Mrs Down's Diary

John soon sorts them out, though, riding to the rescue to pull newly born lambs out of dikes and ponds and enacting his King Solomon role over the true identity of a lamb's parentage.

Fortunately, so far he has been accurate and all the ewes have accepted their lambs. Two are having to be bottle-fed as their mother has so much milk her teats are engorged and they can't get a grip but in a day or two, when the hormones have settled and the lambs grown, nature should sort that particular problem out.

In the foldyard the cows have nearly all finished calving. Just a few left in the herd to calve before we turn them out at the end of April.

The twin calf that would not feed from its mum and who has not latched on to another cow is still being bucket-fed with a milk substitute.

John is going to build it a pen in the bull's yard and wean it on to a calf ration. Then, when all its friends go out to play in the fields, it will have to stay inside with the big boys.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette March 26