A Lambing and Vet day was held at Meens Farm, Halesworth, Suffolk on January 17th 2009. There was a good turn out of members and friends (approximately 20) who spent the day on the farm.
The vet leading the day was Philippa Sprake, MRCVS. The first part of the day was spent listening to the vet's powerpoint presentation on care of the newborn lamb and pregnant ewe.
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| Powerpoint presentation by Philippa Sprake |
Then the group was divided in two. One group visited the lambing yards (34 ewes had already lambed so there was a lot to see) and were able to ask questions and pick our brains as to what we did and why.
The second half of the group remained with the vet, who used a lambing simulator box with a dead lamb inside to demonstrate the various malpresentations one might find at lambing time. Everyone had ample opportunity to put their hand in and say what they could feel and try to re-present the malpresentation.
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| Andrew Hutley (10 years old) using the lambing
simulator under the watchful eye of vet Philippa Sprake |
After lunch the two groups changed over. The day was rounded off with a cup of tea and a chance to ask any questions.
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Fourteen regular members of the Group met in a pub near Owestry for a leisurely lunch on Thursday, February 19th 2009. Over a good meal the talk was mostly about sheep and Southdown lambing in particular. Sheep conversation is particularly useful for those new to sheep keeping.
The meal was followed by a visit to D. & J. Thomas, butchers for a a lamb butchery demonstration which lasted for one and a half hours. This was so interesting and useful there was no ugh factor to viewing 5 carcases. These showed the good and bad points in a carcase and what to aim for in terms of conformation anfd fat cover. This was very useful as the Group have already had a grading on the hoof demonstration and practice.
Three carcases were cut up. The first into half joints, chops and breast. The second into added value cuts like shank of lamb, spare ribs and mince. The third was viewer choice including slow motion boning out of shoulder and leg.
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The meeting finished with final questions and vote of thanks.
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The second meeting, held on May 30th, was another great sucess. Gay Hargreaves-Jones kindly lent her house, grounds and lambs for 14 members to work at learning how to trim up for showing. Mr Islwyn Jones of Newtown Powys gave a demonstration, after coffee and biscuits, of how to use trimming stand and various tools, and trimmed out a very docile ram lamb whilst questions and answers flew back and forth. The ram lamb looked splendid.
All then retreated to the cool of the house and garden for a feast provided by Gay and Roger and ladies in the Group. Sheepy conversation continued apace. After lunch it was members turn to have a go under Islwyn's expert guidance. The results were then paraded for a hilarious photo call with humans more willing than the five lambs. Islwyn was very good indeed.
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Jane Ing