William and Andrew Cowx: Price concerns for both sheep and cattle as lambing progresses well

The countryside is beginning to look a little greener after the rain but there is very little for the sheep to eat except what we take out to them.

Lambing is going well with a lot of strong lambs, the ewes seem to have plenty of milk but are thinner than I would have preferred. Most of them are getting fed twice a day.

We are about half way through the ewes, with the ewe lambs due in a week’s time.

We are trying to put an extra lamb onto the ewes scanned with a single with limited success, and the ewes with triplets have one taken off and reared artificially – there are 45 of them at present but we expect to end up with about 100.

After advertising on Lamb Bank on our local radio station there is no demand for pet lambs. Once they get on suckling the teats they are fairly easy to rear, but they consume expensive milk powder and concentrate pellets, so I hope the end price justifies the work and expense.

The family all enjoyed watching Lambing Live on the Bevan family farm in Wales. It gave the general public an insight into what happens on a family farm, especially at lambing time.

James spent some time with us after leaving the local agricultural college at Newton Rigg, which made it even more interesting.

We sold some nine to 12-month-old cattle at Carlisle last week, averaging £850, which was about £20 up on last year.

It does make you wonder how the next man is going to make a profit, but with the cost of keeping a cow and rearing the calf, and keeping them clean with straw at £90-£100 per ton, it is all wanted to show a margin for us.

Calving has not yet started but we will be busy during the next few weeks.

Last week was spent washing and cleaning up the pedigree bull calves, which we will sell in May. It is important we get them haltered, tied up and looking well for sale day. This is a sale we have had for a good number of years – people can buy a young bull at perhaps not a big price and bring it out themselves at a slower pace.

It is usually mid-May before we get our cattle turned out to grass and with silage getting less and the sheep still eating it, we would like to spread some fertiliser as soon as possible, but for some reason it has not been delivered yet.

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