Its been an odd lambing season for us. I wasn't expecting many lambs, given the abrupt demise of our ram. But to my surprise almost all our eligable sheep gave birth, some 8 weeks after the first births. Mathematically that means it must have been the new, junior ram that fathered the later births. Huh!

The earlier lambs were huge, some too big. We had a handful of stillbirths, where the lamb got stuck and suffocated before I could help. And one where they were just too big and it ended catastrophically for mother and twins.

We don't have suitable pens for imminent mothers, so if we see signs of a troubled birth we have to run the mother down and physically intervene. Its quite stressful trying not to stampede a distressed, heavily pregnant sheep.

This year one flung herself into the water to escape, and I waded in and dragged her out and delivered the lamb in the mud. A few days later we were after another one. She took off, then when she was out of sight, hid in a shelter. We followed to where we'd seen her last and stood there, puzzled, before I thought to crawl into the shelter and find her there.

She was quite exhausted. The lamb itself came out without much trouble. Not in a bad position, just big. I eased his feet out and tugged and out he came. But not breathing. How sad. I checked his mouth for any blockages. Gummed up with fluid, and I cleared it out, but still no sign of life.

But I put my hand on his chest and his heart was going. I tried again, checked his mouth again. The seconds ticked by as I massaged and rattled him, trying jolt some life back into him.

If you'd asked me beforehand I would have not said I would do this, but at the time it seemed the right thing to do...I wiped as much of the bodily fluids on his face off as I could then gave him a few blasts of air. Mouth to mouth. To my elation he gasped, and then kicked, and started to move. Amazing. I propped him in front of his mum and crawled out.

I came back an hour later to check all was ok. Mum and lamb were gone, which was good. But as I walked around to find them I heard a sad newborn crying, and tracking that, found the new lamb, uncleaned, wandering by himself. Mum had ditched him pretty much immediately. It was cold that night, he'd be dead by morning, so in he came to the house in our refurbished dog cage to be bottle fed.

He's a cracker of a lamb, big frame, good looking example of a Dorper. I will keep him for breeding stock. They don't all get named, but this one is "Lucky".