General sheep thread

wrangler

DJ98 wrote: »

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

Mine are in since the first december, very heavily stocked so ran out of grass.
80 ewes on 11 acres
They're due the 1st march

Siamsa Sessions

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

Ok, thanks for that. We might get it all delivered in the one load then

MeTheMan

Just put ours in there now. Fluked and separated out the few poor ones. They are in a week or so earlier then usual but land is getting wet now and we where feeding hay to them the last two weeks. Nearly as handy have them in the shed. Due to start end of February. Scanning the 2nd or 3rd of January.

sheepfarmer92

We put half of ours in last week, getting them sheared this week hopefully, the rest coming in first week of Jan, lambing 12th march, need to have the farm stripped to have grass built up for lambing, footbathed once a week and lime the sheds before bedding

DJ98

Whats the ideal height to have drinking bowls off the ground in straw housing?

sheepfarmer92

DJ98 wrote: »

Whats the ideal height to have drinking bowls off the ground in straw housing?

We have jfc throughs on a 9 inch blocks so they can just reach their nose in

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

Mine are in since the first december, very heavily stocked so ran out of grass.
80 ewes on 11 acres
They're due the 1st march

Must take some grassland management to keep those numbers going. You strip grazing with electric fence ?

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

Must take some grassland management to keep those numbers going. You strip grazing with electric fence ?

Yea, had it divided in ten paddocks, failed because of the drought, gonna try it again next year, aiming to sell €1000 worth of lambs per acre and see if it's worth my while.

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, had it divided in ten paddocks, failed because of the drought, gonna try it again next year, aiming to sell €1000 worth of lambs per acre and see if it's worth my while.

I’m a firm believer in best way to grow grass is through wire, but would be some going if you could. Interesting to see how hard you could push it.

Young95

Quick question has anyone here ever lost an adult sheep to worms ?? Bought a ram the October just past and found him dead today. He’d be 2 years old in January. Leaving him into de vet lab tomorrow morning. I didn’t give him a worm dose atal when I got him but he got done for fluke and closditrial vacs. Never do sheep for worms once 2 years plus . Any response would be appreciated ðŸ‘

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Quick question has anyone here ever lost an adult sheep to worms ?? Bought a ram the October just past and found him dead today. He’d be 2 years old in January. Leaving him into de vet lab tomorrow morning. I didn’t give him a worm dose atal when I got him but he got done for fluke and closditrial vacs. Never do sheep for worms once 2 years plus . Any response would be appreciated ðŸ‘

What vaccine did you use, we had to change from Heptavac P to covexin 10, we were getting a few cases of sordelli, first one was a €1400 ram that was only bought 3 mths before.
Using Covexin we had to give a seperate vaccine for Pneumonia which was very awkward
Heptavac P doesn't cover sordellii, but its very rare, be interesting to see what the vet lab says.
We lost him and then four or five lambs the following year to it.
Left a ewe down to Athlone lab this morning but she was pining a while.
We'd only dose adult sheep for worms if there was thin one

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

What vaccine did you use, we had to change from Heptavac P to covexin 10, we were getting a few cases of sordelli, first one was a €1400 ram that was only bought 3 mths before.
Using Covexin we had to give a seperate vaccine for Pneumonia which was very awkward
Heptavac P doesn't cover sordellii, but its very rare, be interesting to see what the vet lab says.
We lost him and then four or five lambs the following year to it.
Left a ewe down to Athlone lab this morning but she was pining a while.
We'd only dose adult sheep for worms if there was thin one

Yea ram was in good condition when bought and covered ewes well but lost abit of weight which I thaught was just from the breeding season like all the other rams . Heptavac p. He was a beltex so could be an health problem which the breed is known for

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Yea ram was in good condition when bought and covered ewes well but lost abit of weight which I thaught was just from the breeding season like all the other rams . Heptavac p. He was a beltex so could be an health problem which the breed is known for

Some have problems alright, get a postmortem anyway

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

Some have problems alright, get a postmortem anyway

Yea leaving him in 2moro

Green farmer

Young95 wrote: »

Quick question has anyone here ever lost an adult sheep to worms ?? Bought a ram the October just past and found him dead today. He’d be 2 years old in January. Leaving him into de vet lab tomorrow morning. I didn’t give him a worm dose atal when I got him but he got done for fluke and closditrial vacs. Never do sheep for worms once 2 years plus . Any response would be appreciated ðŸ‘

Yep, never known a year like it. Putting it down to the extreme weather during the year leaving lambs vulnerable to everything. Not adult sheep but I’ve lost loads of lambs this autumn. Sent them to labs and some came back cause unknown, others clostridial and others worms. Thought it all stopped but had another 2 more losses late last week, so their off with the labs again. At this stage even though it’s late for worms, nothing would surprise me as it’s been mild lately.

Edit, did he get clostridial vaccines x 2 ???

Lano Lynn

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, had it divided in ten paddocks, failed because of the drought, gonna try it again next year, aiming to sell €1000 worth of lambs per acre and see if it's worth my while.

while I can understand why you would try to do this, even just for the challenge
I have got to the stage where I don't think we should do this.
I have worked on high output intensive units which was very interesting when it went well but if anything went wrong it went very wrong.
agriculture has been driven to produce more and more per acre but the resources required and environmental harm done never fully evaluated.
the cheap food fantasy tells us that it can be done and if we are not doing it we are inefficient .

the fairy tale that teagasc pedals of five ewes to the acre does not count the acres required to grow concentrates or straw or the energy value of all the concrete etc required for housing .

with the climate change issues that are facing us that will require serious changes in how we do things but we need to honestly evaluate our systems and society is going to have to be educated that the food which is vital to their existence is not a cheap throwaway afterthought.

(u could go back to breeding pedigrees:))

J.O. Farmer

Lano Lynn wrote: »

while I can understand why you would try to do this, even just for the challenge
I have got to the stage where I don't think we should do this.
I have worked on high output intensive units which was very interesting when it went well but if anything went wrong it went very wrong.
agriculture has been driven to produce more and more per acre but the resources required and environmental harm done never fully evaluated.
the cheap food fantasy tells us that it can be done and if we are not doing it we are inefficient .

the fairy tale that teagasc pedals of five ewes to the acre does not count the acres required to grow concentrates or straw or the energy value of all the concrete etc required for housing .

with the climate change issues that are facing us that will require serious changes in how we do things but we need to honestly evaluate our systems and society is going to have to be educated that the food which is vital to their existence is not a cheap throwaway afterthought.

(u could go back to breeding pedigrees:))

The thing I'd like to know and so would wrangler I suspect is while it might be possible to sell €1,000 worth of lamb/acre with a high stocking rate and a good weaning rate and lambs gone at good weight early in the season would it be more profitable to produce a smaller amount of lamb per acre with less inputs both financial and labour wise.

wrangler

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

The thing I'd like to know and so would wrangler I suspect is while it might be possible to sell €1,000 worth of lamb/acre with a high stocking rate and a good weaning rate and lambs gone at good weight early in the season would it be more profitable to produce a smaller amount of lamb per acre with less inputs both financial and labour wise.

,

We're just doing it for the crack, would never do it with the 550 ewes,
I'd imagine the worm challenge is going to be huge, The flock has just evolved, there was 30 ewes not fit the day of the clearance sale, and we had 25 ewe lambs to start the new flock, the ewe lambs mothers and grand mothers were doubles.... then we were left with 30 5 and 6 year olds and didn't have the heart to cull them.....the rest is history,
We have a snacker so we can drag that out anytime we run out of grass as we had to this year in the drought

Lano Lynn

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

The thing I'd like to know and so would wrangler I suspect is while it might be possible to sell €1,000 worth of lamb/acre with a high stocking rate and a good weaning rate and lambs gone at good weight early in the season would it be more profitable to produce a smaller amount of lamb per acre with less inputs both financial and labour wise.

when u consider just about any job is paying better than farming the only reason any of us can be at it is coz we are not well in the head.
the determination and willingness to push the limits of farmers has fed and clothed the world for millennia and little respect we get for it

wrangler

Lano Lynn wrote: »

when u consider just about any job is paying better than farming the only reason any of us can be at it is coz we are not well in the head.
the determination and willingness to push the limits of farmers has fed and clothed the world for millennia and little respect we get for it

Just looking at the accounts now, sold 11000 worth of lambs and 3000 worth of ewes, bought 1800 worth of hoggets and kept 24 ewe lambs.
feed, fertiliser and straw totalled just under 5000, still have to work out the rest as there's the maintenance on the leased lands to be divided

Siamsa Sessions

Anyone ever throw miscanthus grass under ewes? Are there pros and cons?

Would they pick away at it similar to straw for roughage? We'll be feeding beet as the main diet to them once they're housed.

charolais0153

Scanning tomorrow. Probably the most important day of the year. Sets the tone really. The last 12 months have been good to us though do im hopeful

DJ98

charolais0153 wrote: »

Scanning tomorrow. Probably the most important day of the year. Sets the tone really. The last 12 months have been good to us though do im hopeful

When are you lambing?

charolais0153

DJ98 wrote: »

When are you lambing?

February

Willfarman

Lano Lynn wrote: »

while I can understand why you would try to do this, even just for the challenge
I have got to the stage where I don't think we should do this.
I have worked on high output intensive units which was very interesting when it went well but if anything went wrong it went very wrong.
agriculture has been driven to produce more and more per acre but the resources required and environmental harm done never fully evaluated.
the cheap food fantasy tells us that it can be done and if we are not doing it we are inefficient .

the fairy tale that teagasc pedals of five ewes to the acre does not count the acres required to grow concentrates or straw or the energy value of all the concrete etc required for housing .

with the climate change issues that are facing us that will require serious changes in how we do things but we need to honestly evaluate our systems and society is going to have to be educated that the food which is vital to their existence is not a cheap throwaway afterthought.

(u could go back to breeding pedigrees:))

The parasites on our backs require this high output model to survive. Remember our export targets, our fertilizer and input revenue, our national advisory board and then of course even our main representative union will pinch 0.15% of your sales (not nett profit) unless you explicitly request them not to do so!

charolais0153

1.97. Lambs/ ewe let out 229lambs 116 ewes
1. 4
26 3
64 2
19 1
6. 0
A few barren that might show in lamb later.
Not quite 2 but alrite aswell:D

Siamsa Sessions

charolais0153 wrote: »

1.97. Lambs/ ewe let out 229lambs 116 ewes
1. 4
26 3
64 2
19 1
6. 0
A few barren that might show in lamb later.
Not quite 2 but alrite aswell:D

Great result.

Still finding our feet here and trying to get things set up right so I'd be happy with a scan of 1.8 and sell 1.5. Will know around the first week of January when we scan (lambing mid-March)

Young95

Got results back from lab the ram had worms with 4450 grams per unit which is high. Thing is what do I do now vet said he had worms when I bought him because his count was so high got him in October. Ino should have gave him a worm dose on arrival but he was in good order then and usual stuff about only dosing thin ewes etc . Could ring the Man I got him off and ask did he worm him atal as if he did his flock could have resistance to the wormer he’s using.

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Got results back from lab the ram had worms with 4450 grams per unit which is high. Thing is what do I do now vet said he had worms when I bought him because his count was so high got him in October. Ino should have gave him a worm dose on arrival but he was in good order then and usual stuff about only dosing thin ewes etc . Could ring the Man I got him off and ask did he worm him atal as if he did his flock could have resistance to the wormer he’s using.

We never dose anything over a year old unless a thin ewe, that's an outrageous count, we've never seen one that high, I'd be having a chat with the seller alright, you expect better than that.
Was it a hogget ram or lamb ram, a lamb ram might need a dose alright. there's probably another report on him to come in about a month, it might show up something that effected his immunity.

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

We never dose anything over a year old unless a thin ewe, that's an outrageous count, we've never seen one that high, I'd be having a chat with the seller alright, you expect better than that.
Was it a hogget ram or lamb ram, a lamb ram might need a dose alright. there's probably another report on him to come in about a month, it might show up something that effected his immunity.

Hogget ram i don’t know what to do tbh. Vet said that it take a while for them to be as high as that the worm count didn’t happen over night.