UK sheep farmers question their future after worst lambing season on record
Months of rainfall have kept sheep indoors, increasing costs and disease rates – and farmers are cutting stock numbers to get through next winter, or quitting altogether
Stella and Andrew Phillips on their farm at near Brecon in mid-Wales. This lambing season has been one of the most difficult in years, they say. Photos: Jay Williams
It’s 5.30am on a damp Thursday morning in Brecon, in mid-Wales, and the barn at Tylebrythos farm is abuzz with activity. 20 ewes are bedding down in the straw, their newborn lambs bleating, while farmer Stella Phillips, 42, is helping out by bottle-feeding some of the weakest.
As Stella says — and Irish farmers will agree —this lambing season has been marred by difficulties, creating one of the worst seasons on record.
