General sheep thread

Buford T. Justice XIX

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

Does anybody use the wrap around ear tags for sheep? I was wondering if they were good to stay in place?

I switched to em last year......found em good and less likely to get caught on in branches etc and thus less likely to develop sores in the ears



Wouldnt switch back,think they are a better tag overall....big ignorant tags,had some sheeps ears destroyed here anyway

Buford T. Justice XIX

Deleted User wrote: »

I switched to em last year......found em good and less likely to get caught on in branches etc and thus less likely to develop sores in the ears



Wouldnt switch back,think they are a better tag overall....big ignorant tags,had some sheeps ears destroyed here anyway

They can be used for the official tags, can't they?

Just looking at a few things atm to streamline the work a bit next year.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

They can be used for the official tags, can't they?

Just looking at a few things atm to streamline the work a bit next year.

Ya....they are eid complient (well its wrote on tag,and new ross mart can read em)



I use shearwell,but i see mullinahone have em now aswell (cant speak for any other supplier)

arctictree

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

Does anybody use the wrap around ear tags for sheep? I was wondering if they were good to stay in place?

I bought some ewes off a lad three years ago that had these tags. Nearly impossible to read now.

DJ98

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

Does anybody use the wrap around ear tags for sheep? I was wondering if they were good to stay in place?

Use them in the lambs going to mart here as there cheapest to buy from cormac

Use the larger ones in any ewe lambs to be kept for breeding as there easier to see from a distance and read

Dickie10

does anyone buy store lambs and sell as hoggets for breed in the following august/sept?

Dinzee Conlee

Dickie10 wrote: »

does anyone buy store lambs and sell as hoggets for breed in the following august/sept?

Yes.
Why?

Limestone Cowboy

arctictree wrote: »

Lads, a few lambs here with very flaky and infected ears. Flies driving them mad. Any ideas?

See a few of the texels I got with crusty ears too. Is it something to do with a cobalt deficiency?

Buford T. Justice XIX

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

See a few of the texels I got with crusty ears too. Is it something to do with a cobalt deficiency?

Yeah, cobalt deficiency most likely. They need to be dosed with a cobalt drench every 2 weeks to keep it at bay.

DJ98

What are peoples views on horned ewes? Are they worth the hassle seeing as it takes so long to fatten the lambs from them? Would you be better with half the number of ewes but all lowland crosses such as Suffolk or Lleyn belclare X ewes as the lambs would eat the same but gone out the gate much quicker and heavier

Dinzee Conlee

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

Yeah, cobalt deficiency most likely. They need to be dosed with a cobalt drench every 2 weeks to keep it at bay.

Cobalt deficiency is an issue we have always had...
Have tried various bolus, doses, same as everyone I imagine...

Has anyone ever tried adding cobalt to the water with any success?

DJ98

DJ98 wrote: »

What are peoples views on horned ewes? Are they worth the hassle seeing as it takes so long to fatten the lambs from them? Would you be better with half the number of ewes but all lowland crosses such as Suffolk or Lleyn belclare X ewes as the lambs would eat the same but gone out the gate much quicker and heavier

Good/top quality horned ewes lambs will fatten nearly aswell as an average lowland lamb


Poor quality horned ewes,your better off with goats......i found belclare lambs hard to put to good weights,with only average enough kill outs

Buford T. Justice XIX

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Cobalt deficiency is an issue we have always had...
Have tried various bolus, doses, same as everyone I imagine...

Has anyone ever tried adding cobalt to the water with any success?

I've added minerals through the water for the cattle with the last few years to great effect. We're very happy with it but it's not cheap. The sheep are on the same supply and they're really thriving on it as well. All the minerals added as well as cobalt and copper and no issues with copper toxicity at all. But that's due to the land type here being relatively low in copper and high in molybdenum anyway.

wrangler

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Cobalt deficiency is an issue we have always had...
Have tried various bolus, doses, same as everyone I imagine...

Has anyone ever tried adding cobalt to the water with any success?

Sheep don't drink much water unless they're ewes suckling

stantheman1979

Dickie10 wrote: »

does anyone buy store lambs and sell as hoggets for breed in the following august/sept?

Yes! Why?

Dinzee Conlee

wrangler wrote: »

Sheep don't drink much water unless they're ewes suckling

Unless they see you drawing water to em, then they seem to drink a lot more than you’d think...

Have 60 hoggets in a small paddock out the front of the house and I can see they only drank less than 20litres in the past 24 hours. We had a lot of rain last night though...

Dickie10

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Yes! Why?

might do it with a few this year, i presume you run them dry over winter, do you find its a long time to keep them as hoggets til followwing august when they could be gone for 130 in april you might get only 150 in august?

roosky

I kept dry Hoggets over winter and now thinking of putting a gang of them to the ram..... I used to vaccinate ewes for toxo and I’m not sure about the flocks these Hoggets came from so would ye advise to do them for toxo and Enzo or is too expensive to justify

thelegend1979

I would do them. Did mine last year after they got toxo the year before. Great to not have the worry of it.

roosky

thelegend1979 wrote: »

I would do them. Did mine last year after they got toxo the year before. Great to not have the worry of it.

What is the over all cost I would be doing 80

wrangler

roosky wrote: »

I kept dry Hoggets over winter and now thinking of putting a gang of them to the ram..... I used to vaccinate ewes for toxo and I’m not sure about the flocks these Hoggets came from so would ye advise to do them for toxo and Enzo or is too expensive to justify

We always do them here any way, about €8/ewe, we're doing our ewe lambs tomorrow. Abortion storms are dirty

roosky

wrangler wrote: »

We always do them here any way, about €8/ewe, we're doing our ewe lambs tomorrow. Abortion storms are dirty

I always done for toxo but now thinking of going Enzo as well with this new batch especially when I don’t know their previous exposure or would i be okay seeing as they were bought as lambs and wouldn’t have been exposed as one year olds

wrangler

roosky wrote: »

I always done for toxo but now thinking of going Enzo as well with this new batch especially when I don’t know their previous exposure or would i be okay seeing as they were bought as lambs and wouldn’t have been exposed as one year olds

You've 80 ewes to do, it'll cost you the price of seven lambs and they're covered for life.
I've had both diseases in the flock and I wouldn't want to see it again.

MayoAreMagic

Dickie10 wrote: »

might do it with a few this year, i presume you run them dry over winter, do you find its a long time to keep them as hoggets til followwing august when they could be gone for 130 in april you might get only 150 in august?

You wouldnt be feeding them at the same rate and what you give them would be cheaper if you werent looking to send them to the factory. So your margin would inprove in that front also.

Dickie10

i have a little acre paddock for free to graze during summer for an old nighbour its completely sheep stock proof. have cull ewes in it now and will leave them til october to clean up his grass but just thought a few dry hoggets would be job from may to september out of my way.

joe35

Got stool results back yesterday.

350 strongyle
250 nematodirus
100 strongyloides.

What would peoples recommendations be

wrangler

joe35 wrote: »

Got stool results back yesterday.

350 strongyle
250 nematodirus
100 strongyloides.

What would peoples recommendations be

Dose with something other than a white dose,
If you use a yellow dose, do another test in a week,
If you use a clear dose, do another test in a fortnight.
Then you'll know if you've any wormer resistance problems

joe35

Have a yellow warmer here, I'll dose them with that. Thanks Wrangler

Young95

joe35 wrote: »

Got stool results back yesterday.

350 strongyle
250 nematodirus
100 strongyloides.

What would peoples recommendations be

Wouldn’t dose till it’s 500 or over

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Wouldn’t dose till it’s 500 or over

I'd count that as being 450 apart from nemos,
That test is a week done now and FECs goes up quick in wet weather. so it's probably over 500 now.
We'd probably even dose at 450 considering the weather we're having now, in fine weather we wouldn't be as quick to dose