WITH a flock of up to 800 sheep and lambs it’s a full time job tending to their every needs.

And never more so during the past few weeks as the freezing weather has posed huge problems for Suffolk farmer Stephen Cobbald.

For he has lost 30 young lambs due to the cold weather and has bought the rest of them inside providing them with infra red heating as the temperatues continue to bite.

Mr Cobbald is based at at Acton Hall, in Melford Road, Acton, near Sudbury, and said he could not risk losing any more of his animals who had succumbed to pneumonia after temperatues plummeted.

At times it had fell to minus 6 but added to the wind chill factor it took it even lower to minus 12, he said.

The heat lamps are being used to revive the other lambs which are ill.

He said it is costing him an extra £1,000 a week when the cost of 300 tonnes of feed is added.

The newborn lambs were put outside on the fields three weeks ago, but the rain and snow has meant they are unable to graze and farm buildings have had to be emptied to provide space for them.

Mr Cobbald said: “As carers of the livestock we have no choice.

“These sheep are probably going to be inside for another two weeks before we get any grass growing outside to feed them, assuming temperatures rise to warm the soil up.”

The farmer said it was having to buy in the extra feed because of the the poor quality of last year’s home-grown silage crop.

“Everyone has lost sheep in the snow and the cold but we are desperate to get them outside now and hopefully we can by the middle of next week.

“We fight for every life of our animals and that’s why we have bought them inside.”