A question I asked my  friends 15 year old sister  today where does lamb come from, the reply ... Tesco's.

Even after me asking again I had the same answer. I was shocked that she really thought she was right.

There are 3  simple explanations for this reply.

1. She has never been told where it comes from, meaning that in the best part of  8 years of education none of her teachers have thought to mention this fact to her. Telling me our education standard in Cardiff in poor which i know its not. For the last 15 years of her life none of her peers or parents have said lamb comes form an animal. This is highly unlikely.

2. She is incredibly naive to the world around her and has fallen victim to the society of the 21st centenary. Whereby most of the younger generation believe that thing in life are that simple. Every thing just comes from a packet or a tin and half the time there isn't even thought to how it got there or where it comes from or the effort put in to making there lives so easy. This was somewhat me until I opened my eyes to the big bad world around me and realised its not just easy because that's the way it is but because other people work hard to make it easy.( I knew where lamb came from at 15 )

3 .She could have misunderstood the question.

For many people (I was also one of them) this may seam as easy as going to your local supermarket or corner store for your Sunday lunch or lamb chops for Friday night. let me assure it is not, as i mentioned in my Blog on "Greener Grass" my uncle now has a farm and i actively work it with him along with working some other jobs. Spring on the farm is the busiest time of the year for us.

The working day... well lets just say work consists of.  From the time the lambs are first due that is when your body clock goes in to Melt down. I have lost track of days and Am and Pm the last few weeks. Every hour we walk the Fields tom check if there are any lambs on the ground but we also check the ewes to make sure done are having complications with birth. This will probably go on for another   5 weeks which will take its toll on us to say the least. The current flock we are tending is reasonably small only 80 ewes. We are just playing a waiting game in the last week of sleep for one hour up for one threw the night and then up all day we have only had 2 lambs. Being new to the whole farming thing is a bit daunting for us both as we are unsure how to correctly react in some situations but you know what they say that's what friends are for. We have found ourselves  calling around the more experienced for the vital tips.

The first born AKA no1 was scary he was born on my uncles shift of walking the fields. He was spotted at 8.30pm he was tiny, this was the first time we had seen a newborn lamb. That's when the fun started  the mother wasn't paying any attention to the lamb never a good sign. The lamb was weakening and we had to move fast but we could not just take the lamb we needed to place him in a pen with his mother to try and make them bond. This wasn't as easy as it sounds we were stood in a field twice the size of a football pitch , losing light with another 79 sheep  if we spooked them all they would run around and we would lose the mother in the chaos. So altho we needed to get this lamb in the warmth and feed it fast we had to be slow and gentle. Creeping around we managed to isolated the lamb and ewe and then we placed the lamb on a trailer and took it to the barn all the while hoping mum would follow but she never so then like a game of cat and mouse it was time to try and walk the mother to the barn again with great care and time we got her there safely.

Next even more drama as the ewe was a yearling this was her first time around and didn't have the experience older sheep have . So as her young was week she didn't know what to do and lacked the bond to try to warm it . So in we stepped we were just as unprepared as the mother, running around to find all the things we needed ,heat lamp , bottle , stomach tube, gloves colostrum finally we had it all. now tome to warm the little chap up keep him alive. 5 minutes under the heat lamp did the job it it gave him the energy to stand for the first time but not enough to feed. so the next step was to milk the sheep which is a mammoth task in its self. Right okay we have the milk were ready to go but he's still to week to latch on another phone call for advice time for the stomach tube, great its worked he now has food in him but still lacks the bond .......that's where where at right now

This lamb is still less 24 hours old and already so much effort has gone in to it more than 24 hours of our lives has been taken before he is 1day old. There will be more sleepless night feeding if the bond does not grow . For  6 months now we will take care of this lamb  may then  he will be your cooked dinner so please next time you go to the shop and buy lamb don't just think its there because that's where its from, it may be easy to pick it up but i assure you its not easy to bring it up.

Thanks for reading

Vijay