Friday, March 28, 2014

Lambing Live

The COG is, at this moment, watching a tv show called 'Lambing Live'. It's a farming program on BBC, in which two presenters "follow the life and death drama of lambing' for 30 minutes live every night during lambing season. It seems to take place in a barn filled with sheep in labour. 

The BBC 2 says about the program:

Around 16 million lambs are born in the UK every year, making lambing the biggest and busiest event in the farming calendar. Each spring our fields fill up with ewes and their new lambs - a seasonal feature of our landscape but also a reminder of a way of life that’s shaped our country and our countryside.

BBC Two's Lambing Live opens the door to this incredible world. In Spring 2010 Kate Humble and Adam Henson got their wellies muddy on the Beavan family farm in South Wales. 

And the COG just said - I love this program. 










3 comments:

Unknown said...

It's a brilliant program.

It brings home the realities of farm life.

Lamb is more than just a slab of meat in the supermarket.

The program is on for several nights and follows the lambing season on one Scottish farm.

The sheep are ultrasounded and their backs are marked with the number of foetuses, so the farmer can anticipate the deliveries.

Lambs are born front feet first and just pop out. If there appears to be an obstructed labor you just stick your hand in (no gloves) and pull the front feet out. The presenter of the program (a very British down to earth woman) had a go and pulled a lamb out.

The lambs and mother spend a few days in the barn bonding with each other before being sent back into the fields.

At this moment the South Downs are full of sheep and lambs.

The males, who are not being sent to market at about 16 weeks, are castrated by putting a rubber band around their testicles, which just drop off.

They do the same thing to the tails.

The sheep dogs were amazining too. Very happy dogs. In some ways the dogs stole the show.

As a sheep lover and lamb eater, I just loved the program.

It makes you in touch with the basics of life.

The Bride said...

While I have just become a vegetarian.

Unknown said...

I did remove all the rubber bands from the house, however.