A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SHEPHERDESS

Have you ever eaten a meal and been so delighted that you wanted to eat the same thing for days? Or do you have a favourite movie that you've watched so many times you know every line by heart? That little kick you get, that sudden rush of endorphins that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...multiply that by a million and that comes close to the feeling you get when you see a newborn come into the world and take its first breath. I quickly became almost addicted to that feeling of seeing new life... so much so that in the evenings I would watch lambs (or other animals/humans) being born on YouTube.

The first few hours are crucial for the well-being of the lamb and the mother. The bonding behaviour begins while the ewe is still in labour, she becomes louder and the sounds are very distinct: softer and almost soothing. The unborn lambs get used to this sound and when they come into the world they recognise her voice in a field with 100 other mothers! Once they have managed to give birth to the lamb (hopefully alone and successfully), they must quickly lick the birth fluid from the lamb's face. If they don't, the lamb will suffocate and it's really sad to find them like that. The ewes lick the lambs to encourage them to breathe, and I think it also strengthens the bond between mother and child. Within the first few hours, they need to drink as much colostrum as possible. This is the first milk the ewe produces. It looks different from normal milk - almost like a pudding, really thick and creamy. It contains all the antibodies the little ones need to survive. If they don't get enough high-quality colostrum, it can lead to all sorts of diseases and they are incredibly vulnerable. Some lambs are on their feet within minutes of birth, looking for the "liquid gold". Of course, this is the best possible scenario. No matter what you sometimes see on TV, this is not always the case. Then we have to intervene. The farmers or shepherds. Our main responsibility is the well-being of the flock. This can even take precedence over your own well-being - if you're not careful and forget to drink and eat enough, because without "fuel" you can't take care of the animals and then silly mistakes happen.

My place at lambing is the "pet pen", most of them only have a fleeting stay there before being adopted by a new mother, but some stay with me long term. Under my wing you'll find all sorts of lambs, mainly triplets. A ewe only has two teats, so raising three lambs can be a real strain on her. And not only that: while she's busy with the other two, there's also a higher chance of a badger or fox grabbing the third. That's why we usually remove one lamb from triplets. The goal is for each lamb to have a mother and we want most of our ewes to raise two lambs. Therefore, if we see a single ewe going into labour, we always try (if milk supply allows) to take a lamb from my pet pen. This means we trick her into thinking she has given birth to two lambs. It's fascinating to learn how other farmers handle this compared to the techniques used on your own farm. Our most common method is to pull the orphan lamb over the ewe during birth so that both are covered in the "birth fluid", and we have a relatively high success rate with this.

Rule #1 of sheep farming. They like to die. Or at least they try to. In my first year as a shepherdess, I saw a dead lamb for the first time and I was so incredibly sad, it bothered me so much that we didn't know WHY it had died. But imagine if we performed an autopsy on every lamb that died! It was difficult at first, but over time I learned that you can only do your best, and then it's up to the animal and also a bit of luck. We've had animals that we were both convinced wouldn't make it, but they survived, and we've also had perfectly healthy lambs that suddenly dropped dead. Death is part of farming - both slaughter and the "unplanned" cases. A wise man once told me, "If you're no longer sad when you see a dead animal, then you have to stop farming." And that's true. You're a farmer out of love and passion for animals, and there's no better time of year than seeing the fields full of ewes and lambs. You've survived a wet autumn and a dark, cold winter, and now you can celebrate by watching the sunset and all the lambs running around carefree.

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