Buying in lamb ewes

dave747

Anyone any tips on buying in lamb ewes? or are they worth the risk?

Only time i ever done it was off a neighbour who was reducing numbers and i knew ram used and that they came from a good healthy flock. Im looking to increase numbers abit and and a few large sales of in lamb ewes coming up

arctictree

I was thinking of doing the same as I missed the breeders sales earlier in the year.

Main problem I would have is that you might be getting a bunch of singles or problem ewes.

Conmaicne Mara

Saw elsewhere one fella trying to sell a bunch of triplet ewes. He was asking how he should present them for sale. One guy advised to say they were "scanned in lamb". Now, I don't believe that's a fair thing to do on the seller buyer .

Green farmer

I was told if I was buying ewes like that to look for the fellow who was selling an entire flock , retiring or getting out of sheep. I wouldn't be too gone buying from someone selling a batch of 5-10 !!!
Con, I also saw an ad recently for a guy selling triplets, and looking for crazy money for them. I feel like saying to those people , we'll if you think their worth that, then bring them to the mart and prove it.!!!!
If your not fair to people in this life, now do you expect people to be fair to you !!!

dave747

Green farmer wrote: »

I was told if I was buying ewes like that to look for the fellow who was selling an entire flock , retiring or getting out of sheep. I wouldn't be too gone buying from someone selling a batch of 5-10 !!!

yea thanks thats good advice, would be a better chance of getting good ewes that way alright towards a lad selling a couple

dave747

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Saw elsewhere one fella trying to sell a bunch of triplet ewes. He was asking how he should present them for sale. One guy advised to say they were "scanned in lamb". Now, I don't believe that's a fair thing to do on the buyer .

Be trying to get ewes with the number of lambs marked on them so i can feed correctly but theres always the risk of that being wrong i suppose

paddysdream

Around here you would get laughed out of it if you tried to sell ewes as in lamb without them being scanned and the seller knowing as to what they were scanned with.

Conmaicne Mara

paddysdream wrote: »

Around here you would get laughed out of it if you tried to sell ewes as in lamb without them being scanned and the seller knowing as to what they were scanned with.

Running with the ram is how it'd be put here if they weren't scanned, no guarantee.

adne

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Running with the ram is how it'd be put here if they weren't scanned, no guarantee.

I dont have any sheep at moment. Thinking of buying n a few ewe lambs and bottling. Is this crazy ??

Conmaicne Mara

adne wrote: »

I dont have any sheep at moment. Thinking of buying n a few ewe lambs and bottling. Is this crazy ??

If it were me I'd probably shy away from it and buy conventionally from a farm I knew the history of (or someone I trusted vouched for), that the lambs would have been properly vaccinated, not being sold on because of hereditary foot trouble or other problems.

You don't really know what you're getting with pets and you'd likely be getting them from a few sources. A large problem is the pet lamb may not have got the proper amount of colostrum, which is very important. Maybe I am just not brave enough for it.

I'd say if you have the interest in them then buy good stock to make a good start.

paddysdream

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Running with the ram is how it'd be put here if they weren't scanned, no guarantee.

How anyone could buy breeding ewes this time of year and not know whether they were in lamb or not and what they were having is beyond me.

Conmaicne Mara

paddysdream wrote: »

How anyone could buy breeding ewes this time of year and not know whether they were in lamb or not and what they were having is beyond me.

This would be earlier in the year. A lot here would only be scanning now. Scanning isn't the norm in this area.

Cran

dave747 wrote: »

Anyone any tips on buying in lamb ewes? or are they worth the risk?

Only time i ever done it was off a neighbour who was reducing numbers and i knew ram used and that they came from a good healthy flock. Im looking to increase numbers abit and and a few large sales of in lamb ewes coming up

unless it was a flock clearance or someone you knew reducing numbers I'd buy ewes and lambs at foot. I've always had issues with inlamb ewes, even when went well always needed additional work compared to my own:(

ganmo

If you don't want to buy them in lamb you can buy them with lambs at foot.
There are lads who do that and sell the ewe at the end too

dave747

ganmo wrote: »

If you don't want to buy them in lamb you can buy them with lambs at foot.
There are lads who do that and sell the ewe at the end too

Few clearance sales of in lamb ewes coming up in my area so will have a look at prices and make my mind up then, with lambs at foot could be an option though

monseiur

dave747 wrote: »

Anyone any tips on buying in lamb ewes? or are they worth the risk?

Only time i ever done it was off a neighbour who was reducing numbers and i knew ram used and that they came from a good healthy flock. Im looking to increase numbers abit and and a few large sales of in lamb ewes coming up

If you're planning to keep them for a number of years you should consider buying good quality lambs or hoggets form a breeder you know has premium well bred stock and is a good number of years in business. He will have bred out by culling most of the common problems associated with lambing. You may pay a little more but as the saying goes ''the day you buy is the day you sell''
Buying small numbers at marts is looking for trouble, they are for sale/ being culled for a reason, where as lambs / hoggets from a reliable source are almost always 99% ok
The same applies to rams.

M.