This year I was given permission to visit a farm in Raydale, Yorkshire Dales, which enabled me to freely wander around the lambing sheds and fields. The farmer and his family were extremely informative, helpful and welcoming and in total I visited the farm four times this season. I shall miss my trips to the farm now lambing has ended but there are a couple of waterfalls for me to explore later in the year.
I split the task into two sections: lambing sheds and fields which allowed me to easily collate the photographs when selecting photographs for the book I produced at the end of the project. However, most of my time was spent in the sheds as they were a new experience for me and they were photographically more interesting. Many of the residents were newly born or required extra support and it was fascinating seeing how the mothers bonded with their offspring.
This spring has been extremely wet and the lambs and mothers have spent a lot longer inside than usual and naturally this has meant a lot more work for the farmer. Lambs are not just cast out into any field; there is a progression to allow for the training of the mothers to check they are coping and this means there is a constant movement of selected lambs from one location to another. Add this to the general feeding, health checking, birthing, straw bale movement, hand rearing and overall maintenance of the farm, and the work is never done. At the height of lambing the farmers are busy, non-stop, from 5.00am to 10.00pm at night and sometimes longer if the vet has to be called in the middle of the night. I have the upmost respect for the farmers and shepherds as their care for the livestock is faultless despite the exhausting schedule they keep.
Even though there are hundreds of lambs being born it is possible to pick out the characters and it is delightful to watch the lambs gain confidence in the world about them. They are so full of joy and curiosity and I loved watching the mothers gently caring for their offspring and then seeing the lambs gamboling around the fields. In the gallery I have only included photographs of the lambs with their mothers as it is possible to see the bond between them, even after a short time.
Thank you Francis, Grace, Poppy and Eva for your kindness in letting me undertake my dream project.
