When weather gets tough, it shows you where your weakest points on the farm are.

Luckily we have quite sheltered fields for lambing in, and the rushes were a help for some lambs too. There’s nothing more annoying for a sheep farmer than to go through a field of ewes where all have lambed and to find lambs hungry, cold, sick or perhaps worse, dead.

Keeping an eye on ewes that have lambed down is just as important as keeping an eye on those about to lamb.

One thing I’m glad I did this spring is feeding the thinner and older ewes, or any hogget that I thought might need some more feed to help keep them in good shape. It has paid off: their lambs have done well and caused no bother, and the ewes are healthy and fit.

Lambing is nearly there, with just a handful of ewes left. I’m glad it’s nearly all over for another year. It is a busy and challenging period, both physically and mentally.

The focus will turn to keeping the lambs healthy, thriving and growing well, and then hope for a good price when we sell them.

With the hours and work that goes into this job, sheep farmers deserve a fair price. We have earned every cent we get.

We will worm older lambs in the next few weeks as there are reports that nematodirus is already causing trouble in some areas. This will be the only white wormer we use this year on the farm.

Signs of it are similar to that of coccidiosis and often can be diagnosed mistakenly. Depending on the conditions these may need a repeat dose a few weeks later.

Grass regrowth has been slow on ground that has been grazed due to cold and wet conditions.

All the silage ground has been grazed and is ready to be manured for silage. Having it grazed before it is saved for silage-making is important, if you want to have good-quality grass for cutting at the end of May/early June.

It is hard to believe that next year’s winter feed is being planned for already.

Fertiliser prices have begun to drop at last and it a welcome boost, as it was becoming a crippling cost, although it is still far from pre-Ukraine invasion levels.

Feedstuff should be much cheaper, as world grain markets have dropped significantly. If mills don’t bring feed back down soon they won’t have too many farmers buying it.

I have seen many farmers cut back stock numbers and feeding very little, and this will continue unless costs become more reasonable.

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Tom Staunton farms in Tourmakeady, Co Mayo