The Morris family faced devastating losses during lambing season at Logie Farm in Newburgh, Fife, as featured on the BBC's This Farming Life. Andy Morris encountered a harrowing sight in his fields after a night of temperatures at only one or two degrees, accompanied by persistent rain.
In the season seven episode, which originally aired in January 2025, Andy headed to the fields to check which lambs needed help after the cold and wet night. He immediately noticed trouble, with some lambs on the verge of hypothermia and needing to get inside as soon as possible.
A devastating morning on the farm
Visiting the field closest to their house, where the youngest and most vulnerable lambs lived, Andy observed: "We are just coming to the worst of it now, it's not good." A number of dead lambs were seen on the ground, some of which had tried to shelter in the hedge to keep warm rather than staying close to their mother. Without her warmth and milk, they perished in the cold.
Some ewes had lost both of their twin lambs. Andy shared: "It's disheartening, you just have to shake it off because we have got the whole of the rest of the day to worry about." He was heartbroken that something like the weather could have such a devastating impact on the animals.
Facing the elements
Andy added: "It is a tough livelihood, you see something you are trying to care for and get going, and they are just getting beaten into the ground. It's tough going." He went on: "You can't prepare for a day like this, when just you are against the elements of weather and Mother Nature, and she decides she is against you, you can't fight against her. It's just heartbreaking because you know, yesterday and two days ago, they were good, healthy lambs that were going out and they were happy."
He continued: "They were strong lambs, it's sad just picking up that and throwing it in a bag. Fair enough if it's had an illness or something, but when it's just the weather that has beaten them down, it's pretty tough going." While some fields contained mostly healthy and strong lambs, the good news did not last long as another set of dead twins were found, along with their distressed mum. Andy patted the mother on the head in sympathy as he took away her two dead lambs.
A plan for grieving mothers
"It can be a tough life," he shared as he drove back to the barn. "You have got a lot of thoughts in your head, you know? You just have to make them all good thoughts. There can be some dark, dark days." In total, eight lambs had perished in just one morning.
However, Andy had a plan for the grieving mums who were full of milk and yearning for a baby to care for. He planned for the ewes to adopt some of the babies who did not have mothers. To achieve this, he had to remove the skin from the dead lambs and place it on the bodies of the lambs that needed adopting. The ewes would hopefully believe they were smelling their own children, and would take the new lambs in as their own. This Farming Life is on BBC iPlayer.
