April was a busy month with most attention focused on lambing. We started lambing the mature Lleyns on the 10^th April, but the weather was far from spring like. It was a cold and we had rain nearly every day for the first few weeks. We were really pleased with how it didn’t seem to phase them. Selecting for lamb survival and the maternal nature of the ewes paying off.

Towards the end of the month, we started lambing the ewe lambs, shearlings and the Hampshires with the weather still quite wet and cold. Overall lambing went well although the weather did pose some challenges.

The Lleyn ewe lambs were tupped by high index Hampshire ram lambs, I have been really pleased with how they lambed and how the lambs now look. They were lambed in one group (around 150) on a 13ha chicory and plantain crop. They have held their condition really well and have milked well, but as the crop is quite tall and the field is quite large, a couple lost their lambs, this created extra work in reuniting the ewe lamb with her lamb. In the future I will split the field into smaller paddocks to keep the group size down and so it is easier for the lambs to keep up with their mums.