Staff and students at Hartpury University and Hartpury College are celebrating a successful lambing season.

It was one of the shortest lambing seasons ever, with 220 ewes lambed in just four weeks. Hartpury's satellite farm, Okle Clifford, is now home to 425 healthy lambs, alongside their mothers.

As they do every spring, staff and students pulled together to help around the clock.

College students help with lambing as part of their academic timetable, gaining valuable first-hand experience in all aspects of lambing from delivery and newborn care to tagging, tailing, turn out and record management.

Students could also volunteer in their free time, if they had a particular interest in sheep farming.

Students studying a range of subjects, including bioveterinary science; animal management, welfare and behaviour; as well as equine science, all gave their time to help with lambing.

This year, even former students joined the team effort. Jay Coverdale, a former Level 3 countryside management and game student at Hartpury College, returned for two weeks to cover the night shifts.

Meg Lawrence, livestock manager at Hartpury University and Hartpury College, said: "The weather has been challenging this year, but we're very happy with how the lambing season has gone. It's also been the quickest season I've been involved with, with 96% of ewes lambing in just three weeks."

The farm made several changes with how the lambing shed is managed this spring, which have had a very positive effect on the sheep, staff and students. Changes included brand new pens, which are a square foot bigger and made of metal rather than wood. Meticulous preparation around hygiene has helped to keep the sheep and lambs healthy and happy.

Meg continued: "There has been an abundance of help from students right across campus and that's made a huge difference. Whether it's checking on silage and water, sweeping the shed or catching the ewes and lambs, each student plays a key role in our wider team during this time of year.

"We've trialled some herbal leys (temporary grasslands made up of legume, herb and grass species) this year. The sheep and lambs seem to love them, and they've kept the ground a lot drier due to their deeper tap roots. As the flock of Highlanders is new to us this year, we are experimenting with different breeds of rams and are looking forward to seeing how the lambs perform as the weather (hopefully) improves."

Hartpury has worked closely with Innovis Breeding, using four of their rams including a pure Highlander to produce replacement ewes and build the flock, an Aberfield SR, also for replacement ewes, and both Aberblack and Abermax rams.