By Iain Richards, veterinary ecologist, Heversham:

I WAS seeing quite a few lambs in the fields today.

They were doing the usual daft things lambs do, and being ignored by mum when a feed bag was rattled. Getting the feeding of ewes right is so important for a healthy lamb crop, especially in the last six to eight weeks. This time is also crucial for the ewe herself, who can sometimes struggle to feed herself and two growing lambs.

Everything really starts with the condition of the ewe herself, and condition-scoring has been established for a long time. The idea is to feel the covering of fat and muscle on the ewe’s back and give it a score of one to six. Ewes at mating should be around three for upland flocks, hill are usually 0.5 lower, lowland 0.5 higher. They can lose a little bit during pregnancy, aiming for around 2.5 at lambing.

The scoring can be done throughout pregnancy, with the feed adjusted depending on the scores. If the ewes are scanned to see how many lambs they are carrying, this also helps in managing the flock. Twin or triplet-bearing ewes need more feeding than a single and it’s also good to know at lambing if more than one lamb is expected (although I’d always check if assisting a lambing).

Having sorted out which ewes need feeding, it’s good to know what the quality of the available feed is. Last year should have seen some good quality forage but, no matter how nice it looks and smells, there is no substitute for an analysis of how much energy, moisture, protein etc. is actually in the food. Single-bearing ewes may well be fine on pure forage, but twin-bearing ones may need some extra feed. It’s well worth actually calculating this rather than feeling that 'a bucket' will do, as both ewe and pocket benefit. One last check can be done - which is to blood sample some of the sheep about six weeks before lambing to check if all the calculations are correct. At this stage, adjustments can still be made to ensure healthy lambs.