes are rejecting the lambs and they have no milk.
Then yesterday a friend phoned in a major stress as she had her large flock of ewes scanned, she has loads carrying triplets and again she says hers do not have the milk  the way it should be and some are dry.
Just got me wondering if this is a problem right across the country as these 2 cases are over 150 miles apart 

[Castle Farm]

Total nightmare up here at 1000ft (Welsh Borders).
I normally lamb outdoors, but this year I had snow covering every field and drifts about 3ft deep.

Major panic on to put up another sheep shed to hold the ewes in overnight and to keep the ewes and lambs in once they have lambed. Bought the material and took it down to the site..It got covered by a snow drift and had to be dug out. It took 3 of us 3 days to get the shed built and I started lambing the 2cnd day.

Can't let any ewes and lambs out ( 15 from 8 ewes so far) and are running out of space to pen the ewes and lambs together. 

Really worried about scours and joint ill but treated all lambs for it.

I smile sometimes when I read how people think having a small holding is a wonderful life. It's hard work in below zero temperatures and no pleasure whatsoever in weather like this.

Still, almost half the first flock lambed, just the yearlings to do after mid April.

The problem is in weather like this your spending out money hand over fist on feed and bedding. If you sit and think of the money in how many lambs you need to sell full size to cover the costs you pack it all in tomorrow.

[Marches Farmer]

Lambs arriving very early here in the Marches, some lambs just skin and bone.  Had mine in the barn for 6 weeks instead of the usual 3 days beforehand and it seems to have helped so far - ewes have milk, at least.  Snow's still hanging around and grass isn't growing.  Had to clear the wood storage area out yesterday ready for the next batch of lambs and ewes to be turned out of the mothering up pens.  Usually go out 2/3 days after birth but can't put them out in this!

[twizzel]

The farmer we get our orphans off mentioned they are having problems with not enough milk, hence why some of our orphans are with us not because they are triplets the ewe was lacking milk... I've got a cracking set of texel twins 

[Backinwellies]

Best wishes to all struggling with their stock in the current weather.

[Bramblecot]

We have no snow but also no grass .  Weeks of rain left the fields like bogs and now they are dry and bare with nothing growing in the cold weather. 
We have been feeding ad lib hay all winter  and masses of feed to ewes that were thin after Christmas.  The first 10 have lambed with good sized active lambs, 3 singles and 7 sets of twins and (so far) all have plenty of milk.  Sadly one 2 weeks premature to a shearling did not make it, and a tragic loss of a much-loved ewe with a bad malpresentation .  for the next 9.

The food bills are horrendous and will have to continue to keep them in milk.  But we are so lucky compared to many folk.

[Jcrang]

I think we escaped lightly in Somerset, its just cold and the grass isn't growing like we would hope. We've done 224 out of 500 with 398 lambs put out so far. We have lots of triplets with less milk than normal but quite a lot of good doubles. Topping up some and losing some as they are very small. Having to feed an awful lot of hard feed and silage still but we are lucky as we can grow our own food but even so 10 more tonnes of meal was milled last week and we're getting through it pretty fast.

I think from what I've heard that the problems are nationwide and that there is no single cause but it's a combination of many factors making it a very hard year for smallholders and farmers alike. The arable side of things is also challenging as after 2 weeks with no rain we still can't get on the land to cultivate and drill spring crops as we couldn't drill in Autumn.

[Remy]

I've had 16 in since beginning of March and I'm getting through loads of feed, haylage and straw - never used this much over winter.  Despite having ad lib haylage and a kilo of nuts each per day the ewes are looking quite poor, some don't seem keen on the haylage although they are eating it, they prefer the straw I put down!  But locally hay is scarce at the mo so I have to get what I can.  I think I will try sugar beet and see if any of them eat that.  Some ewes are still in their lambing pens, some are in the tractor shed and others in a large stable. 



Despite me having the ewes in I've had two lambs born dead, two were taken by foxes and three (all triplets) were found dead; The ewes must just not have had the milk as all three were suckling well.  The single lambs are the only ones looking good!  Previously my ewes have coped fine with triplets who have all turned out good weights, so the lack of grass is a huge problem.


No sign of grass growing enough to turn them out yet 

[Marches Farmer]

Ground is so wet here the likelihood of getting any seed into the ground is fading fast for our arable neighbours. Only things left with a short enough growing season are likely to be vetch, mustard or annual rye grass at this rate.  Longer term weather forecast says likely to get warmer towards the end of April.  Can't get much colder for April, surely?  That easterly wind is like a knife!

[OhLaLa]

Here, the ewes and their newborns are going out onto grass, and because we don't have many grazing it, it is just about doing ok. We don't have sheep on a large scale, but are still having to stock fence off another field to give the sheep more grazing, and accordingly, build them a shelter.
 
In the hay meadows, for this time of year, the grass is about half the height it should be. We feel for those with a lot of mouths to feed.
 
Last year we cut more hay than we would usually need, and have still had to buy more in. We have bought much more hard feed than usual.
 
Finally it looks like the ground is starting to dry up - we just need the grass to grow.

[feldar]

Down here on the South Coast very cold and no grass at all. Sheep are still in shed and feeding haylage and concentrates horrendous feed bill this year
Had good lambing lots of twins and triplets but same as everyone else not much milk going round so topping up about 10 lambs at the moment and got 3 on permanent bottles as mum just had no milk.
Shearlings really struggling this year, it's just got to be the weather, we've never had this before. Wind just strips the heat from you.and the barns are as cold as the fields!
At least the sheep don't have to go very far to get the food when they're in the barn.

[Victorian Farmer]

The cost is unbelievable iv lent and give spent a load last week will do the same Friday all on the card no money left just dont no haw things will go .

[Marches Farmer]

One thing I've noticed this year is that normally most of our ewes have a water bag appear well before they lamb.  This year all so far have had it appear just before lambing down, or afterwards.  Most odd.

[Foobar]

One thing I've noticed this year is that normally most of our ewes have a water bag appear well before they lamb.  This year all so far have had it appear just before lambing down, or afterwards.  Most odd.

Are you saying that they have had a shorter then normal labour this year?  Do your lambs have a lighter birth weight than normal? or are your ewes leaner than normal?


Suffering severely from no grass here in south wales.  Just about to move my lot into the next field where it has a few millimetres of growth on it .

[sokel]

It does seem to be a very worrying widespread problem rather than a local thing then