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UK - Spring snowfall endangers newborn lambs across the UK

05.04.2019 662 views

Farmers are worried about the effects a spring snowfall and cold weather snap will have on livestock during lambing season.

A cold weather snap bringing snow and ice to parts of the UK this week has raised concerns for farmers trying to protect their newborn lambs from the elements. Lambing season, which is recognised by many as the start to spring, is a significant event in British farming calendars. But the wintry weather during this season's peak has roused worries over the newborns' ability to survive. Cumbrian shepherdess Hannah Jackson posted videos to Twitter on Wednesday, showing her trudging through several inches of snow in search of her new lambs. "It's like being in a winter wonderland… in April," she noted. "It's getting a bit silly now that they're being born in this weather." To combat the adverse conditions, Ms Jackson then dressed the lambs in made-to-measure jackets, while taking weaker newborns into a barn to shelter them from the cold.

"We had some lambs born yesterday, and we have brought them inside because they got wet," she said. "We put them in a warming box and then under a heat lamp to dry. We also gave them extra milk." This is not a first for dangerous weather in spring. In 2013, an estimated tens of thousands of livestock were killed during the coldest month of March in decades. Substantial snow falls across much of the country left farmers struggling to dig sheep out of deep drifts. While the Met Office has not predicted a similar incident for this season, warnings are still in place. A yellow warning for snow was placed over Wales and the West Midlands until mid-morning on Thursday, while temperatures also dipped below zero overnight in eastern England. Source - https://news.sky.com/

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