February has passed quickly at Logie Farm in Fife.

It’s possibly down to it being a busy time following our reluctance to leave the hibernation of winter, or maybe simply due to there being fewer days in the month.

A few days of much-needed sunshine and warmth, coupled with the daylight extending by around two hours, boosted all our moods.

Sheep scanning day on the farm is always nerve-wracking

At the start of February we welcomed Cammy Wilson (sheep farmer and YouTuber) back to scan our ewes.

Scanning day at Logie Farm is one of the most nerve-wracking in the calendar.

Months of preparation and work and it all comes down to where the pop of colour is placed on the back of a ewe.

It’s a bit like the gavel coming down when the sheriff has made a final order in court.

Early in our scanning it was clear we had a lot more single lambs than usual.

We run a flock of about 550 so it worked out around 9% empty, which for us is too high.

Halfway through scanning Andrew (Jo’s husband) uttered the words “I can’t wait for this to be over”.

My heart sank but there is nothing you can do in that moment – it is what it is.

‘We didn’t have enough lambs’

We were lucky to be in the company of Andrew’s dad, Iain, offering perspective and wisdom. He has been there and got the t-shirt.

The arithmetic was simple – we didn’t have enough lambs, which in turn affects our profit margin.

In farming I have learned you can do the exact same preparation, with the best of inputs, and no two years will be the same. Success swings on a pendulum and the biggest factor is the weather.

In North Fife we had a very dry summer 2025 which caused a lot of our grass to burn.

We think this is partly why we didn’t have a great scanning. We simply didn’t have enough grass to flush ewes on at the end of 2025.

Tough choices to protect our farm

Andrew and I are no strangers to challenges or even failure.

It’s this type of experience that makes us grow and develop as people and farmers.

When I was younger I was often told that learning from failure breeds success.

Andrew and I sat down together and went back through our farm business plan for 2025-26, making tweaks here and there to make up for the shortfall in lamb numbers.

In life to grow and move forward you sometimes need to make tough choices.

We decided to sell the empty ewes as they were in good condition and the market is strong. This allowed us to reinvest the cash in younger grit ewes to bolster the flock.

Andrew and I are no strangers to challenges or even failure.”

Andrew and I are no strangers to challenges or even failure.”

In the short-term it will get our numbers back to where they should have been.

We also decided to try a different type of ewe to see if they suit the terrain more.

Traditionally, we work with Texel, Suffolk and North Country Cheviot crosses.

But we’ve decided to run some Scotch Mules which we’ll put the Texels or Beltexes on.

Investing in our future

Yes, we have the initial financial outlay for the ewe but the empty ones sold well and we would have had to sell them later this year in any event.

With the new ewes, the lambs should pay off in the first year.

And, hopefully, the ewes will go on to have many more lambs in years to come.

So, the empty ewes were not such a disaster after all. Maybe it was more of an opportunity – time will tell.

With the weather turning a bit drier, the plough is ready for the spring crop work of potatoes, barley and vegetables. The ground just needs to dry up to let machinery do the preparation.

Constantly analysing and re-evaluating our business model is key.

When we came to Logie in December 2018 the most profitable revenue stream was from our arable enterprise. The inputs were sensible, compared to the price of wheat.

Fast forward seven years through Brexit, Covid, government changes, external market forces and the impact of war in Ukraine on the international grain trade, the gap between profiting from livestock and arable has closed significantly.

When it comes to sheep farming, short of having the grass to procure, inputs are minimal beyond having a good dog, crook and quad bike.

Arable profit margins ‘not what they were’

Meanwhile, lower grain prices and higher input costs mean arable profit margins are not what they were.

Riding the storm is a necessary evil at points. If we were to suddenly change up some of our arable enterprise into grass and put on more sheep, by the time it was established the market may have changed again.

Fife farm’s Belgian students love their Irn-Bru

We start lambing mid-March and the number of jobs on the list is getting longer.

For the past few years we have welcomed vet students from Belgium to help at lambing. They have a great attitude and work ethic, while being genuinely grateful for the experience and, of course, Scottish cuisine.

It’s not unusual for us to get pictures of them buying bottles of Irn-Bru at the airport on their way home.

We plan to open the farm to the public again on pre-booked lambing experience tours.

It’s a great way to educate people about what happens on the farm in spring and explain how we get from tupping to lambs running around the fields.

Meanwhile, our new Logie Farm “lamb cam” will go live in a few weeks, offering round-the-clock access to one of our pens.

I wish anyone who will be lambing, calving or doing any other spring work all the best.

Jo and Andrew Morris run Logie Farm near Newburgh in Fife. They became TV stars in 2025 after letting a film crew for BBC’s This Farming Life into their lives.

© The Courier