05/02/2018

As the lambing season gets underway, Farming Today is turning the spotlight on sheep. There are around 33 million of them in the UK, producing meat and wool for both the home market and export.
Today, we're starting with lambs. Figures show that in flocks in the lowlands, around 18% of newborns don't make it - and that figure is even higher in the uplands. Despite decades of research into neonatal lamb deaths the situation isn't improving, which raises questions about animal welfare as well as having an impact on the farm's bottom line.
Scotland's Rural College is running a 'Live Lamb' project: working with five focus farms across the country, in a bid to cut the mortality rate. Nancy Nicolson has been to see one of the participants, the Glensaugh Research Station, about 30 miles south of Aberdeen.

Globally, nearly half of agricultural land is used for to grow food for livestock - while more than a fifth of wild caught fish are fed to animals as well.
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