And just like that, lambing is all over. One minute you're armpit-deep in afterbirth and worrying about low grass covers, and the next the sun is out and there are live lambs left right and centre.
Here are some memories now that we’re out of the lambing haze…
Pet lambs
Mixing up milk powder for pet lambs, four times a day. The lambs would get their first feed of colostrum either from powder or collected from a ewe. This year I decided to offload as many pets as possible to reduce my chances of having a mental breakdown, and we kept a tally:
501 Lambing beat dead lambs
32 Lambs revived at home and lived
32 Lambs revived and died
55 Lambs mothered on successfully
14 Lambs mothered on unsuccessfully
28 Lambs sold as pets for $20
We sent pet lambs out into the world and I have since loved the updates from locals of pet day lambs and lambs in fancy dress.
Lambing rotten lambs
The pits. One day I spent a good (?) half hour desperately trying to get two rotten lambs out of a ewe, the first was a big swollen-headed brute and the second had its head in the birth canal as well. After pushing and pulling and swearing for all I was worth, I felt the rotten shoulder of the first dislocate and tear the shoulder blade away from its ribcage. I managed to hook some twine around its head and carefully guide its gross 3-legged form out, before the second lamb shot out, purple and stinking rotten like its brother. I jabbed the poor Mum with intracillin and some metacam for inflammation, but she was dead a couple of hours later. At the start of lambing I would have really cared, by the end of lambing I thought fuck it.
Throwing dead lambs down the dead sheep hole
A chilly night, a norwestry mis-mothering day...the next day soon fills the back of the truck up with dead lambs. We had a dream run of weather and it still felt like we hiffed heaps of dead lambs onto that pile.
Lambing hoggets
Trying to catch the bloody things for starters. At least when older ewes have a stuck lamb they generally slow up for catching. Hoggets don't even seem to notice they have a head out their back end, racing from one end of the paddock to the other and scattering as many ewes and lambs as they can in the process. The sheep crook was soon thrown out the window for the preferred catching method of full body tackling. Then the feeling of your hand getting crushed against the hogget’s pelvis as you try to pull the lamb out. And make sure you’ve got a decent hold of her – you’ll be congratulating yourself on a successful midwife job and the birth of a beautiful lamb only to have the hogget mum jump up and bolt for the horizon.
Some sunshine
It’s easy to remember the tough times and late nights but there are so many little glimmers of goodness. Lambing for me really highlights the highs and lows of farming.
There are plenty of good days full of sunshine, new life and lambs racing about in crazy gangs in the evenings. With a little one in tow, it’s easy to notice the good, as Charlie shrieks excitedly and points his podgy finger “Lamby!”, “Moo!”, “Tractor!”.
I find it helps me to commentate on things as we go around, both good and bad: “Look Charlie there’s a cracker set of twins!” “Shall we grab one of those triplets off that light ewe?” “I’m throwing these lambs down the hole because they’re dead…blegh”
We went into lambing with bugger all grass on the ground after a dry autumn and tight winter. Now it seems hard to imagine in the heady warmth of summer, with the clover hitting its growth and grass going to seed. We have so much to be grateful for: We had an incredible run of weather for lambing compared to the likes of Southland. All lambs are tailed thanks to a heap of help from family, friends and labour swaps with neighbours. Drenching, jabbing and jetting is up to date. We have 1000 more lambs on the ground vs last year, and are looking forward to selling the top lambs off on 9th Jan at an on-farm sale in conjunction with some of the neighbours,
Heading into 2025 feeling optimistic for NZ sheep and beef farming!