Jonathan Hall farms in partnership with his mother and father and they all work together on the farm. This year, the family lambed 200 ewes, 150 mules and 50 texel cross, put to beltex cross texel tups. The continental ewes lambed in February and were scanned at 185% and the mules lambed in March and scanned at 210%. In previous years Jonathan has fed Ewedale gold pencils and this year he decided to upgrade to the newly formulated Ewedale Ease. According to Jonathan this year lambs have been born stronger and have hit the ground running. As well as lambs being very vigourous, ewes have had better mothering ability as they have been more vocal. Jonathan says that even ewes that had not done so well over winter and had low body condition are doing very well and their lambs are doing well too. Intake of concentrates was good even after lambing. Jonathan says that lamb survivial has been improved due to stronger lambs being born and ewes looking after them better. After lambing, Jonathan says ewes had thick, yellow colostrum and plenty of it. Because of the better start in life lambs have a high growth rate and are doing well. Jonathan says he thinks ewe health has improved too. It will be interesting to see if there is less of a parasite burden on the ewes this spring due to the increase in bypass protein in the cake. Also, it is hoped that these early gains carry through to the finished lambs.