VALUE ASSESSMENT

The Centrality of Lambs

Lambs are central to a sheep farmer gaining a livelihood from sheep farming. The essence of lambs, from a money-making perspective, is that they arrive without being bought.

It is true that a lambs’ existence may have been produced as an outcome of money having been paid for their father or mother, but often the mother - at least - will have been a lamb born at the same farm. And money will have been spent on looking after and feeding the parents throughout their lives. The stages to a lamb being born will require its ram father to be brought to peak condition, and the pregnant ewe mother to have good and relevant care during her pregnancy. Also, the ewe will need special care and attention during lactation. Nonetheless, and despite all this, the cost per head for a lamb from ‘the parentage direction’ will not be great. A bonus of sorts for the sheep farmer is if his ewe has twins. She can feed two lambs. And he has ‘two for the price of one’.

Lambs, unless they are born to breed or are allowed a longer life for another reason, will have short lives of only a few months. The meat of sheep most desired by the public is lamb meat. So, though at birth and in early days and weeks onward lambs need human time and other resources of various kinds, the need is not usually long-lasting.

It can be seen that, economically-speaking, lambs are very attractive entity to sheep farmers. They do not represent much monetary outlay. They give financial return and profit. The mindset of perceiving lambs in financial terms was on display in the BBC Countryfile television programme’s ‘Lambing Special’ episode this month (15th March 2026). As the BBC’s information about the ‘Lambing Special’ episode said ‘For sheep farmers, lambing is make or break … every newborn lamb can shape a farm’s fortunes for months to come.’

The customary time for lambing in the UK is spring. In the ‘Lambing Special’ episode it was said that to be able to lamb earlier would enable reaching ‘market’ in time for the price-high Easter period. Viewers were told the Dorset breed can lamb all year round.

One wonders if sheep farmers, in so manifestly evaluating lambs in financial terms, and thus doing what is in their own best interests, are omitting to value lambs for themselves, and are not doing what is best for them according to welfare and wellbeing criteria.

26th March 2026