General sheep thread

Farmer_3650

Dad went to a suffolk sale today and couldn't believe all the rams with feet problems like feet turned in etc.. is this a common problem with suffolks? I've often seen it at suffolk sales but never really seen as much of it in our own suffolk lambs. Mabye there's too much weight on them for their age, most of them lambs do be 70kg plus.

Bleating Lamb

If it was a Society Sale they shouldn’t have got by the inspection on way in.

Young95

Anyone know what to give lambs with sore eyes ? Few with one eye abit closed last few days . Or will it clear up itself? There eating in the ditches the whole time so I’d presume they got a prod in the eye off something.

razor8

Young95 wrote: »

Anyone know what to give lambs with sore eyes ? Few with one eye abit closed last few days . Or will it clear up itself? There eating in the ditches the whole time so I’d presume they got a prod in the eye off something.

Mineral deficiency possibly cobalt I would think. Have you supplemented with any mineral drenchs?

Young95

razor8 wrote: »

Mineral deficiency possibly cobalt I would think. Have you supplemented with any mineral drenchs?

Yes got mayo healthcare bolus back in July which has 6 months cover

razor8

Young95 wrote: »

Yes got mayo healthcare bolus back in July which has 6 months cover

If there eating in ditches there lacking in something. They might need a boost to get levels up. What kind of grass are they on?

Young95

razor8 wrote: »

If there eating in ditches there lacking in something. They might need a boost to get levels up. What kind of grass are they on?

On after grass . Read somewhere that it could be from the wind last few days during the storms blowing into there faces ?

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

On after grass . Read somewhere that it could be from the wind last few days during the storms blowing into there faces ?

I'd say it's pink eye, it can be very contagious.

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis is often associated
with adverse weather of high winds and driving
snow during the winter months giving rise to the
colloquial term 'snow blindness'. Large numbers of
sheep can be affected during these weather
conditions. Competition at feed troughs and hay
racks also increases the spread

DJ98

Bought a ram during the week, brought him home and locked him in a pen with the other Rams, went to let him out this morning and noticed that he's lame on the front foot, I've looked at it and can see nothing wrong, would it just be that he got a knock off one of the others? He was 100% on the feet when purchased

Green farmer

What's the state of play with wool now ? Are the merchants still buying it ?

Sami23

Have about 20 lambs left here and their gone very dirty these last few weeks so dosed them with Cydectin on Saturday.
Anyone else in similar situation. Would a bit of lamb finisher meal help or make it worse I wonder.
Weather being so bad can't be helping either

Green farmer

Sami23 wrote: »

Have about 20 lambs left here and their gone very dirty these last few weeks so dosed them with Cydectin on Saturday.
Anyone else in similar situation. Would a bit of lamb finisher meal help or make it worse I wonder.
Weather being so bad can't be helping either

Yep, mine gone dirty as well even though they've been dosed in the last week or two. I've noticed the same trend developing at the same time every year. I think it's just the grass at this time of year. Having said that I got some cobalt drench this morning so going giving them that as well

Sami23

Green farmer wrote: »

Yep, mine gone dirty as well even though they've been dosed in the last week or two. I've noticed the same trend developing at the same time every year. I think it's just the grass at this time of year. Having said that I got some cobalt drench this morning so going giving them that as well

Yeah i actually gave them a shot of the Cobalt B12 dose as well.
Feckin maggots are still an issue also

Green farmer

Sami23 wrote: »

Yeah i actually gave them a shot of the Cobalt B12 dose as well.
Feckin maggots are still an issue also

Youd grow weary of them alright.had a lamb struck up around the neck area yesterday. Only did them with clikzin a day or two previous. They must have gone past the hatching point when I applied it. I've a few easycare x lambs this year as well, so monitoring how they get on compared to the regular lambs for flystrike

Buford T. Justice XIX

DJ98 wrote: »

Bought a ram during the week, brought him home and locked him in a pen with the other Rams, went to let him out this morning and noticed that he's lame on the front foot, I've looked at it and can see nothing wrong, would it just be that he got a knock off one of the others? He was 100% on the feet when purchased

Probably just a hurt but keep an eye on him for the next few days to see if it's getting better.

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

What's the state of play with wool now ? Are the merchants still buying it ?

20c/kg

Young95

What should I give them would you think for it ?

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

I'd say it's pink eye, it can be very contagious.

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis is often associated
with adverse weather of high winds and driving
snow during the winter months giving rise to the
colloquial term 'snow blindness'. Large numbers of
sheep can be affected during these weather
conditions. Competition at feed troughs and hay
racks also increases the spread

What would you recommend giving them ?

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

What would you recommend giving them ?

I usually put a ml or two of penicillin on the eye, seems to work. but I never had many and would put them in a paddock and do them twice a day
If you have a good few of them it'd be worth asking your vet, an injection would be easier administered. I think tetracycline treats it, it might be worth giving them all a long acting tetracycline
Flies are bad at they moment and they spread it too. maybe spray them with sheep dip as well

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

20c/kg

Ah fair enough. On a bright note as least it hasn't dropped further. Will thrown it into a shed and hope next year might be better.

razor8

Green farmer wrote: »

Youd grow weary of them alright.had a lamb struck up around the neck area yesterday. Only did them with clikzin a day or two previous. They must have gone past the hatching point when I applied it. I've a few easycare x lambs this year as well, so monitoring how they get on compared to the regular lambs for flystrike

Did you kill any of the easy cares yet?

Green farmer

razor8 wrote: »

Did you kill any of the easy cares yet?

Not yet. I lambed out mid april onwards, so going doing a first draw soon. I ran easycare and charolais rams across the lleyn ewes, so be interesting to see how they got on.

foxirl

Green farmer wrote: »

Not yet. I lambed out mid april onwards, so going doing a first draw soon. I ran easycare and charolais rams across the lleyn ewes, so be interesting to see how they got on.

What ram did you put to the easycare. Kept them pure myself and started lambing in mid March. First load of lambs hit the factory on 26 June all killing out U3 and R3. No meal but had good grass as very low stocking rate.

Green farmer

foxirl wrote: »

What ram did you put to the easycare. Kept them pure myself and started lambing in mid March. First load of lambs hit the factory on 26 June all killing out U3 and R3. No meal but had good grass as very low stocking rate.

I've only started with the easycares, so put a easycare ram across lleyn ewes. The current crop of lambs are 50% easycare. That's a quick turnaround with your lambs. Nothing wrong with your k.o rates. I'd have alot of rough grazing and abit overstocked, so they dont come right as fast as they should. How do you find the easycares overall ? Hope to fast track easycare Gene's through the ewes over the next year or two.

farawaygrass

Any of ye run two or more rams together with the ewes? Have a ram lamb, a hogget ram and two older rams. Was going to let the two older rams with the around 90 hoggets and the two young rams with 70 mature ewes. Talking about it with the father this evening and he thinks it might be asking for trouble letting them mix. The rams know each other and have been together since end of last year, bar the ram lamb who I bought a month ago but All 4 together now. Would save a lot of work having 2 bunches instead of 4

foxirl

Green farmer wrote: »

I've only started with the easycares, so put a easycare ram across lleyn ewes. The current crop of lambs are 50% easycare. That's a quick turnaround with your lambs. Nothing wrong with your k.o rates. I'd have alot of rough grazing and abit overstocked, so they dont come right as fast as they should. How do you find the easycares overall ? Hope to fast track easycare Gene's through the ewes over the next year or two.

I'm only in them a few years myself. Only lambed 50 last year but all good so far. Find them easy to lamb and a lot easier to foster lambs onto when needed. Lambs thrived well but you need a scales cause they don't look much but weigh well. Sell all through factory as don't think they would do well in ring as still a bit of an unknown breed. Brother has decided to get into them now too which must be a good sign.
Have a beast of a ram which helps as hopefully passing on genes to lambs but he's getting old so could be last year of him. Weighed him last week and he was 138kg. Have a nice ram lamb after him this year who had a adg of 0.46kg at 104 days weighing in at 54kg so will keep him and put him to some of the ewes that are not related.
Think the biggest problem will be getting rams that are not related to ewes as so few farmers are breeding them.

Young95

farawaygrass wrote: »

Any of ye run two or more rams together with the ewes? Have a ram lamb, a hogget ram and two older rams. Was going to let the two older rams with the around 90 hoggets and the two young rams with 70 mature ewes. Talking about it with the father this evening and he thinks it might be asking for trouble letting them mix. The rams know each other and have been together since end of last year, bar the ram lamb who I bought a month ago but All 4 together now. Would save a lot of work having 2 bunches instead of 4

I’d be afraid myself if single sire mating personally Incase the ram becomes infertile or something and then loads of barren ewes . So always run least two rams here together

foxirl

farawaygrass wrote: »

Any of ye run two or more rams together with the ewes? Have a ram lamb, a hogget ram and two older rams. Was going to let the two older rams with the around 90 hoggets and the two young rams with 70 mature ewes. Talking about it with the father this evening and he thinks it might be asking for trouble letting them mix. The rams know each other and have been together since end of last year, bar the ram lamb who I bought a month ago but All 4 together now. Would save a lot of work having 2 bunches instead of 4

Father had had multiple rams with each group as far back as I can remember and didn't have any issues. I've even seen ewes with twins with a lamb from each ram.

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Any of ye run two or more rams together with the ewes? Have a ram lamb, a hogget ram and two older rams. Was going to let the two older rams with the around 90 hoggets and the two young rams with 70 mature ewes. Talking about it with the father this evening and he thinks it might be asking for trouble letting them mix. The rams know each other and have been together since end of last year, bar the ram lamb who I bought a month ago but All 4 together now. Would save a lot of work having 2 bunches instead of 4

There's no problem running two or three rams together at mating. always did it here,

Green farmer

foxirl wrote: »

I'm only in them a few years myself. Only lambed 50 last year but all good so far. Find them easy to lamb and a lot easier to foster lambs onto when needed. Lambs thrived well but you need a scales cause they don't look much but weigh well. Sell all through factory as don't think they would do well in ring as still a bit of an unknown breed. Brother has decided to get into them now too which must be a good sign.
Have a beast of a ram which helps as hopefully passing on genes to lambs but he's getting old so could be last year of him. Weighed him last week and he was 138kg. Have a nice ram lamb after him this year who had a adg of 0.46kg at 104 days weighing in at 54kg so will keep him and put him to some of the ewes that are not related.
Think the biggest problem will be getting rams that are not related to ewes as so few farmers are breeding them.

I've only sourced from one small breeder so far, so might have to look elsewhere just to get non related sheep, but your right, hard to get a choice of what you like. Having said that If the wool trade stays like this, the breed will continue to grow.your ram sounds like a beast of a sheep. I'm guessing my fellow might only be half that.