Spring is here in full force. I’ve watched a tree outside my kitchen go from bare branches to full leaf in about three days. We’ve had blue skies and 60+ degree weather for three or four days in a row. I know that the weather here does not run on a linear trajectory, so I’m not getting my hopes up that it will stay this nice. But I am enjoying what I’ve got.
Last week, I indulged in a frenzy of springtime. On Monday night H was working late. I was at home and tired of working. So I checked the TV schedule to see what was on. I saw that a multi-part documentary about childbirth was on. That program can be good sometimes. But what really caught my eye was Lambing Live.
Watching this show made me feel immensely fond of England. How adorable is it that a week of prime-time TV is dedicated to lambing!? The Lambing Live team went and stayed on a farm to broadcast live from a lambing shed in Cumbria. The family farmers they profiled were the Marsden family, who were so charming and salt-of-the-earth.
I watched all five episodes of Lambing Live, and I learned so much.
I think this is going to take more than one post’s worth to tell you about all the interesting facts I learned. Here’s a few nuggets to get you started.
There are about 75,000 sheep farmers in the UK. Sheep only give birth once a year, in spring. Farmers try to time the lambing time on the weather, though. In Devon they might give birth as early as January or February. In the Highlands, farmers will try and hold off lambing until May. They control this by keeping the ewes and rams separate until the timing is right.
Sheep have five month gestation periods. Once they’re born, lambs stay with their mothers for about 5 months. They start eating grass after a few weeks. Farmers have to put lambs and ewes in different areas, though, to make sure that the lambs are weaned and the mothers are ready to start again next year. Good farmers let a lamb go through a full year before they get pregnant. After they’re one year old and have spent a long, windy winter outside, they need to be shorn. Once that happens, they’re called a shearling. After they get classified as a shearling, then they’re old enough to become mothers (ewes).
If the lambs or sheep aren’t sold for meat, then they’re breeding sheep. You can tell how old a sheep is by their teeth. They only have teeth on their bottom jaw. A sheep with two teeth is 1 year old. A sheep with four teeth is 2 years old. And so on, up until they get eight teeth. So you know when sheep is at least 4 years old. Then they live for a few more years until their teeth start falling out. Once their teeth fall out, they can’t eat grass anymore, so they can’t survive. A sheep in Northern England lives for about 8 years.
Yeah, I’m seriously out of blogging time. I have lots more to say, though. I’ll be back soon with more about lambing and British sheep farming. Stay tuned.