Farmer Focus livestock: William Slinger

Spring arrived before lambing began this year, bringing with it some welcome sunshine. The grass has turned green and moved on, if only by a bit, which is a great bonus.

Usually we are in need of a spare lamb or two to mother on at the start of lambing time, when we haven’t got any. We often end up with spare lambs at the end of lambing time, when we have no need of them. But this year we began with a run of sheep lambing triplets, so we have been able to keep both sheep and lambs moving on at a good rate.

The drying weather before lambing enabled us to get some rolling done before the busiest period of work with the sheep began. Rolling the fields where the sheep were due to lamb has certainly worked to our benefit. At auction, last season’s lambs are continuing to achieve reasonable returns. I have yet to see any new-season lambs sold in any numbers.

It is noticeable how many farmers in this area have run short of silage this year. It is also noticeable how many of them are the same farmers who were keen to point out that fertiliser was too expensive last year, but who now acknowledge that buying fertiliser then would have been far cheaper than buying in extra feed for the rest of the winter has been.

Our dairy young stock have generally done well over winter, which has been encouraging. Although we are still some way off turnout yet, the coming of spring signals brighter days ahead. It is always apparent how much our cattle seem to benefit from getting some sunshine and how the lack of sunshine over the past two summers has been missed.