Spring marks the start of the farm's busiest seasons. There is new life coming into the world everywhere we look and the grass is finally growing.  

We are approaching the end of lambing around 650 sheep, which should bring around 1000 lambs. All of the sheep lamb outside, checked twice a day by our shepherdess and are ideally left to get on with things by themselves. Any sheep or lambs that do need a little extra help are brought back to the farm for some TLC but we have a hardy breed of sheep and have had a decent run of weather so we haven't had too many on the indoor labour ward. 

We have 80 head of cattle now on the farm, a combination of Belted Galloway and Blue Grey breeds. They are just coming to the end of grazing their winter allotment grounds and will soon be moved to lower, summer pastures. With our policy change, this is the first year in many decades we haven't calved cows on Matson Ground. 

All of this has been ably handled by a team of three young shepherdesses and farm students, it's great to see such enthusiasm for agriculture from these women. 

The pretty wild primroses adorn the damp, dark banks and the bluebells are carpeting the woodland floors. We hear the curlews calling as they watch over their nests, and thanks to extra monitoring from Curlew Recovery South Lakes, the young chicks will hopefully be fledging soon. 

We'll be back to update you as we move into the summer months and the farming cycle continues for shearing and haymaking.