General sheep thread

Bleating Lamb

Dickie10 wrote: »

yeah ICM killing away , went with the last 11 store lambs from Kerry yesterday, 5:50

Were you happy with how you got on with them from when you bought them?

Dickie10

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Were you happy with how you got on with them from when you bought them?

yeah they did well really powered on from xmas on even though weather was shocking be tempted to shed them if it was as wet again, or at least heavyish ones and ad lib feed them. ate a nice bit of meal dunno off top of my head but they were a constant cash flow in november, december, january, february, march, averaged 115 euro bought in after transport average 71

Bleating Lamb

Dickie10 wrote: »

yeah they did well really powered on from xmas on even though weather was shocking be tempted to shed them if it was as wet again, or at least heavyish ones and ad lib feed them. ate a nice bit of meal dunno off top of my head but they were a constant cash flow in november, december, january, february, march, averaged 115 euro bought in after transport average 71

Very good.....on avg would they have eaten €20 of feed each?
Obviously ones got away in first few months would have ate a lot less but late ones would have eaten a good few euro worth.

Kevhog1988

Dickie10 wrote: »

yeah they did well really powered on from xmas on even though weather was shocking be tempted to shed them if it was as wet again, or at least heavyish ones and ad lib feed them. ate a nice bit of meal dunno off top of my head but they were a constant cash flow in november, december, january, february, march, averaged 115 euro bought in after transport average 71

have you ever finished some in a shed over winter with no grass?

stantheman1979

theemigrant wrote: »

have you ever finished some in a shed over winter with no grass?

We would finish over 1500 indoors on slats every year. Mainly good framed horned ram and weather lambs. Usually cost €50-€70. They get nothing but meal and water and we let them out to the yard to a bale of hay and exercise once a week. We try to have them fit for after Christmas when prices are generally on the rise. We can fatten a lamb including medicines for about €30 The key thing is to shear them and keep their feet right as both stop them thriving

Dinzee Conlee

stantheman1979 wrote: »

We would finish over 1500 indoors on slats every year. Mainly good framed horned ram and weather lambs. Usually cost €50-€70. They get nothing but meal and water and we let them out to the yard to a bale of hay and exercise once a week. We try to have them fit for after Christmas when prices are generally on the rise. We can fatten a lamb including medicines for about €30 The key thing is to shear them and keep their feet right as both stop them thriving

Do you footbath them regularly Stan, or how do you manage their feet?

stantheman1979

stantheman1979 wrote: »

We would finish over 1500 indoors on slats every year. Mainly good framed horned ram and weather lambs. Usually cost €50-€70. They get nothing but meal and water and we let them out to the yard to a bale of hay and exercise once a week. We try to have them fit for after Christmas when prices are generally on the rise. We can fatten a lamb including medicines for about €30 The key thing is to shear them and keep their feet right as both stop them thriving

would they want some fibre,to.aid digestion and stomach issues??

stantheman1979

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Do you footbath them regularly Stan, or how do you manage their feet?

Yeah they get walked through foot bath anytime they are out.

stantheman1979

[Deleted User] wrote: »

would they want some fibre,to.aid digestion and stomach issues??

No we find letting them out once a week to a bite of hay works out ok. If the weather is dry we sometimes let them out to a bit of rough grazing. They will chew furze and rushes like it’s going outta fashion

wrangler

stantheman1979 wrote: »

No we find letting them out once a week to a bite of hay works out ok. If the weather is dry we sometimes let them out to a bit of rough grazing. They will chew furze and rushes like it’s going outta fashion

The experts say if there's seven percent fibre in the ration the sheep have enough fibre

Dickie10

i housed 20 ram lambs two years ago on dec 10th and had them gone on feb 1st they were around 40 kg average going in and killed around 23 kg average carcass , so i suppose they were 50-53 kg average being killed. so did about 12kg liveweight in 6 weeks and take out a week to adjust being in plus they wernt sheared

if i take this bit of ground the plan is shear 80 and land them down, maggots and getting caught in briars is a diaster on an out farm. so shear and maybe click in sept

J.O. Farmer

Dickie10 wrote: »

i housed 20 ram lambs two years ago on dec 10th and had them gone on feb 1st they were around 40 kg average going in and killed around 23 kg average carcass , so i suppose they were 50-53 kg average being killed. so did about 12kg liveweight in 6 weeks and take out a week to adjust being in plus they wernt sheared

if i take this bit of ground the plan is shear 80 and land them down, maggots and getting caught in briars is a diaster on an out farm. so shear and maybe click in sept

No point cliking a after shearing, it needs the wool. Maggots would hardly be a problem at that stage anyway after shearing.

wrangler

Finished lambing yesterday.
Adult ewes 2.02/ewe
Ewe lambs 1.27/ewe
146 lambs with 86 ewes

farming93

I sold most of my ewes this year however I kept 30. Five or six prolapsed, one died as a result. I had lambs coming backwards, head only, legs only, etc.. you name it I had it. I've never had a year like it. I only lost one lamb but lost three ewes in total. Anyone ever experience a year like that? My thinking is that maybe the ewes were too strong during pregnancy and the lambs had too little room inside

Bleating Lamb

There is definitely anecdotal evidence.....and I also heard off a clued in Vet in last week that more sheep than usual are needing assistance with lambing here in NW.
Even ewes that are in good shape prior to lambing are having difficulties opening or being very lazy when lambing.The Vet I talked to reckons that sheep are lacking in Calcium and other Vitamins this year....even if in good shape to look at.
If you think about it since Mid season lambing flocks went to the ram last October there has being a minimal amount of Sunshine.....all animals,even ourselves need some Sunshine for our Systems.
Grass has not being nearly as good or lasting with the terrible wet Winter we went through.
These factors combined have led to people needing to either watch stock as closely as possible or face losses.

Bleating Lamb

farming93 wrote: »

I sold most of my ewes this year however I kept 30. Five or six prolapsed, one died as a result. I had lambs coming backwards, head only, legs only, etc.. you name it I had it. I've never had a year like it. I only lost one lamb but lost three ewes in total. Anyone ever experience a year like that? My thinking is that maybe the ewes were too strong during pregnancy and the lambs had too little room inside

With that amount of problems you did brilliantly only to lose one lamb.....had a set of rotten lambs (which killed the ewe) and another ewe carrying triplets that prolapsed and died after a battle before I had one live lamb on the ground here.Coming near end of lambing and things have gone well after that start.

stantheman1979

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

There is definitely anecdotal evidence.....and I also heard off a clued in Vet in last week that more sheep than usual are needing assistance with lambing here in NW.
Even ewes that are in good shape prior to lambing are having difficulties opening or being very lazy when lambing.The Vet I talked to reckons that sheep are lacking in Calcium and other Vitamins this year....even if in good shape to look at.
If you think about it since Mid season lambing flocks went to the ram last October there has being a minimal amount of Sunshine.....all animals,even ourselves need some Sunshine for our Systems.
Grass has not being nearly as good or lasting with the terrible wet Winter we went through.
These factors combined have led to people needing to either watch stock as closely as possible or face losses.

I agree 100% with you on this. The grass since last October has been of little nutritional value due to the amount of rain we have had even here in the south east and animals are lacking in minerals as a result. Saying all that we’ve probably had our best lambing problem/mortally wise. We’ve had about a dozen prolapsed ewes and a few with ring womb nothing major really

We had a terrible start

First sheep prolapsed,got her sorted etc,everything looked good,came over in morning (about 4 hours)dead

2nd sheep,rotten lambs,father was too ill to manage and i was at work,vet ended up putting her down


3rd sheep all was ok,2 good lambs

4th sheep,ring-wombed,needed c-section in end,lost both lambs (never yet had lambs live after a c-section!!)


After that it was relatively plain sailing,with just 1 slightly ring-wombed,but opened grand,when handled......honestly taught i was going to end up with almost no lambs at 1 stage :pac:

wrangler

Deleted User wrote: »

We had a terrible start

First sheep prolapsed,got her sorted etc,everything looked good,came over in morning (about 4 hours)dead

2nd sheep,rotten lambs,father was too ill to manage and i was at work,vet ended up putting her down


3rd sheep all was ok,2 good lambs

4th sheep,ring-wombed,needed c-section in end,lost both lambs (never yet had lambs live after a c-section!!)


After that it was relatively plain sailing,with just 1 slightly ring-wombed,but opened grand,when handled......honestly taught i was going to end up with almost no lambs at 1 stage :pac:

The rubbish always comes at the start. they mustn't go full term or something

Tileman

Half way here and a real gods lambing. No major issues or handling at all compared to other years. Lambs are a bit smaller than other years. Ewes bc score is definitely back a bit despite all the feeding but going well touch wood.

Dickie10

ever since i bred my own sheep back in 2014 i have slowly but surely cut down mortality rate and asistance and with it difficult lambbings . i put it down to Llynn cross ewes ,very roomy sheep , good mothers good milk. Hampshire Down ram on them is a great combination its actually pushed a good bit in Britain. HD lambs are brilliant to get up and go as are the Llynn wouldnt move away from them. i kill all in factory on flat price so what they look like wouldnt bother me

DJ98

Going to buy a fixed race in the coming week's, have seen different options online and am looking for other peoples experience on which they find works best. Cormac, Stanley, o donovan and o'Donnell engineering.

https://cormac.ie/sheep-handling-equipment/
http://www.odonnellengineering.ie/products/standard-sheep-race/
https://www.odonovaneng.ie/product/iae-sheep-handling-yards/

arctictree

Lads, I have a ewe with 3 week old lambs. She had 3 and were all very small so I have kept them in. One died yesterday, I'm not sure why but it looked very thin.

Anyway, I watched her closely today and she's not allowing the other two any time on her at all really. Turned her over and she has sores on her teats that look painful. She does have milk though.

What would ye recommend? Im tempted to move the lambs in to a pen beside her and feed them for a couple of days and put her on a course of penstrep. Would she get mastitis though?

Dickie10

give them a bottle twice a day and leave them with her. it will keep them ticking over and not hungey and pucking at her the whole time , id say the three on her were at her the whole time ,she might get a chance now with just two give them option of a bottle twice a day and see how they go

ganmo

Sudocreme on the teats might help too

stantheman1979

Finally finished lambing here
1285 ewes @186%
274 ewe hoggs @139%

Lost 11 ewes since scanning. Overall happy enough with everything. Most of our lamb losses have been in the last 3 weeks which is annoying as we lost very few in the early lambing group but to be expected as were lambing since 1st February and had no help last few weeks We’re running on fumes at this stage 😀

orm0nd

arctictree wrote: »

Lads, I have a ewe with 3 week old lambs. She had 3 and were all very small so I have kept them in. One died yesterday, I'm not sure why but it looked very thin.

Anyway, I watched her closely today and she's not allowing the other two any time on her at all really. Turned her over and she has sores on her teats that look painful. She does have milk though.

What would ye recommend? Im tempted to move the lambs in to a pen beside her and feed them for a couple of days and put her on a course of penstrep. Would she get mastitis though?

It may be orf or as stated from the 3 constantly sucking her.

Keep her milked out. Hold her a few times a day if possible to get the lambs to drink.

Green farmer

No major issues to report from outdoor lambing here. Amazing how much difference weather like this makes. All the ewes just working away. check them a few times a day and let them get on with it themselves. Touchwood !!!

Green farmer

DJ98 wrote: »

Going to buy a fixed race in the coming week's, have seen different options online and am looking for other peoples experience on which they find works best. Cormac, Stanley, o donovan and o'Donnell engineering.

https://cormac.ie/sheep-handling-equipment/
http://www.odonnellengineering.ie/products/standard-sheep-race/
https://www.odonovaneng.ie/product/iae-sheep-handling-yards/

None I'd buy a Ritchie instead

razor8

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Finally finished lambing here
1285 ewes @186%
274 ewe hoggs @139%

Lost 11 ewes since scanning. Overall happy enough with everything. Most of our lamb losses have been in the last 3 weeks which is annoying as we lost very few in the early lambing group but to be expected as were lambing since 1st February and had no help last few weeks We’re running on fumes at this stage 😀

Fair going. Is that what’s out in the field?

What breed are the majority of them?