Early lambing not encouraging as farmers face mixed expectations

Compare that with reports from Perthshire, Stirlingshire, Ayrshire and, Dumfries and Galloway where wet weather has brought ploughing and planting to a standstill and many growers are now well behind their normal schedule.

The good news from across Scotland is that the fair weather last autumn, and the chance to get winter crops established in good conditions has left winter wheat and barley crops around the country looking well.

The bad news comes from the south west where many fields are sodden and the situation is dire as far as getting on with the arable spring work.

Elsewhere, many sheep farmers are busy lambing, while others in the hills are about to start. So far, while the weather has been fairly mild, the lambing can best be described as a "coat and leggings" affair, and those in the south west are complaining that lambs are struggling to find somewhere dry to lie down in the sodden fields.

Early lambing flocks in Scotland have produced an average lamb crop although those in the south of England report fewer lambs than usual. Ultrasonic pregnancy scanning results from the Scottish hills were mixed this year, and many flocks had more barren sheep than usual, particularly among gimmers (maiden sheep lambing for the first time at two years of age).

Sadly, budgeting on scan results is a bit like counting your chickens before they hatch, and there is a lot that can go wrong between now and the end of lambing.

About 15% of all foetuses perish and I know from bitter experience that the mortality rate can be a lot higher in a bad year.

Ewes can abort or their lambs be stillborn. Those lambs that are born alive can soon perish for a variety of different reasons, but the main one is hypothermia. The tiny bodies of lambs with their long legs, ears and tail have a large surface area in relation to their body mass and soon cool down in cold, wet weather.

That risk can be dramatically increased by stupid ewes, particularly inexperienced gimmers, lambing on exposed sites rather than in the shelter of a dyke or hedge.

My high-lying, exposed hill farm was particularly prone to heavy losses in a bad spring. Indeed, to avoid the extra work and heart-breaking losses caused by bad weather, many now lamb their sheep in the comfort of sheds.

Lambs also suffer at the jaws, beaks and claws of a host of predators. My biggest problem was carrion crows, or corbies as we call them. They mutilated new-born lambs by pecking out their eyes and tongues, or pulling out their intestines through their navels or other orifices with their cruel beaks. In bad years I had to put down more fatally injured lambs than I would care to admit to.

I remember one year confiding to an old farmer about how bad the losses were, only to be told: "You should never count your losses." I eventually managed the problem by the comprehensive use of Larsen traps, a type of cage trap.

In other areas there are big problems with predation by foxes, black-backed gulls and sea eagles.

Lambing ewes can be incredibly enjoyable if the ewes are fit and the spring is early and warm.

Sometimes a warm, dry lambing conducted in shirt sleeves can turn out to be more difficult than you might expect if the ewes are too fit and giving birth to lambs that are larger than usual.

That can lead to a lot of hard work and losses as a result of big lambs getting stuck at birth.

There's nothing more pleasurable than watching a new crop of lambs appear in the fields or on the hills, particularly if the ewes are milking well so that their lambs are thriving.

Most lambings have an odd bad day that is best forgotten.

Then there is the nightmare of lambing lean ewes in a cold, wet, late spring like last year's, which was a truly hellish, depressing experience.

This year's lambing conditions haven't been deadly so far, but it is time that it dried up and the sun shone for a change.