Blenheim Estate has its hands full this spring, as it announces that more than 1,500 lambs are due, with eight seven-week-old sheepdog pups raring to go.
Lambing season on the 12,000-acre Oxfordshire estate began just after Easter, with Farm Manager Tom Locke and his team now extremely busy.
The farming team are making sure that the estate's 1,000-strong flock and new-born lambs are safe and thriving.
Mr Locke's two leading sheep dogs, Tweed and Roe, are parents to an eight-strong litter of pups too, who are now bursting with energy.
From four boy pups and four girls, the farm manager has already selected two girls, Fern and Quinn, who will be staying on the estate to be trained up to take care of the flock in the future, a process that can take two years.
Three of the six remaining pups have already found their forever homes.
Mr Locke explains: “I am very attached to my dogs, but the pups are now causing chaos wherever they go, even their mum Roe has had enough.
"Tweed has been with me 10 years now and is getting a big arthritic so it’s now time to start training up the next generation.
"It’s Roe’s first litter and there are all beautiful dogs but a handful now that they are a few weeks old.”
In March, Blenheim Estate re-launched its livestock worrying campaign ahead of this year's lambing season, urging the public to keep their dogs under control at all times.
The Oxfordshire estate's ‘ThankEwe’ campaign aims to educate pet owners to the potential risks of losing control of their dogs around livestock.
