Live Show 4 Lambing Live

It may be the last show, but we have still got plenty in store.

Including. Sheep behaving badly. Dogs behaving beautifully. And lots

of these! This is Lambing Live - isn't it? !

Welcome back to the Dykes family farm here in the Scottish Borders.

I'm in the main lambing shed and this is a programme called Lambing

Live and Lambing Live it certainly is. I'm going to go and join Hamish

Dykes who is delivering a lamb as I speak. Hamish, have you got a

slightly complicated one here? It's coming with one leg back. The

positions I gave you last night. Yes. Most to have viewers will never

forget them? That's right. I've pushed it back in and gone back. We

had a leg forward and a head forward but one leg tucked back. Very good,

yes. Perfect. So you have rearranged it and there it is. Pushed it all

back in and reached further in to flip the leg forward and here we

have it. Aw, that's a lovely little lamb. I'm just check, she's

expecting twins. No spot on her back. Will you lamb that second one

now or will you just leave her be and see how she's doing? We'll put

her in her pen and she'll probably lamb the second herself but we'll

sirenly keep an eye on her and see it comes out OK. Shall we leave her

in peace to bond with her lamb? Yes. You may remember on last night's

programme that I had a go at delivering a lamb live on air. I

don't recommend it! Well done. Head out. Come on. That's

quite a big lamb. That is quite a big lamb. Quite a big lamb. This was

needing to come out as well I think. Yes. There we go.

And here we are. This is the ewe. There are two lambs now. She was

expecting twins. I'm guessing that might be the one that I delivered?

I'm not quite sure. It's not looking too worse for wear? It's a big lamb

when you see it and a big woolly coat which sometimes makes it harder

to come out as well. You can see why it needed assistance. Yes. Just

behind this ewe, we have got another ewe in the advanced stages of

labour. It just never calms down, does it? Not these last two days

anyway. It was really busy last night. We were on air, we had about

seven ewes all in the fairly advanced stages of labour when we

came off air. Now, usually, you would give yourself a break, but you

didn't want to leave your night lamber on his own, so the whole

family were in here lending a hand and Susie proved her shepherd elsing

skills last night. Absolutely. She's obviously doing this beautifully. I

remember when I first came here and met Gillian. She shook my hand and

said, you have small hands, that'll make you useful. Where you have a

birth when you have to assist, can it be helpful to have somebody like

Susie on hand as it were almost literally? Yes, particularly with

the younger and smaller sheep because the pelvis is so much

smaller, so if you have a big hand it's hard to get in and sort out the

muddle-ups, so small hands are vital at times for lambing. We have been

following Susie's progress since filming with you in September, her

first months full-time on the farm. Are you proud of her? Absolutely.

It's great. Having her working at home on the farm, it feels so much

more just like family life. You had to say that of course because we are

now going to go to the nursery where Susie is with Adam.

Remind the viewers of what the nursery pen is all about? Well, once

the ewes and lambs leave the pens in the lambing shed, they come on up

here and it's just a chance for them to be in a big open space with their

mothers and learn to find them before we ship them on out into a

field, we need to make sure they recognise their mums' call and that

they can find them in a crowd. When the lambs get to be two or three

days old, they start to play don't they? They start bouncing about,

it's cute. We sent our cameras out and were following lots of lambs

skipping in the spring. You could waste a lot of time

watching that, couldn't you? Bit too cute, aren't they? I suppose that

playing is them learning thousand run as a flock and exercise their

muscles? Yes, and just generally getting used to springing around and

getting out of the way of humans and sheepdogs and anything else that

comes after them. There was a little lamb on Wednesday evening that

Hamish had to deliver. It was quite a tricky birth. A lot of the viewers

were concerned about that lamb, but it did very well, ended up in the

nursery, then was taken out to the field. Susie, you took it out there.

Let's take a look at this. So you load them up in the trailer?

Get them on the trailer that,'s right. Usually apprehensive about

standing on the ramp which is aluminium, so just persuade them on

there and zoom them out to the field. A mile or so down the road

into a nice, Freshfield. That's quite a big field isn't it, 20 or so

acres? Yes, plenty of space for them to not get muddled up again. Plenty

of field? Yes, give them time to find their mum and watch them

trotting up in their happy teams. Marvellous. The little 29 is the

lamb the viewers named Rocky and it's happy and healthy out in the

field now with his mum? Yes, we'll check him tomorrow when he gets his

breakfast. Kate is in the main barn and there are more lambs on the way?

Not just on the way but actually here, Adam. We have just delivered

Or are helping deliver this enormous, enormous single lamb. You

can see this tiny one beneath it. This is a wet adoption, Hamish? Yes,

she's a single and we knew she was lambing, so we just gave her that

wee lamb. It's a bit of a mismatch there, but she spent a few minutes

with that lamb before her big lamb came out so she had almost bonded

with that and now she'll get up and lick her new lamb. So we put both of

these together in front of her as if she'd given birth to both of them.

You can tell which one got all the pies! And then the idea would be

that she would totally accept this lamb and feed it as if she'd given

birth to it? Yes. That is huge. That is enormous. Look. This lamb was

born today. Look at the difference in size. We did have somebody e-mail

in saying are distinguishes always identical, now I know that these

aren't actual twins, but you can just see the difference in lambs.

That's amazing. We'll let her get on with the all-important job of

bonding with her new little family. Farmers breed sheep for all sorts of

different reasons. The Dykes breed some of their sheep and the lambs

that are born this season and they may stay on the farm to become

replacement breeding stock and some may go for meat.

Earlier in the year, I joined Hamish and Susie to learn about the

complicated system of condition scoring.

Sheep farming is a year round business with its own natural cycle.

Lambs are born, raised and sold before they reach a year old.

With Christmas approaching, it's time for Hamish to sell the lambs he

has left, ready to start again. Can you look at them and go, I know

that they are basically right? They really can deceive you. I like to

weigh them every time and it givious a chance to put a hand on their back

and to see hue they are doing anyway. In Britain, we prefer our

lamb a certain size and shape. And this means that, like so many

businesses, Hamish has targets to meet.

42 and a half. I think that one can go. Once slaughtered, a butchered

lamb will weigh half as much. Supermarkets want a consistent dead

weighted of 21 kilos to make lamb affordable for their customers.

So this one you wouldn't send? It's only weighing 40 kilos and really we

are looking for 44, 45 kilos. I'm going to guess she's 42. Pf

44. I was going to say more. I never took a guess!

But it's not just weight that Hamish is selecting for. The back is very

knobbly. That's the technical term. Every animal needs the right

combination of fat and muscle. A good place to feel is the tail to

get different, I suppose like ladies, they carry the fat in

different places, it's a good indicator of how much excess is on

her and there really isn't a fat tail there. It's quite Sa... Bowny

tail. It is bone boney. -- boney tail. We'll keep hold of this one?

Yes. The average price paid for a lamb is ?80. Too fat or too thin and

it will make less money. It's well covered. I would they

hasn't got a high nobble factor. What do you think? Good to go.

The abattoir will score each lamb with a system of numbers and

letters. Because each lamb is electronically

tagged, Hamish can track how well he's doing. Its tag number is 5304

and its weight is 43 kilos. OK.

I am going to stick my neck on the line. You are going to grade it? I'm

going to say it's a 3 H. So this is the grading that the abattoir give

the carcass? Yes. 3 H is just getting on the heavy

side. If you go over to 4, you might start to get penalised. OK.

So you are going to send that one? The price Hamish gets paid will

depend on grade and weight. 3 L. 3 L as well. Sorting the lambs

means he can sell each one at the right time.

Right. Happy to go. It's quite a key moment really in

your farming year isn't it, seeing the lambs leave? Yes. I mean, you

are looking a little sad? I think it's the thought of what is ahead of

them, you know, they're gayly trundling along and this is the end

of their life which is sad, but that's why we've bred them and

that's the cycle. You do have to become a bit removed from the

emotions of what's happening with them and, you know, you take pride

in what you've produced. It's a product that goes to feed the

nation, feed the world, so you have to become removed from the emotions.

I feel more pride in hoping that we get a good price and the lambs grade

well. Yes.

You have been busy, you two? Yes. What we like to promise our viewers

is Lambing Live, all the experience of the lambing shed without them

having to get covered in placenta! We should check on our ewe and her

adopted twin. She seems to be look looking after both of them, it seems

to be going OK? She had the adopted lamb before her own so she's bonded

already with that. There, the little adopted one looking for the teet

which is a great sign? Yes, absolutely. It seems like one big

and one little, a business of a mismatch? I didn't realise that that

one would be quite as big. Enormous? I suppose if you put the weight of

them both together, it would be a good average. Will it be a big

problem because that one's so much bigger, will the little one not get

its fair share? The big one will need more so it's good that the

little one is little. So it will ehave been it out? A big one,

another big one may have been too much for her. I want to pick up on

the final thought of the last film and seeing the lambs going off to

the abattoir and, you know, Susie feeling, having mixed emotions

really. I think it's something that people who don't have livestock find

very hard to grasp. We've seen you this week, you and your whole family

putting so much work into it and how much love and care you lavish on to

your livestock and yet ultimately, they are going to go for slaughter.

How do you square that up? We know what we are producing the

livestock for. If people want to eat meat, which everybody does, then you

need to produce the livestock. As long as they are getting killed in a

humane and orderly fashion, then we are doing our job. And you do the

same thing, don't you Adam? You summed it up beautifully in that

film. An effort that goes into producing farming products. Sheep

farmers are producing lamb for the table. You do that to be proud of

what you produce. You do it very, very well. To get that perfect lamb

for the table - of course they need feeding. One of the main feeds of

sheep is grass. A while ago I went off to find out about the science of

producing grass. After a long, wet winter, the grass

has been slow to get growing. Like most farmers I am having to provide

extra feed for the sheep on my farm. As spring approaches, I need to look

ahead at what food will be available for my ewes and their lambs. Grass

master Charlie Morgan has come to offer advice. This is in permanent

pasture. It has been down to grass for 20 years. We are in an

environment scheme. We cannot put any nitrogen on it. Nitrogen is the

important part. Without adequate nitrogen you will not grow much of a

yield. Grass needs nitrogen to grow and sheep need grass. Their stomachs

turn it into protein. The better the grass, the better the meat. Looking

across it there is mark and all sorts of undesirables in here. We

would look for 50% rye grass. That is the best for sheep production.

When you look down you imagine just grass. There are stacks of different

species in here. In here we could probably find 10-15 different grass

species. The vast majority is rye grass. We have clover here and that

is red clover. The back of the leaf is hairy. Red clover has a amount of

nitrogen. This is the indigenous type which will not give you enough

yield to make a big difference. I got excited then and now you are

taking it away from me. Vy habit of that sort of thing. -- I have a

habit of that sort of thing. And this grass? That does not yield much

more than you see now. In the environmental scheme I am in, this

is delivering all sorts of flowers and thing, but commercially for the

sheep it is not providing a good food. Vehementally somebody would

say it is very pretty. That is fine. If you are in the business of trying

to produce meat then it is not necessarily what you want.

There are more than 160 spee siss of dwrass -- species of grass in the

UK. Only seven are useful in agriculture. It is rye grasses that

are the most important for livestock. Charlie has found some in

my pasture. I am worried there's not enough to go around. These ewes are

about to give birth now. This will not deliver good enough for them,

will it? The ideal for them is four centimetres. Sheep are fussy about

their grass. To long and they cannot reach the richest part. Too short

anded they go hungry. This is four. This is the bear minimum for these

animals now. You will need an area to carry a lot of ewes. We are low

stock, four to five per hectare. On good grass what would you look at?

12. More than double. As a farmer, we should be growing grass as a

specific crop and doing it much better. Grass is another crop. We

tend to take it for granted. It has far greater potential than we know.

To learn more about this potential, I have come to Wales. Here

scientists are breeding sheep grasses that will make breeding more

efficient. Wow! That is pretty futuristic,

isn't it? It is. Alan is one of the scientists leading the way in plant

genetics. What we have got is a fully automated conditions which

control the light, watering, the fertiliser applications. Each of

these tabs has a different variety of grass in it? It is like looking

at an individual human rather than looking at the whole population.

This enables us to identify the genes that cause different things in

the plant. These plants have now come from the

grass house behind us and are going into these scanning chambers here.

-- glasshouse. You'll have a laser in there so you

can measure the actual growth, the height, the density. Ultraviolet: We

have infra-red so you can pressure the water coming off the leaves. You

can measure that. We can even here do something which has never been

done before, which is look at the roots of plants, so it is a complex

series of chambers. It is extraordinary! I have never seen

anything like it. Hundreds of measurements are taken

from each individual plant. The scientists can then begin to unravel

which genes are responsible for how the plant grows and select for the

traits which are beneficial for farmers.

The seeds they produce are then planted outside in hundreds of plots

to see what the grass actually does under real conditions.

Is this the exciting bit? Yes, no doubt. This is the culmination of

all of that work and here you see if it works. It is incredible seeing

the heights and colours and different leaf. There are some with

more growth at the moment and they don't perform so well later in the

year. You come to these here, which are some of our varieties now. These

are high-sugar grasses. That was the first new character we added into

the grass. That is not actually to feed the animal, it feeds the bugs

and make sure the nitrogen is available to the animals, so you get

better of weight gain and milk, that sort of thing. In the future looking

at a more digestible fibre, and an energy source for human health and

even looking at other things, like perhaps vitamins - all these things

are to be added into the grass, into the mix. So really the science you

are working in on the grass is about the meat we eat? Yes, very much so.

We can look at all these components and put together the supergrasses

that you farmers require. Sheep are really what they eat. If we want to

produce good-quality meat for the table we have to go back to grass

roots. As a farmer, I need to think as much about my fields as I do my

animals. Absolutely a fascinating film.

Fascinating to think of grass we take for granted as a crop that

will... Well treated and well grown will do a good job for your sheep.

Someone else doing a good job is Hamish. This is ridiculous. We are

getting birth after birth. This ewe was showing signs of labour before

we came on air and then she seemed to stop. Have you identified the

problem. It is a breach. If you can remember what a breach is, perhaps

you can demonstrate the breach position. This is not going to be

elegant. A breach lamb is coming out backwards. What Hamish is feeling at

the moment is that with a tail. So, what you have to do -- so, what do

you have to do? I pushed the tail in and got the back legs to come out.

It is harder with back legs - they are pointing the wrong way. I have

flicked the back legs. They are both pointing backwards now. Then we have

to try and pull the hips up through the pelvis. If you didn't intervene

with a breach birth, can a lamb be born naturally, backwards? It does

happen, but not very often. Another enormous lamb! My goodness!

Breach isn't a good way for a lap tob come. They are better to come

forward -- lamb to come. They are better to come forward.

She's expecting twins. Do you have any reason to believe

that the other one will also be breach? Is that what tend to happen?

There's no reason really. Occasionally you get all the lambs

coming the wrong way. Quite often the rest are correct. You can leave

her for the time being? I am happy to leave her and see what happens

with the next one. A lot of people have e-mailed us to ask whether

sheep will lamb outside? We have seen that you bring the ewes in

during the evening, but you put them out in the field next to the barn

every morning. Will they lamb outside? Absolutely. And viewers

will think this is an indoor system, but if the day is longer than the

night, then predom nanltly it is an outside system. I -- predominantly

it is an outside system. Just to thoroughly answer your question and

prove Hamish's point, our cameras were out and about in the field and

witnessed this wonderful moment. This must be, for you, Hamish, the

ideal scenario, is it? That is perfect and just happened to notice

that is a first-time lamber. She is a two-year-old sheep, but did not

lamb last year. There she is get out two good lambs all by herself and no

problems. When they are out in the field, do you have to check on them

in the same way that you check on them when they are here in the shed?

We do, either myself, Gillian or Susie. We are in the fields when we

think it is necessary. The field is visible from here. You can see

problems from a distance. I went out with Gillian first thing to do one

of those checks and Gillian spotted something - this is basically

pinching going on, isn't it? Can you explain what is happening? If you

have got a ewe that's had her lambs and there's another one on the point

of lambing, they sometimes get confused and try and pinch the

newly-born lappens from another sheep. Gillian asked many eto pick

up the -- lambs from another sheep. Gillian asked me to pick up the

lambs. She thinks these lambs are hers. She used the lambs as a trap

for the ewe, so she could catch the ewe that wasn't the mum. Put it in

the trailer and take it away and then leave the lambs with their

rightful mother. Why does it matter sf if you want things to -- why does

it matter? If you want things to happen as naturally as possible? If

they are coaxed away from their real mother, if away for too long,

there's quite a fair chance that the mother will not take them back when

you reunite them. Then you end up with a ewe who has three lambs. Or

four lambs. So it is necessary just to make sure that the ewe that's had

her lambs sticks with her lambs. You have to be on top of that quickly.

The lovely thing at this time of year is seeing lambs out in the

field and whether they are born here in the shed or out there,

ultimately, that is where they will be. On beautiful, spring time, sunny

mornings, there's no wonderful sight than seeing lambs dancing for the

sheer joy of it. I was going to say our little lamb -

our giant lamb! Looks very Perky and fine? Yes. Quite happy. Quite a big

lamb. Coming backwards is not a very favourable way for the lambs to

come, it doesn't help with the rib cage, but quite happy with that one.

So far, not showing any signs of giving birth to the second one, so

that will hopefully just happen naturally over the course of the

next 20 minutes, half hour or so? Absolutely, yes. We are quite used

to having our thunder stolen by lambs and it is a programme called

Lambing Live and so lambs should be the stars or perhaps Hamish the

farmer should be the star. But in this case, none of that is true. We

have been completely trumped by two characters called Doug and Jess, so

by overwhelming popular demand, here is a homage to Hamish's dogs.

I like these doings. I've formed a relationship with them. Jess, she's

going to be eight years old and Doug is one of her pups, so he's

three-and-a-half years old -- dogs. They just absolutely worship the

ground Hamish walks on. The feeling is mutual, I'm sure, though he'll

not admit it. You wouldn't have thought that the

noise in the field would be a good thing but it has its uses. They can

use their bark to help move the sheep. I found at lambing time that

moving the lambs from a distance, you know, 20 or 30 yards back, using

the bark instead of having the dog close up has been quite useful.

They are also very good at catching individual sheep.

As soon as they know which sheep it is you want singled out, they bark

and bark and bark instead of herding it. The sheep becomes mesmerize and

pretty much stands still. That's do it. Good dogs.

We have to get this close to the sheep. We struggle to get them

moving because this is what they do when you get too close, they turn

around and start stamping their feet and that alerts the lambs, so the

lambs start splitting so it would be a slow walk from the field to here,

but because we can get all the sheep moving from 1010 yards back, the

sheep are less stressed because you are not as close to them and they

are moving down the field of their own free will -- 100 yards back. He

would be on his own without them. Yes. It wouldn't be the same. It

would be difficult catch ago sheep without them. The farm just wouldn't

be the farm without them. And here are Jess and Doug. Doug

obviously demonstrating the breech position far better than I was able

to. They are wonderful, wonderful dogs, Hamish. Can you remind us what

breed are they? These are New Zealand hunters. Were they bred

specifically for work? Yes, absolutely. When farming was started

in New Zealand, they came to the conclusion that the collie dog

wasn't best suited to the high numbers of sheep they work with. So

they started to develop different breeds off the back of the collie

and introduced a dog with a bark which I think was the blood hunt and

there are other breeds in this -- hound. The bark helped move the

sheep. It may not be appropriate to ask this in this environment, but

can we have a demonstration of the bark or will that upset the ewes?

They are used to it now. Speak up Doug. Speak. Good lad. Good boy.

He's much more vocal than Jess isn't he? Jess realises there's no need

for her to bark when he's making the noise, but she does speak on command

but she just chooses not to when he is. When making the racket. The

border collie uses its eye to move the sheep and mayor mayorises them,

but when you have hundreds of sheep, you need the sheep to know a dog is

about and that's how to do it, with a bark like that. The collie is used

as a guide doing, you know, a heading dog, and the hunter is for

the power. You are constantly on the search for dogs, Adam, I know. You

have got a great working dog at the moment. Would you ever be tempted by

one of those? They are lovely but probably not for me. I was told they

bark the moment they are out of the kennel until the moment they get in.

You have got a Welsh sheep dog? Which I adore, but I have been very,

very taken with these. So people again who would love a dog like this

but don't have any sheep, can they make good pets? They can make good

pets even if you didn't have sheep, but only if you had plenty of space

for them because they are outside working dogs and need a lot of

space, especially the bigger ones. That's what they thrive on. You are

lovely and I don't mind having my thunder stolen by you at all. Earl

earlier, we discover what had Hamish had to do to work out whether his

lambs were ready for market. Later, the next stage is them going to the

abattoir and I joined Hamish and Susie back in September to find out

whether the lambs that Hamish had chosen really did make the grade as

far as the supermarkets were concerned.

It's 5. 30am and we have headed north to abouter denshire. This

abattoir processes and packages meat for Morrisons supermarkets right

across the country. In Britain, we are picky customers, liking our lamb

with the right amount of fat and meat. Hamish and Susie have come

here today to see if their lambs are making the grade. -- Aberdeenshire.

Richard Henderson is one of the supermarket's livestock buyers. Have

you made a good purchase? The carcass is in good shape, good

confirmation, very happy with what I see. It's his job to work with

farmers like Hamish to source the best lamb possible.

Can you tell me what this chap is actually doing? He's putting in

confirmation and a fat cover score on the lamb. Literally just doing

that by looking at it? In six seconds, yes. How much a farmer like

Hamish gets paid depends on the weight and grade of each lamb.

I'm very, very impressed with what you are doing? We have such a good

system with high quality meat coming through, so it makes life easier.

He's real think middle man between the abattoir and the Fareham making

sure that the farmer gets the right price for his lambs.

What What is extraordinary about watching him is that he gives each

carcass a squeeze and a poke and that's it.

Hamish is very much independent. Supermarkets like Morrisons are

looking for a consistent product to sell to their customers.

What seems amazing to me is how pretty much identical they all look.

There is differences. Here we have a good comparison. This one is an

absolutely superb lamb, just about perfect. He's got a body full of

flesh and muscle, a good wide back and good wide shoulder. Next to him

here is a poorer specimen, he's narrow, longer in body which means

he's Lenner and he's narrow on the shoulder. There wouldn't be as much

meat on a lamb like this compared to that one, that one will yield more

and that's why we pay more for this than this one -- more leaner.

Each carcass has been given a bewildering series of numbers and

letters by the graders. This will determine the

all-important price per kilo. Hamish graded these lambs before

they left the farm. But is he supplying the product he

thinks he is. Slightly leaner. Not so much fat cover. Not a huge

difference here. Not a massive difference here.

A fatness score of 3 is the target for supermarket lamb.

The important factor for me is being able to grade the fatness level at

home because that is the key for whether it's too good or not good

enough. Hamish not only knows his flock,

he's producing good lambs for the table.

R 3 H. Absolutely spot on. U 3 H. He's good at this isn't he? Practise

makes perfect. I've got a lot to learn!

As margins get tighter, selling the right grade of lambs at the right

time will mean a big difference to Hamish's payday. Sounds like Hamish

might be ready to do you out of a job, five out of six, not bad? !

Very good. Testament to how interested he is in what he does,

he's got five out of six, exactly right grades. Average 20.9 kilos,

target weight 21, so very happy. I think the really illuminating

thing for me about, first of all being with Hamish and Susie and

learning about that condition scoring, about finding out whether a

lamb is ready to go or not, and then going and seeing the next part of

the process and just house picky it is. You know, you slightly think,

you get a sheep, bung nit the field, hope it gets fat and send it off to

slaughter, but I mean it's a real science isn't it? It really is quite

an art, yes. Some farmers are very, very good at it themselves. Some

might use agent who is come in to help them out. Which use a guy at

home sometimes to help my livestock manager select lambs to make sure we

are getting it right to deliver the right thing to the abattoir. But are

you basically bending to consumer pressure? Shouldn't you, as farmers,

actually be saying, these are our lambs, you are jolly lucky to have

them and you kind of get what you are given? Should you be bending to

this pressure? Well, I think that they want a consistency and

continuity of supply and there'ses a strict grid of what you supply and

you get paid according to that. There are lots of different flavours

and different tastes and breeds and shapes and sizes and perhaps the

consumer often Baines the supermarket but it's ourselves that

have that choice and if you want something different, we should ask

for it. The other thing that fascinates me is that it feels like

the price is basically dictated, you know, again, by the supermarkets.

How much, in a year like this year particularly for people in the South

West, you know, it's been a terribly wet winter, grass has been slow to

come through, last year with all that snow which was so devastating

for farmers, is that reflected in ultimately the price? Do farmers get

more because they've had to shell out more for food, you know, all

that kind of thing? I really wish they did but that is not the case at

all. Labour prices can go up, rent, feed, then we can get struck by

inclement weather and those sorts of things. It can affect the

profitability of the business and the lamb prices are where they are

and they can be after ex-bid cheap imports too. The consumer in this

country will only pay a certain price for lamb and if it gets too

high we buy in lamb from New Zealand and other countries sometimes. It's

difficult and only the very good sheep farm Kerrs make a profit out

of farm farming sheep - farmers can make a profit out of farming sheep.

I mean you can think, I have got the nutrition right and the right land

and you still don't know year on year whether you are going to be

able to make a living out of it? Farming is a roller coaster and you

have to live with those things. But you have got to do your very best.

Breed the right sheep, your Husbandry and the way you look after

them has to be spot on. You have to get your markets right and be on top

of your business. We have the tightest legislation. The best way

we look after our staff, waste and energy and all those things, you

know. So I would encourage people to support the British farmer and buy

British lamb. So if viewers have like what had they have seen this

week, if they have appreciated what the Dykes do and other farmers in

this country do, the west twice show that appreciation is buy British? It

is and it's a good plug for British farmers, but sheep are the view,

they are the landscape, so we go at it so hard to try and make a really

good job of farming and sheeped farming is very tough. So yes, if

you want to support that view and the British sheep farmer, buy

British lamb. There you are! You heard it from

him! Now, a few of you have been

e-mailing in to find out how my badge badger face Welsh rams have

been getting on. We saw earlier on in the week that the year old sheep

hogs scanned quite well and earlier this week, I went out into the

fields with Hamish to see if there was any evidence that the rams

really had done a good job. All the ones that look really good!

I would say there's definitely a bit of Badger in this one. A nice ewe

lamb and you can see that sort of little bit of ginger in the fleece

and quite often they will come out quite gingery, the pure-bred Badger

lambs and this is her brother. I mean, look at the fleece on that -

it is much tighter curls. It looks more like a blue-faced Leicester. It

has taken some of its mums genes. One of the things that is so

exciting about lambing time is playing a part in it, I suppose. You

know, rams I bred have now come up here to Hamish's farm and it's given

me that feeling that I always hope to get after the very first series

of Lambing Live. Seeing these lambs just makes me realise how far I've

come, I suppose and they are good lambs. I hope Hamish is not

disappointed. Maybe he'll sell them all as soon as I've gone. I am in

the pen with Rosy here. This is one of your favourites here, isn't it?

Grab a little lappen. -- lamb. I will bring this one two. Come on!

Bring it over here. Show me how you know whether it's got a full tummy

or not. This one is quite full. He's quite good. I'm not finished with

you! Is this one of your favourite spots? Yeah. Do you like getting in

with the pet lambs? Yeah. Do you get attached to them? I do, don't I? You

enjoy helping out on the farm today. Earlier today the cameras followed

you and your brother lambing a sheep. Let's take a look at that.

Keep pulling, down that way together! That's it. Well done.

Gi nor mouse! You did - a good job there.

It was big! What was that word your brother said? Mumckled!

What does it mean? Really big. What is this one? It is a black/blue face

faced Leicester. I have a mate called Neil. He saw this and wanted

me to take it home for him! Tell me a little bit more about being on the

farm. How good fun is it? It is actually really good fun. I just

wouldn't feel right if I was in the city, so... I love being a farmer.

Well, thank you. That is lovely. Let's go over to the main barn and

see how Kate is getting on. Thank you. I am just having a

check-up on some of the ewes that lambed earlier. This is the ewe that

lambed. Both are up and both are suckling. Moments ago the ewe that

had the breach birth has given birth entirely naturally and unaided to

her second lamb. So all looking very good in here. As Adam said a little

bit earlier, farming is a tough business, with few financial rewards

and even fewer days off. As Susie has discovered n the first few

months in her time as a full-time farmer, it is a very special way of

life. This farm is where we live and work.

It's our family home and our business.

John and Kate have spent 50 years making the farm everything it is

today. My aim has always been to leave the world a better place thn

you found it. That's a big idea, but any way, so long as you leave

something, that's the main thing. We are very fortunate. OK, it is a hill

farm and it is cold and it can be wet, but just to be living in the

country, it is wonderful. Now it is down to Hamish to continue

their good work. There is quite a bit of pressure.

You have to live by the decisions you make and some of the decisions

are quite important. He has to look after the farm for

the future. If I can make a good job of what I'm

doing in the time I'm here and then give either or both of the children

the opportunity to carry on something after I've gone, then good

and well. Six months ago I left my cosy

9am-5pm to work full-time on the farm. 3. 20pm, the bus will be at

the road-end in two minutes. I don't think I will ever think I have spent

too much time with the children. I would reject not having spent enough

time with them. They grow up so fast. It is really good to be home.

Hello! Right, come on! Working on the farm

means that Hamish is now my new boss. Get behind them all!

It's not easy! Sheep can be fickle animals, at times. Susie - the gate!

Stay behind them all. I am sure when Hamish watches me

doing something, he'll think, don't do it like this, you do it like

that! Everyone has to work things out for themselves. Ultimately I

will do it the way he does it. "You don't do it like that! Come by,

woman! " I am still learning but I know I

have made the right choice. I feel more connected to the family

now, no doubt about it. Part of that team.

It is nice. Not just the person who runs in and out and puts the dinner

on the table and hangs out the washing.

Farming is not easy, but it is incredibly rewarding.

If I am honest, I have always wanted to do this, so the opportunity was

here and it just all made sense. It just makes you feel good.

Something so simple, yet so pleasurable about it. Seeing the

sheep look well, cared for, happy - it just looks fantastic and it is my

favourite spot out here. I will take a minute to enjoy it! It is lovely!

As a family, this is where we belong.

That was a lovely film. Now, John, I have the great privilege of

succeeding the farm Tennessee from my dad, who is well known in the

farming industry as you are. Hamish and I have had a hard act to follow.

How did you make that transition work so well? It just evolved over

the years and Hamish took more responsibility and took a lot of the

stress away from me. I was very pleased about that. It is a lot

about family values, isn't it? Quite unique in the farming industry. We

are immensely proud of our sons and families and we hope they will be as

happy with their children and grandchildren as we are. You said, I

think, Hamish, earlier this week that taking on a farm, you never own

a farm, really - you are the caretaker for the time you are here.

Well n the scheme of things if you think of the number of people on

this farm alone over the last few centuries, we are just a mere blip

in a matter of time, so it is a short space of time we are here and

we want to make the best while we are here. Susie, we have been

sharing your journey over the past few months. Any regret? Do you sit

in the blienldsing snow, as you are -- blinding snow, as you are

battling your way through thinking, you wish you were in that nice, warm

shop? No regrets. What about you, do you think you'll be the next

generation of Dykes on this farm? Yes. I think you should be. What

about your brother, will he be along to help you? He can be a bit of a

bore, but... We've had a fantastic time here. Just look at some of our

highlights. The truck has arrived.

Look at them! What do you think goes on in there?

Run VT! Lamb Lambing Live is back. That one

lying down there against the wall. She is well on. In fact the water

bag has just... Popped out. As you look around the shed now, it looks

like chaos. It is like some mad scientist, as if we are going to go

and conduct an experiment or something.

Our first Lambing Live lamb. They are all together. It is

slippery. It is nerve-racking delivering a lamb on telly. She's

incredibly enthusiastic, that Humble, isn't she? She certainly is!

Missed it! And if we open i... . Surrounded by

lambs. We don't know what to do with ourselves! Adorable!

I will talk about castration now, so watch it!

They've had a ring around their tail and tesales. The last thing they --

testical, the last thing they are thinking about is a ring... I am

quite tempted to get down there! If you can tell them what is on

tomorrow's show! What do you think of that? Spray cans cost a lot of

money. We are Scottish, and we cannot be having that either!

It has been a long day! Well, it really has been a joy and a

privilege and thank you so much for letting us on to your farm. It has

been fantastic! It has. Thank you to all the sheep. Thank you for

watching and this has been Lambing Live. A very good night to you.