General sheep thread

Buford T. Justice XIX

I wonder if there's a place in Ireland for guardian dogs running with flocks to protect against dog attacks?
https://youtu.be/PndPqCN865g

Dinzee Conlee

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

I wonder if there's a place in Ireland for guardian dogs running with flocks to protect against dog attacks?
https://youtu.be/PndPqCN865g

Am hearing a lot about dog thefts lately - you’d wonder would you be swapping one set of problems with another?

ganmo

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

I wonder if there's a place in Ireland for guardian dogs running with flocks to protect against dog attacks?
https://youtu.be/PndPqCN865g

Not compatible with the control of dogs act

Buford T. Justice XIX

ganmo wrote: »

Not compatible with the control of dogs act

A pity, would sort a lot of problems.

And funny, seeing as the control of dogs act is studiously ignored by the very people who would protest at this happening.

ganmo

I bet if I checked every dog in the local park maybe 10% would be fully compliant with the act.

The main thing that i reckon would trip a lot of them would funnily be not having a collar with contact details.

wrangler

Do any of you clean out the drinking troughs before you put the lambs into a new paddock,
I always do it here, but the tanks are stinking for the last two months.
I'm beginning to think that the wildlife come from miles to bath in our clean water, there was an inch of silt in the bottom of a tank today.
And the smell was diabolical

Asus1

Asus1 wrote: »

First time rearing lambs.These 2 born in March are huge animals and mother is kinda sick of them.Could I wean them yet.They will tear into any ration or nuts put in front of them.Ive 2 that were born in February and their bigger again.

3 were slaughtered this evening 2 in picture were over 30kg dead and another 1 a month younger was over 25kg.Butcher said all were too big for factory as you're giving away free lamb as factory would only pay up to a certain weight but as they were for ourselves it didn't matter.
It was an eye opener seeing a fella do his trade with such brute force and precision in equal measure while all the time respecting the animal.

wrangler

wrangler wrote: »

Do any of you clean out the drinking troughs before you put the lambs into a new paddock,
I always do it here, but the tanks are stinking for the last two months.
I'm beginning to think that the wildlife come from miles to bath in our clean water, there was an inch of silt in the bottom of a tank today.
And the smell was diabolical

Always....have small brushes tied to some

Wouldnt expect sheep to drink,what i wouldnt


Id say your right about wildlife,rivers are v.low this year

Siamsa Sessions

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Always....have small brushes tied to some

Wouldnt expect sheep to drink,what i wouldnt


Id say your right about wildlife,rivers are v.low this year

Any tips for keeping crows off water troughs? Noticed a few spatters of white stuff on a new trough here

wrangler

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Any tips for keeping crows off water troughs? Noticed a few spatters of white stuff on a new trough here

Don't know how you'd keep crows away, but If the trough is filling to the top so that the can stand on the side and drink, they'll all flock to it in a drought
In 2018 drought Iturned down a lot of the ballcocks to fill to a lower level and a lot of small birds were falling into our troughs and drowning,
that's when I started cleaning them every time,
My troughs are mostly only about 20 - 30 gals, I just turn them upside down, no brushing anyway

Lambman

Wat kinda dirty? Ever try goldfish in them?

Siamsa Sessions

Lambman wrote: »

Wat kinda dirty? Ever try goldfish in them?

I saw someone sharing pictures on Twitter of goldfish in water troughs for cattle, but I've never done it here. I think they had a mesh half-way down the trough to stop some sort of local bird taking the fish.

Asus1

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Any tips for keeping crows off water troughs? Noticed a few spatters of white stuff on a new trough here

As morbid as it sounds I use a dead crow or jackdaw tied to an 8 foot bamboo cane to keep crows and jackdaws away from eating all my chickens eggs.I put it just to the side of the hen box and it works great.
Obviously you will only get a certain usable timeframe before you will have to discard and replace with another bird.

joe35

+1 for the dead crow. I rarely pass 1 on the road. Tie them to creep feeders and that to keep birds away

Western Pomise

Asus1 wrote: »

As morbid as it sounds I use a dead crow or jackdaw tied to an 8 foot bamboo cane to keep crows and jackdaws away from eating all my chickens eggs.I put it just to the side of the hen box and it works great.
Obviously you will only get a certain usable timeframe before you will have to discard and replace with another bird.

Thought that myself as regards the ‘use by date’ for dead crow.

I use half tonne meal bags of sheep feed in Winter left out by Miller....sitting on planks in spare pen in Slatted shed....poison down for rats and have the same crow tied by legs off pen dividing gate beside meal bags for last 2 years!

I think the bird dried out really well naturally and still has retained virtually all feathers and no odour from it.


Might knock a 3rd Season out of her....better performer than some of the ewes:D

DJ98

Is it possible to apply for tams grant at the moment?

foxirl

DJ98 wrote: »

Is it possible to apply for tams grant at the moment?

Yes. This tranche closes 7th august.

Lambman

Any man on here know about pheasants? Me and another fella ran in the rams yesterday there in a field off rushes till be honest anyways came across a hen and 6 or more chicks we left them well alone but the hen took off. I walked In that general area today cant find them or the hen. Would she take them far? They Didn look old. I'd be more feard she never came back. Only good thing is we hadnt a dog with us.

DJ98

foxirl wrote: »

Yes. This tranche closes 7th august.

Is it possible to apply without using teagasc

Young95

Lambman wrote: »

Any man on here know about pheasants? Me and another fella ran in the rams yesterday there in a field off rushes till be honest anyways came across a hen and 6 or more chicks we left them well alone but the hen took off. I walked In that general area today cant find them or the hen. Would she take them far? They Didn look old. I'd be more feard she never came back. Only good thing is we hadnt a dog with us.

She would have came bck for them I’d say . There good mothers

Young95

DJ98 wrote: »

Is it possible to apply without using teagasc

I’d use them or an inviser Incase you mess it up doing it on ur own .

foxirl

DJ98 wrote: »

Is it possible to apply without using teagasc

Depends what you are applying for. If it's a shed or something like that definitely. If it's only sheep penning or a mobile race its easy do it on your own.

DJ98

foxirl wrote: »

Depends what you are applying for. If it's a shed or something like that definitely. If it's only sheep penning or a mobile race its easy do it on your own.

Penning and weighing scales,, can't seem to access schemes online though

orm0nd

preparations underway for breeding 20/lambing 21

sorted the first batch to day ,will be joined next week by ewes from the out farm

planning to let off the rams circa 25th august with second batch a month later

no ewe lambs being bred this year and finished 1st March

ewes are in nice fit condition , 5 weeks cleaning out paddocks after the dairy cows now and then all to outfarm for mating

Young95

orm0nd wrote: »

preparations underway for breeding 20/lambing 21

sorted the first batch to day ,will be joined next week by ewes from the out farm

planning to let off the rams circa 25th august with second batch a month later

no ewe lambs being bred this year and finished 1st March

ewes are in nice fit condition , 5 weeks cleaning out paddocks after the dairy cows now and then all to outfarm for mating

How do you find milking cows and having sheep ? Do they work well together or is spring time manic ?

foxirl

DJ98 wrote: »

Penning and weighing scales,, can't seem to access schemes online though

Just log in and go to TAMS II - Animal Welfare Safety and Nutrient Storage link towards the bottom of the page or TAMS II - Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme if you are a young farmer which is at the very bottom

Once you have clicked link select applications and then new scheme application

NB - You must apply for at least 2,000 worth of stuff or application will be rejected. Just because you apply for 2k worth of stuff doesnt mean you have to buy that amount. You can put in a claim for less than 2k

Buford T. Justice XIX

orm0nd wrote: »

preparations underway for breeding 20/lambing 21

sorted the first batch to day ,will be joined next week by ewes from the out farm

planning to let off the rams circa 25th august with second batch a month later

no ewe lambs being bred this year and finished 1st March

ewes are in nice fit condition , 5 weeks cleaning out paddocks after the dairy cows now and then all to outfarm for mating

What kind of fencing do you have for the ewes behind the cows? I'm assuming just strip wire, 3 or 4 strands?

It's something I'm keen to do to save topping out grass around dungpats.

orm0nd

Young95 wrote: »

How do you find milking cows and having sheep ? Do they work well together or is spring time manic ?

can be tough , 2 full time labour units here in the spring , have a good camera system in all the sheds so saves a lot of time and unnecessary checking and intervention ,

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

What kind of fencing do you have for the ewes behind the cows? I'm assuming just strip wire, 3 or 4 strands?

It's something I'm keen to do to save topping out grass around dungpats.

4 strands , new arrivals usually get a training course in the yard with electrified sheep wire


time consuming, but good geared reels and learn a system , you'd be suprised how fast it can be done, a good dog also helps

DJ98

Anyone any idea what 3 and 4 year old horned ewes suitable for breeding would be worth?

Young95

DJ98 wrote: »

Anyone any idea what 3 and 4 year old horned ewes suitable for breeding would be worth?

With lamb prices so good at the moment I’d say 80 -90 euro mark