The first lamb of the year marks a turning point in the calendar and always gets a lot of attention. We try a time our flock’s lambing to meet with the late moorland spring - usually about 6 weeks after everyone else’s. This is achieved by picking on a likely date in April and then turning the rams in with the ewes exactly four months, four weeks and four days before it.

As the effects of global warming have become more tangible, over recent years I have crept our lambing date forward to match the changing times. This year I picked on April 14th and I have to say it feels about right. The grass has started to grow again and the air temperature (whilst still throwing the odd frosty morning) has been positively balmy on sunny days.

My favourite conversation starter at the moment has been the ‘long hard winter’, and whilst it was hardly a winter of discontent, there were episodes of extreme freezing and snow and it all felt much more like the ‘bad old-good old days’.

I have ridden my luck this winter and if it had not been for the fortuitous sale of thirty bullocks I would have run out of feed a while ago and I have had to suspend our mutton production since January as the sheep needed all of their calories just to stay alive and were no where near fit enough to slaughter. This year I will be a bit more cautious and save a bit more hay and silage.

Still, hope springs eternal, and one thing I had forgotten about the old harsh winters was the profound sense of relief which the warmer weather arrives and the days start to draw out again.