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From the farm at Yockenthwaite
The swallows are back! I saw the first one on Sunday. I know that one swallow doesn't make a summer and he was probably just passing through, a forward scout perhaps checking out the weather conditions, because I haven't seen him since, but it is always good to see these agile little birds.
They have no doubt been brought in on the currents of warm air that we are presently enjoying; what a pleasure it has been to walk about outside without layers of clothing and heavy winter coats.
In Skipton on Monday, people in the high street were quite obviously revelling in the sunshine and back at home lambs were basking in the warmth rather than huddling together to keep warm. Evening "race meetings" will soon be a feature as lambs begin to grow and thrive.
It is always a joy to see them so full of life as they play, racing up and down the bank edges and headlands and climbing onto rocks to play "King of the Castle".
Mother sheep, with heads down grazing, call them up on the edge of dark and that's the end of play for another day; no malingering on field corners after dark!
The weathermen are forecasting warmer, wetter weather for this week which is good.
Perhaps now we will then get some grass, but even this brings with it problems, because once the grass begins to grow we start getting sheep going down with grass staggers, or "tremlins" as we used to call it.
This is a metabolic disorder due to low levels of calcium and magnesium in the pregnant or lactating ewe, brought about by high demands from the unborn lamb or suckling lambs.
It usually occurs in the spring when grass growth starts and the ewe is unable to absorb enough of these vital minerals from the young spring growth.
The condition can be fatal as sheep go down very quickly, so keeping a watchful eye and always carrying a supply of Calcium +Mag on the bike is essential. A subcutaneous injection is all that is needed for the ewe to get back up onto foot and the response is almost immediate.
If we don't manage to find them in time, the lambs have to come inside to the "pet lamb" pen where, if we can't find a foster mother for them, they are reared ad-lib on formula milk fed from buckets with teats. The milk is kept warm at body temperature and they can help themselves whenever they want.
So that we know which lamb we are talking about we do occasionally give them names - "Persil" was suffering from hypothermia and was prostrate when Dan brought him in last weekend.
We warm them up in the utility room and when he finally came round and got onto his feet he had a rather strange attraction for the washing machine and would stand with his head into the recess of the door watching the washing go round for hours on end.
He would not go back to his mother and after trying her best she gave him up as a bad job, so he now resides in the shed with the other lambs and is learning to become a sheep.
1:36pm Monday 28th April 2008
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