Life in the Dales' Reuben Owen helps girlfriend save lamb from 'life-threatening' illness
The Life in the Dales star - who starred alongside his mum Amanda Owen and farmer dad Clive Owen in Our Yorkshire Farm - now has a Channel 5 spin-off following his journey building his machinery business. In the episode that aired on Tuesday, 8 July he took some time out from his own work to help his girlfriend Jessica Ellwood on her family farm during lambing season.
The pair had gone to check on the new arrivals in the fields and spotted one shivering newborn whose mother wasn't feeding it. Without its first feed it was at risk of a bacterial disease that can kill newborn lambs fast.
In the episode, Owen helped Ellwood set up pens in a barn ahead of lambing, so that they would be ready in case any of the lambs needed extra care and had to be looked after inside. The pair, who have been dating for several months after meeting at a convention for young farmers, then headed out into the fields to check on the new arrivals.
Ellwood spotted one very young lamb which was struggling, as the mother was moving away every time it tried to feed.
"I don't think that sheep is letting that lamb suck, she keeps turning when it tries to suck," she told Owen, 21. "Let's go on over and feel him, see if he has got any milk in him and if not we will have to take him inside."
Approaching the lamb and its mother, Owen and Ellwood decided on a "pincer movement" to make sure they didn't get away. However, the mum darted off as Owen made his move, leaving him exclaiming over how "incredibly fast" she was.
"This is the downside of lambing outside," said Ellwood, who managed to grab the lamb. "If we were in a shed it would have been easier," she added, as she enlisted the help of her sheepdog to round up the ewe.
"This lamb was born about an hour ago and he hasn't sucked, he has got cold and he has just laid and shivered," she said. "She hasn't really licked him that well either."
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Luckily, Ellwood's dog was able to head the mother sheep in their direction and Owen and Ellwood managed to get her into a small trailer, where she could feed the lamb.
"This is the colostrum, the most important... this will be the most important meal of his life won't it?" asked Owen.
"Yes very important," Ellwood replied. "And he needs to have it quickly as well because the colostrum is full of all the antibodies."
She explained that if lambs don't get their colostrum they can get a bacterial disease called "watery mouth". "It's really bad, it can be life-threatening," she said.
As the lamb started to feed, Owen praised Ellwood for what she had done.
"Well that's another little life saved - well done darling," he told her. "That's why it's so important to go round them. He probably wouldn't have survived if he had been left."
"No definitely not, he would have got cold and shivered and then hypothermia and watery mouth probably," she agreed.
Ellwood later decided to name the lamb after her boyfriend. Dabbing some orange pen on its head so that she could spot it in a crowd of lambs, she noted that it was the same colour as Owen's jacket. "Definitely called Reuben now!" she laughed.
The episode also followed Owen as he moved 100 tonnes of stone as part of a job. When the job finally came to an end, he confessed he was feeling "lost" after having worked on it for weeks.
"Do you feel a bit lost now?" he asked his team. "I do."
"All we have been trying to do for the last month is 100 tonnes of this and now we are done," he explained.
However, he marked the end of the job with a barbecue for his workers, plus Ellwood and his brother Miles, who is one of his eight siblings.
Owen volunteered to cook the meat himself. but his friends were left looking a bit unimpressed when he had a hard time getting the barbecue started and then offered up sausages that one of his team said were so undercooked they were "about to run off".
After the group had eaten, Owen shared his hopes for the future as he reflected on his week.
"I think the next thing I need to think about is getting somewhere a bit better to keep all these machines," he mused. "And hopefully somewhere for me to live as well. That's the dream next."
Reuben Owen: Life in the Dales is available on Channel 5.
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