The Hour

Warning: video contains scenes some veiwers may find distressing.

Richard Black is a farmer from Fife who runs the Braeside of Lindores farm with his father. The life of a farmer is tough and lambing season is one of their busiest times.

Richard said: “We’re in the middle of lambing just now we’ve got just over 300 sheep we’re two weeks into it this is probably our busiest time  we’ll get we’re up at half five in the morning just now and straight out and just checking that’s there no problem form the night before”

When a sheep has not lambed before they are known as a gimmer and usually Richard tries not to get too involved as it is important for the welfare of the lamb for its mother to accept it. 

He said: “We like to leave them to do it themselves if you pull the lamb out too soon there can be a problem they don’t bond too well.”

Richard then spots a sheep that has been lambing for about 40 minutes and seem to need a bit of assistance. He reaches in for the lamb hoping to find its head and two front legs so that he can pull it out.

However, the lamb is coming out the wrong way and is hardly breathing when he pulls it out. Richard managed to get its sibling out alright and turns his attention back to the struggling lamb. It was too late for the lamb unfortunately and there was nothing Richard could do.

He said: “Unfortunately the first lamb that came out didn’t make it, it was breathing when it came but you kinda know in your heart that these things aren’t going to survive. It had too much of hard a time of it.”

There are hard times such as these that Richard must face on a daily basis in his work on the farm.

He said: “You do wake up the occasional morning and think ‘oh my God I’ve got to go through this again’ and pull yourself out of bed, but you know once your up you just get on with it.”

However, he added: “It’s all worth when you get weather like this and a field of healthy lamps. You know everything’s just skipping about, hopping about really happy.”

To keep up with Farm watch visit part 1 and part 2 of Richard’s video diary.