General sheep thread

wrangler

orm0nd wrote: »

Was talking to a seasoned sheep farmer last night and he is getting out after this year. I knew he was selling off ewes and lambs all spring but thought he was just overstocked.

Going contract rearing friesian heifers, already some in place and all sheep will be gone by October.

Has some of the best land in the area and a lot of fencing done under tams.

He'll get a big change when he has to work for someone else, I used to feed cattle in the winter here for people, some were a right pain and wasn't always easy to get money as well,
It's way better to have the land leased, at least you can stay out of their way

orm0nd

wrangler wrote: »

He'll get a big change when he has to work for someone else, I used to feed cattle in the winter here for people, some were a right pain and wasn't always easy to get money as well,
It's way better to have the land leased, at least you can stay out of their way

I think labour might be one of the deciding factors as well. He used to get great help from his family, but they have their own lives to live now.

On a side note I heard one of the large beef men up your area (well a nice bit west of you) has began feeding cattle for Larry.

kk.man

orm0nd wrote: »

I think labour might be one of the deciding factors as well. He used to get great help from his family, but they have their own lives to live now.

On a side note I heard one of the large beef men up your area (well a nice bit west of you) has began feeding cattle for Larry.

Wise move, I know a couple feeding for him. It pays very well but you are pushed on targets.

It's not easy get in.

roosky

Is there any issue with grazing off a few fields with cattle in a sheep only farm from a department point of view.

So I’m sheep only if a neighbors cattle come in to graze off heavy grass for let’s say a week is that an issue ?

Siamsa Sessions

roosky wrote: »

Is there any issue with grazing off a few fields with cattle in a sheep only farm from a department point of view.

So I’m sheep only if a neighbors cattle come in to graze off heavy grass for let’s say a week is that an issue ?

Don’t know how it works but I’ve heard lads talking about a B&B type arrangement.

Is your herd number active? I was sheep only here til this year but had to re-activate the herd number before I could transfer in calves

wrangler

roosky wrote: »

Is there any issue with grazing off a few fields with cattle in a sheep only farm from a department point of view.

So I’m sheep only if a neighbors cattle come in to graze off heavy grass for let’s say a week is that an issue ?

I don't think there's any problem doing that,
You should ask the department anyway just to be sure but from memory they actually prefer if there's no other cattle on the farm so there should be no problem

Sami23

roosky wrote: »

Is there any issue with grazing off a few fields with cattle in a sheep only farm from a department point of view.

So I’m sheep only if a neighbors cattle come in to graze off heavy grass for let’s say a week is that an issue ?

Work away - shur they broke in if anyone says anything

roosky

Sami23 wrote: »

Work away - shur they broke in if anyone says anything

This answer suits me best

DJ98

When putting in a replacement tag in a ewes ear, only missing one so ordered the matching tag if that makes sense, does that go down as a replacement in the register?

ganmo

DJ98 wrote: »

When putting in a replacement tag in a ewes ear, only missing one so ordered the matching tag if that makes sense, does that go down as a replacement in the register?

As long as it's the same number as she was originally tagged with I wouldn't record it.

But look at the costs, when I looked at doing that before it was cheaper to get a full new set

White Clover

Have many people on here given a second dose to mid March born lambs yet? I'll probably wean mine next weekend so thinking of giving them a dose this weekend. Any views on this ?

Bleating Lamb

White Clover wrote: »

Have many people on here given a second dose to mid March born lambs yet? I'll probably wean mine next weekend so thinking of giving them a dose this weekend. Any views on this ?

Gave the lambs dose of Cydectin last wkd...would have being born from mid March.

_blaaz

White Clover wrote: »

Have many people on here given a second dose to mid March born lambs yet? I'll probably wean mine next weekend so thinking of giving them a dose this weekend. Any views on this ?

I would dose reularly at least once a month...but my farm is very wet and prone to fluke

White Clover

Thanks lads. I gave them a yellow dose.
We weighed them too and they have done very well, averaging 320g per day. I was a little worried about their weight a few weeks ago but they seem to have done a great thrive in the last month.
Next question! Did anyone buy clik lately ?

Dinzee Conlee

_blaaz wrote: »

I would dose reularly at least once a month...but my farm is very wet and prone to fluke

You dose once a month for fluke 12 months of the year, or dose lambs once a month for worms?

_blaaz

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

You dose once a month for fluke 12 months of the year, or dose lambs once a month for worms?

Id dose once a month later in year on wetter ground...id try catch it as quick as possible


Id try dose lambs every month to 6 weeks for worms and mineral dose,i find they thrive well on it anyway.....and try stay ahead of issue as weekends is realistically when i can dose (also try to.dose and put into new field aswel)

DJ98

What products are people using to dose lambs?

Dinzee Conlee

_blaaz wrote: »

Id dose once a month later in year on wetter ground...id try catch it as quick as possible


Id try dose lambs every month to 6 weeks for worms and mineral dose,i find they thrive well on it anyway.....and try stay ahead of issue as weekends is realistically when i can dose (also try to.dose and put into new field aswel)

That seems very often for dosing lambs?

Minerals are always good. We used to do the same, but I found bolus were better... just couldn’t keep the minerals to em as good as the bolus, but we are very low in cobalt for some reason...

_blaaz

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

That seems very often for dosing lambs?

Minerals are always good. We used to do the same, but I found bolus were better... just couldn’t keep the minerals to em as good as the bolus, but we are very low in cobalt for some reason...

Id be same as i have charloais and find they need constant top ups (but find the performance of lambs to be worth effort tbh)


Id have them in anyways for foothbathing....but yeah id try dose/foothbath etc before new field/paddock (or every 2nd new field) if possible as afaik most worms/eggs etc last 28 days (also footrot is something like 21ish days??)

So think its better to stay ahead,but alot of my farming practices wouldnt be recommended by most proper sheep farmers,but i try to stay ahead of problems as opposed to be constant problem.solving (just suits me better & enjoy it more this way plus do alot of nixers aswel so tight timewise)




But if they got this fecal sampling sorted out properly id would seriously review way i do things....any lads i know have mixed results as regards it though

wrangler

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

That seems very often for dosing lambs?

Minerals are always good. We used to do the same, but I found bolus were better... just couldn’t keep the minerals to em as good as the bolus, but we are very low in cobalt for some reason...

Lambs can only store cobalt for a week or two so boluses are better when the lambs aren't being mineral dosed every fortnight, we use boluses too and even put cobalt into the worm dose as well as we're very deficient.
We do FECs to test for worms here and they don't need a dose even though they're eight weeks since their last worm dose, but against that we might have to dose after four weeks later in the year, there's no set pattern

Dinzee Conlee

_blaaz wrote: »

Id be same as i have charloais and find they need constant top ups (but find the performance of lambs to be worth effort tbh)


Id have them in anyways for foothbathing....but yeah id try dose/foothbath etc before new field/paddock (or every 2nd new field) if possible as afaik most worms/eggs etc last 28 days (also footrot is something like 21ish days??)

So think its better to stay ahead,but alot of my farming practices wouldnt be recommended by most proper sheep farmers,but i try to stay ahead of problems as opposed to be constant problem.solving (just suits me better & enjoy it more this way plus do alot of nixers aswel so tight timewise)




But if they got this fecal sampling sorted out properly id would seriously review way i do things....any lads i know have mixed results as regards it though

Yeah, fair enough - if it’s working for you...

Would you find you need to footbath em that often too?
Scald can come all right - but we used to have a lot of issues with footrot, but culling hard solving it better than any footbathing or similar. Now, took a few years but was worth it...

_blaaz

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Yeah, fair enough - if it’s working for you...

Would you find you need to footbath em that often too?
Scald can come all right - but we used to have a lot of issues with footrot, but culling hard solving it better than any footbathing or similar. Now, took a few years but was worth it...

I have a very unorthodox farm practices :pac:


But i do suspect that no need to foothbath as much either as we have grazed.grass down to a better level than previously


But would be handling/weighing etc every week anyways.....i do creep grazing ahead of ewes and creepfeed lambs aswel (but 50/50 on this into future,feel it gives better return though vs feeding later in year)top paddocks etc aswell

i do aim.to have 80+% lambs gone inside 100 days at mostly u2-u3 grade (be very disapinted if slips to r grade finish)



Have started to buy certain amount of store lambs to eat out paddocks etc at tail end of year to give better cash flow through year with aim to sell in jan/feb/march.....

Now obv if i was full time etc id have to clamp down and justify everything i do alot more

wrangler

_blaaz wrote: »

I have a very unorthodox farm practices :pac:


But i do suspect that no need to foothbath as much either as we have grazed.grass down to a better level than previously


But would be handling/weighing etc every week anyways.....i do creep grazing ahead of ewes and creepfeed lambs aswel (but 50/50 on this into future,feel it gives better return though vs feeding later in year)top paddocks etc aswell

i do aim.to have 80+% lambs gone inside 100 days at mostly u2-u3 grade (be very disapinted if slips to r grade finish)



Have started to buy certain amount of store lambs to eat out paddocks etc at tail end of year to give better cash flow through year with aim to sell in jan/feb/march.....

Now obv if i was full time etc id have to clamp down and justify everything i do alot more

Feeding meal always gives a lot more Us, we wouldn't want the lambs gone st 100 days but would like them gone in under 150 days and that was the case even when we weren't ''hobby farmers'' Horses for courses etc
Ewes here tidy up the paddocks through the winter

_blaaz

wrangler wrote: »

Feeding meal always gives a lot more Us, we wouldn't want the lambs gone st 100 days but would like them gone in under 150 days and that was the case even when we weren't ''hobby farmers'' Horses for courses etc
Ewes here tidy up the paddocks through the winter

I try to get to 100 days to get best of prices mainly and free up space to get ewes into better condition as last year with dry year,they werent as good as should been going to the ram and this did imo affect percentage of singles (but this is entirely my fault)



I was hoping to have these store lambs to sell at tightest time of year moneywise and let them graze the wettest places on farm for winter,which would still leave 2-3 months recovery onto them for when ewes drying off and then keep best of land free to concentrate on finishing lambs off march to july/making hay etc off it


Do lads still do the december close date for.march turnout??,or is this regarded as backwards thinking??


I do be glad to hear any suggestions on what lads do

Dinzee Conlee

_blaaz wrote: »

I have a very unorthodox farm practices :pac:


But i do suspect that no need to foothbath as much either as we have grazed.grass down to a better level than previously


But would be handling/weighing etc every week anyways.....i do creep grazing ahead of ewes and creepfeed lambs aswel (but 50/50 on this into future,feel it gives better return though vs feeding later in year)top paddocks etc aswell

i do aim.to have 80+% lambs gone inside 100 days at mostly u2-u3 grade (be very disapinted if slips to r grade finish)



Have started to buy certain amount of store lambs to eat out paddocks etc at tail end of year to give better cash flow through year with aim to sell in jan/feb/march.....

Now obv if i was full time etc id have to clamp down and justify everything i do alot more

100 days - that’s good going, 350grams+ a day, that’s very good growth...

Fair play - we never managed those kinda rates, so I won’t bother telling you what to do, as you’re a lot better at it than we were

_blaaz

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

100 days - that’s good going, 350grams+ a day, that’s very good growth...

Fair play - we never managed those kinda rates, so I won’t bother telling you what to do, as you’re a lot better at it than we were

Tbh meal prob plays more than it fair share and i can get it reasonable enough off the miller pay on day price


But i try fit it in around my place as realistically some parts only fit to graze may to sept with the heavier ewes etc,other parts steep as fcuk and have to be spread by hand,other parts burn up every summer so target grazing in spring,need to have silage/hay made by mid june most years,etc etc.....so i do try get most out of each field,best i can


...now if was proper good land etc,it would undoubtfully be more profitable to let lambs run on,on grass and no meal.....so dont take what i say as example to suit everyone

wrangler

_blaaz wrote: »

I try to get to 100 days to get best of prices mainly and free up space to get ewes into better condition as last year with dry year,they werent as good as should been going to the ram and this did imo affect percentage of singles (but this is entirely my fault)



I was hoping to have these store lambs to sell at tightest time of year moneywise and let them graze the wettest places on farm for winter,which would still leave 2-3 months recovery onto them for when ewes drying off and then keep best of land free to concentrate on finishing lambs off march to july/making hay etc off it


Do lads still do the december close date for.march turnout??,or is this regarded as backwards thinking??


I do be glad to hear any suggestions on what lads do

At a stocking rate of 10 ewes/ha we found that we could leave ewes out into january and still have paddocks stripped for 90 days by the time you'd want them in march lambing, ie close them in rotation and stock them in spring in the same rotation.
Slightly different now at 16 ewes/ha

Lambman

Anybody seeing all this about hogget rams being butchered in the fields in England? The Muslim fellas seem till be getting the blame... Seen it alot over this last few days on Facebook. Some mess till wake up till in the morning.

Siamsa Sessions

Lambman wrote: »

Anybody seeing all this about hogget rams being butchered in the fields in England? The Muslim fellas seem till be getting the blame... Seen it alot over this last few days on Facebook. Some mess till wake up till in the morning.

Saw something on Twitter about. Sickening.

Think something similar happened on a farm in Meath or Dublin a few years ago too

Birdnuts

Lambman wrote: »

Anybody seeing all this about hogget rams being butchered in the fields in England? The Muslim fellas seem till be getting the blame... Seen it alot over this last few days on Facebook. Some mess till wake up till in the morning.

I'd say its happening more often then people realise too