Since I last wrote in The Scottish Farmer, the February bull sales have been and gone – and lambing has started.

We had a fantastic month, with all breeds of bulls and Robert thoroughly enjoyed his day judging the Limousins at United Auctions, Stirling.

The Luings received a new breed record of 25,000gns at Castle Douglas, which is a great achievement for the Nunnerie team. This was for a son of Finlarg Tornado, so it has given us great satisfaction seeing a bull we have bred go on and do so well for another breeder.

Our children, Kate and Alan, sold their first ever bull at auction for 10,000gns at Stirling. This was for a Simmental named Finlarg Jaguar, so they were delighted to get a day off school and nursery to watch it being sold with granny.

Just like almost everywhere else in the country, ground conditions here are wet and the sheep are churning up the grass. The turnips have not lasted as long as we had thought, but luckily brother-in-law, Bob Adam, has come to the rescue in supplying us with the surplus from Newhouse.

We have just started lambing the Bluefaced Leicesters and Texels, which is slightly earlier than normal but so far, so good. I’ve already had the first lamb into the house for a heat and it did the trick!

I am pleased with the first lambs off our new Bluefaced Leicester stock tup from Newbigging Walls and hopefully there will be a few more good lambs to come.

Lambing wouldn’t be lambing without a few disasters, so we’ll just have to take the good with the bad. It does make all the difference if the sun is shining, so fingers crossed it comes out to play.

Our new bull shed is finished and is already full of some of our various breeds. Robert is in his element in the shed and after the number of 'change' requests he put to Algo, I thought he was going to be staying in it himself! We are very pleased with the end result and hopefully we’ll bring out a few good bulls from it.

After recently taking a few soil samples, we have found out that the farm is low in cobalt, which is something we have suspected over the years. We must work on rectifying this as soon as possible.

Drew and Fraser, who work with us at Over Finlarg, have started to pressure wash roofs, so if you come to NSA Scotsheep, make sure and look up at their handy work or report if they’ve missed any bits!

NSA Scotsheep at the farm is now less than three months away, so it’s in our minds all the time and if I’m not dreaming about it, Robert is! I’ve even started sleeping with a notepad by the bed because I’ll often waken and think we must do this or speak to that person.

The committee had another meeting last week, which was our last one at Forfar Mart. We have organised to have the next meeting at Over Finlarg after the busy period, so the whole team can put firm plans down on the layout etc.

Sponsorship for Scotsheep is coming in well and we have had a great response from local companies, which is hugely appreciated, as is the offered help from family, friends and neighbours.

Since my last blog, the number of trade stands has increased by a good bit to more than 160 stands and we have a great variation of local and national companies, as well as breed societies. We still have space for more stands, though, so please contact Euan Emslie on 07718 908523 or euan@nsascotland.org ASAP if you want to be part of the event.

In the meantime, Robert and I hope everybody’s lambing, calving and spring work goes well and the weather improves. Just remember, after the busy season is by with, you can come and enjoy a great day out with fellow farmers at NSA Scotsheep, on Wednesday, June 3.