General sheep thread

DJ98

Wooden hurdles vs galvanise hurdles. Wooden ones seem much cheaper but then wouldn't last as long

roosky

DJ98 wrote: »

Wooden hurdles vs galvanise hurdles. Wooden ones seem much cheaper but then wouldn't last as long

wooden ones will also carry disease and can get very heavy when wet .....galvanize seem dear day one but they are not when you account for the other use you get out of them and the extra years they last

ganmo

DJ98 wrote: »

Wooden hurdles vs galvanise hurdles. Wooden ones seem much cheaper but then wouldn't last as long

if you're using them outside definitely galv. the wooden ones stay better inside

wrangler

Willfarman wrote: »

@ 30 cent a kg that’s 21€.

Actually had one and a half bags in my head which is, of course, 36kgs.

we had no grass, They had the ditches eaten out of it

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

Actually had one and a half bags in my head which is, of course, 36kgs.

we had no grass, They had the ditches eaten out of it

Wrangler, even find it hard to get the Lleyns above 40kg ? Have some here that are more or less Adlib and looking super healthy , but just aren’t getting much above 40kg on the scales ?

Young95

Green farmer wrote: »

Wrangler, even find it hard to get the Lleyns above 40kg ? Have some here that are more or less Adlib and looking super healthy , but just aren’t getting much above 40kg on the scales ?

I had my last of Lynn’s sold today live weight of 44kgs . Just can’t get them any bigger ! Just thaught maybe a bellclare might be on de cards for nxt years rams!

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

Wrangler, even find it hard to get the Lleyns above 40kg ? Have some here that are more or less Adlib and looking super healthy , but just aren’t getting much above 40kg on the scales ?

They wouldn't be the fastest thrivers but final weight was never an issue,...
As you know I wouldn't cross them more than once before I'd cross them back to the texel, so most of my ewes are either five eights texel or five eights lleyn and I buy growthy texels, mine are not a big sheep, Are yours closer to pure lleyn than that,
Sounds like they are finished growing if they're not putting on weight, I weight gain drops drastically when they're ad lib for over 6 weeks

Green farmer

Ya, some would be a minimum of 3/4’s Lleyn. I suppose it’s the trade off for getting compact ewes. Next year I’ll be running 3 terminals to 1 lleyn ram, so should balance itself out. We cannt have it every way I suppose.

orm0nd

DJ98 wrote: »

Has anyone here got lambing cameras set up, how do you find them are they clear enough?

these are about 45 to 50 feet from the cam , 1 ptz cam is covering the entire lambing area

DJ98

Whats the ideal size of lambing pens 5ftx5 or 4ftx4, medium sized belclare ewes and large suffolks

Sheepman2

4x4 is too small for big ewes, 5x4 does rightly here for big ewes but would want 5x5 or more for triplets to be safe.

Willfarman

4x4 is fine for a single or a hog get but 5x5 for doubles and even 6x5 for triplets. It’s a hoor to find lambs laid on.

Siamsa Sessions

Take the advice of a fool, as a friend here says!

Found a dead ewe when I checked them this evening and I can only assume it’s pasturella pneumonia again.

We lost 2 in 24 hours back in September and gave the rest Heptavac P the following day. But between one thing and another we never got around to giving them a second shot 4-6 weeks later that would have given immunity.

Lesson learnt - complete your vaccination programme, as this foolish part-time farmer has found out to his cost.

sheepfarmer92

DJ98 wrote: »

Whats the ideal size of lambing pens 5ftx5 or 4ftx4, medium sized belclare ewes and large suffolks

5x5 or 6x4s here, wouldn't want any smaller

arctictree

DJ98 wrote: »

Whats the ideal size of lambing pens 5ftx5 or 4ftx4, medium sized belclare ewes and large suffolks

5x5 here. Have a bigger lambing pen for the triplets - 8x5.

Dickie10

Just scanned there this morning got a great result
69 sheep in total
13singles
43 twins
12 triplets
1 dry
1.95 %

Lambman

What breed are your ewes dickie10? When they due till lamb?

Dickie10

70% are lleyn x suffolk, lleyn x cheviot and lleyn x texel i have bred these from lleyn ram the last 5 years
30% are 3/4 suffolk x belclare i buy these off a neighbour x10 each year

Young95

Anyone here graze der ewes at this time of year by giving them a daily allowance of grass or day grazing then move on? Seen one man do it and the results were good.

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Anyone here graze der ewes at this time of year by giving them a daily allowance of grass or day grazing then move on? Seen one man do it and the results were good.

Great way of wintering sheep, I did it here for a few years with electrified sheep wire and a solar fencer, close it in sept, graze from december.
But it decimated the perennial ryegrass in the sward, huge difference in the sward that wasn't wintered on and land that was. My land is very heavy clay, and I always thought that sheep farming promoted ryegrass, which it does, until I started this.
If you were practising rotational reseeding, you could do it on a division for the last 2 or 3 years before reseeding/
I was at a sheep conference in the North and one of the presentations was about it, I went up to the speaker after and told her my experience and she was unconvinced.
OH was at Confernce in England three years after and same speaker spoke about block grazing and she actually talked about the farmer that she met in NI and how they had the same experience since, especially on heavy soils.
But it's a lovely way to winter sheep

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

Great way of wintering sheep, I did it here for a few years with electrified sheep wire and a solar fencer, close it in sept, graze from december.
But it decimated the perennial ryegrass in the sward, huge difference in the sward that wasn't wintered on and land that was. My land is very heavy clay, and I always thought that sheep farming promoted ryegrass, which it does, until I started this.
If you were practising rotational reseeding, you could do it on a division for the last 2 or 3 years before reseeding/
I was at a sheep conference in the North and one of the presentations was about it, I went up to the speaker after and told her my experience and she was unconvinced.
OH was at Confernce in England three years after and same speaker spoke about block grazing and she actually talked about the farmer that she met in NI and how they had the same experience since, especially on heavy soils.
But it's a lovely way to winter sheep

Thanks for the feedback. It was 3 years ago when I seen it but I think I remember he told me he got 180 ewes 4 months grazing on 8 acres by doing it no waste grazed down to the clay nearly and ewes where in suburb condition all twin bearing never saw meal or hay/silage or the inside of a shed just all grass/.

charolais0153

Young95 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback. It was 3 years ago when I seen it but I think I remember he told me he got 180 ewes 4 months grazing on 8 acres by doing it no waste grazed down to the clay nearly and ewes where in suburb condition all twin bearing never saw meal or hay/silage or the inside of a shed just all grass/.

Over winter.??. Hed do well to do that during summer

Young95

charolais0153 wrote: »

Over winter.??. Hed do well to do that during summer

Yes winter they’d eat like mad in the morning when we move them onto fresh patch and by dinner they have it skint but full. Belly’s and wait again till following morning for there Next patch but he had dry land plus mains electricity and massive cover of grass

Siamsa Sessions

I know there was a discussion on here about beet recently and how long it lasts after it’s pulled, someone said 6 weeks and someone else said 3 months.

Was there any agreement in the end?

charolais0153

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I know there was a discussion on here about beet recently and how long it lasts after it’s pulled, someone said 6 weeks and someone else said 3 months.

Was there any agreement in the end?

If its clean,it should last for a long time . its only when its dirty and starts heating that you run into problems

wrangler

charolais0153 wrote: »

If its clean,it should last for a long time . its only when its dirty and starts heating that you run into problems

I was at a farm walk at robin Talbots, he had it washed and chopped and put in a clamp and sealed with polythene, looked lovely stuff. only thing was he had to take a slice off the whole face every day to keep it fresh. He used to slice it off with the bucket.
This was in May when we saw it

DJ98

Anyone with ewes housed yet or planning on doing so, plan on putting the first of them in just after Christmas

charolais0153

wrangler wrote: »

I was at a farm walk at robin Talbots, he had it washed and chopped and put in a clamp and sealed with polythene, looked lovely stuff. only thing was he had to take a slice off the whole face every day to keep it fresh. He used to slice it off with the bucket.
This was in May when we saw it

You need a very narrow clamp or else a lot of animals for taht to be viable

Young95

DJ98 wrote: »

Anyone with ewes housed yet or planning on doing so, plan on putting the first of them in just after Christmas

When are they due ?

DJ98

Young95 wrote: »

When are they due ?

March, would like to keep them out longer but land is gone very wet