General sheep thread

arctictree

Young95 wrote: »

Did you get a text stating a correspondence has issued for you ? By any chance ? I got one der today

No, just says, PAYMENT from Dept of Agri.....

DJ98

Young95 wrote: »

Did you get a text stating a correspondence has issued for you ? By any chance ? I got one der today

Got one of them today and also the payment one, the correspondence was in relation to YFS and payment was sheep welfare

Young95

DJ98 wrote: »

Got one of them today and also the payment one, the correspondence was in relation to YFS and payment was sheep welfare

Yea looked up agfood there .. another few quid on the way so happy days !

early_riser

Anyone scan any ewes yet? Doing the Jan ewes here tomorrow afternoon

AntrimGlens

early_riser wrote: »

Anyone scan any ewes yet? Doing the Jan ewes here tomorrow afternoon

Scanned the Dorsets that start on 23rd December, 182% but a fair few of them were ewe lambs and hoggets. The man that does main flock goes round the world scanning and clipping so isn’t home until December and scanner man that usually did early lambers died of Covid so had to go elsewhere. New sheep house needs to be finished very shortly.

Tileman

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Scanned the Dorsets that start on 23rd December, 182% but a fair few of them were ewe lambs and hoggets. The man that does main flock goes round the world scanning and clipping so isn’t home until December and scanner man that usually did early lambers died of Covid so had to go elsewhere. New sheep house needs to be finished very shortly.

Are you back lambing this year Antrim glen? How’s the shed going. Almost my one through tams but won’t have it in time for lambing this year.

AntrimGlens

Tileman wrote: »

Are you back lambing this year Antrim glen? How’s the shed going. Almost my one through tams but won’t have it in time for lambing this year.

Aye, back at it. There’s no crack rearing ewe lambs to hoggets!! Boys were here today at shed putting side timbers on, back in 3 weeks to put sheeting on. They’re just juggling jobs, but I’ll be in and dry for Christmas.

Tileman

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Aye, back at it. There’s no crack rearing ewe lambs to hoggets!! Boys were here today at shed putting side timbers on, back in 3 weeks to put sheeting on. They’re just juggling jobs, but I’ll be in and dry for Christmas.

Aye more money in lambs than rearing Hoggets that’s for sure. Are u still working full time aswell.
I’m hoping and planning there are still COVID restrictions in April so I won’t have to go back to office when lambing time comes around.

Nekarsulm

Tileman wrote: »

Aye more money in lambs than rearing Hoggets that’s for sure. Are u still working full time aswell.
I’m hoping and planning there are still COVID restrictions in April so I won’t have to go back to office when lambing time comes around.

You're not the only one thinking that way!

kk.man

Nekarsulm wrote: »

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You're not the only one thinking that way!

I beg to differ... I did V well this year a net profit of 45e average per hogget. That's not much better than the teagasc figures for lambing ewes and less hassle.

White Clover

kk.man wrote: »

I beg to differ... I did V well this year a net profit of 45e average per hogget. That's not much better than the teagasc figures for lambing ewes and less hassle.

Was that profit from purchasing ewe lambs in Autumn 2019 and selling as hoggets in 2020, or selling Hoggets in 2020 and replacing with 2020 ewe lambs?

wrangler

kk.man wrote: »

I beg to differ... I did V well this year a net profit of 45e average per hogget. That's not much better than the teagasc figures for lambing ewes and less hassle.

This is a good year, €45/ewe would be what we'd be hoping for normally but it's near €70/ewe this year and a quarter of them are ewe lambs.

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

This is a good year, €45/ewe would be what we'd be hoping for normally but it's near €70/ewe this year and a quarter of them are ewe lambs.

What do you think is key to profitability in sheep wrangler? Even at 45 a ewe I’d happily take that !!

kk.man

White Clover wrote: »

Was that profit from purchasing ewe lambs in Autumn 2019 and selling as hoggets in 2020, or selling Hoggets in 2020 and replacing with 2020 ewe lambs?

I bought replacements at slightly less than last year I was just lucky.

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

What do you think is key to profitability in sheep wrangler? Even at 45 a ewe I’d happily take that !!

It's costing us nearly 100/ewe to get her through the year so it's vital to get as near to 2lambs/ewe as you can. I suppose that's the key, Getting lambs to near 30kg at weaning at 12 weeks too. most ewes are capable of doing that if they're fed right, farmers expect a 70kg ewe to hand them two 30 kg lambs at 12 weeks and yet skimp on the feeding pre and post lambing,
Our costs would be high,

farawaygrass

wrangler wrote: »

It's costing us nearly 100/ewe to get her through the year so it's vital to get as near to 2lambs/ewe as you can. I suppose that's the key, Getting lambs to near 30kg at weaning at 12 weeks too. most ewes are capable of doing that if they're fed right, farmers expect a 70kg ewe to hand them two 30 kg lambs at 12 weeks and yet skimp on the feeding pre and post lambing,
Our costs would be high,

Are you including costs like farm insurance, machinery, diesel etc in that €100 figure?

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Are you including costs like farm insurance, machinery, diesel etc in that €100 figure?

Fixed costs wouldn't be a lot , only 10% of the land is sheep so we put 10% of teh fixed costs against, the dash blew up on the tractor april 2019 ( under warranty) and there's only 80hrs on it since

Sales here was €15355,

Feed 4710
Straw 1050
fertiliser 715
vet 732
Total Variable costs €7207

Total fixed costs 900

That's around €84/ewe net profit, 7 ewes /acre.
We've 10 ewes less this year so about €1000 less closing stock so €70/ewe would be the truer figure
Plus about €3000 subs, it's alright for a hobby farm

arctictree

wrangler wrote: »

Fixed costs wouldn't be a lot , only 10% of the land is sheep so we put 10% of teh fixed costs against, the dash blew up on the tractor april 2019 ( under warranty) and there's only 80hrs on it since

Sales here was €15355,

Feed 4710
Straw 1050
fertiliser 715
vet 732
Total Variable costs €7207

Total fixed costs 900

That's around €84/ewe net profit, 7 ewes /acre.
We've 10 ewes less this year so about €1000 less closing stock so €70/ewe would be the truer figure
Plus about €3000 subs, it's alright for a hobby farm

I've about a 50/50 split between fixed and variable costs. Off the top of my head, fixed costs include farm insurance, ESB, Jeep tax/insurance/doe/service, general fence/building maintenance etc...

Green farmer

arctictree wrote: »

I've about a 50/50 split between fixed and variable costs. Off the top of my head, fixed costs include farm insurance, ESB, Jeep tax/insurance/doe/service, general fence/building maintenance etc...

Quiet often lads forget about the big hidden costs, such as upgrading a tractor or a decent jeep. You get a good year or two in sheep and all the excess profits are reinvested on some machinery. Hidden things like a new quad bike can cost 8k.

wrangler

arctictree wrote: »

I've about a 50/50 split between fixed and variable costs. Off the top of my head, fixed costs include farm insurance, ESB, Jeep tax/insurance/doe/service, general fence/building maintenance etc...

We had farm walk here in 2012 and Darren Carthy did the Profit monitor for it, it worked out at gross margin of €936/ha, we had 10 ewes /ha at that time as we out wintered a lot of ewes so grass wasn't as good as now but the fixed costs were about €420ha (€42/ewe) which'd be truer picture, we're spending very little money now.
Outwintering 500 ewes was hardship and destroyed the ryegrasses

arctictree

Green farmer wrote: »

Quiet often lads forget about the big hidden costs, such as upgrading a tractor or a decent jeep. You get a good year or two in sheep and all the excess profits are reinvested on some machinery. Hidden things like a new quad bike can cost 8k.

Or the constant fencing! I'm at the stage where I have to start replacing the posts we put in 8 years ago. Easily need to put aside 3 or 4k a year.

Nekarsulm

arctictree wrote: »

Or the constant fencing! I'm at the stage where I have to start replacing the posts we put in 8 years ago. Easily need to put aside 3 or 4k a year.

Was up in Fermanagh yesterday, and two guys were starting to fence roadside field about 100 yards long with a quad and a smallish Hitachi.
Coming back 3 hours later job done and gone.
Looked great, high tensile sheep wire and a row of barbed.
Posts about 12 feet apart.
Problem was, they were ordinary white posts; be lucky if they aren't back in 5 years doing it again.

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

We had farm walk here in 2012 and Darren Carthy did the Profit monitor for it, it worked out at gross margin of €936/ha, we had 10 ewes /ha at that time as we out wintered a lot of ewes so grass wasn't as good as now but the fixed costs were about €420ha (€42/ewe) which'd be truer picture, we're spending very little money now.
Outwintering 500 ewes was hardship and destroyed the ryegrasses

When you say out wintering were you giving them a daily allocation of grass up to lambing or just once the grass was all gone you were haling meal and silege out to ewes ?

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

When you say out wintering were you giving them a daily allocation of grass up to lambing or just once the grass was all gone you were haling meal and silege out to ewes ?

Ewes went in in early february and ewe lambs in early march, both about a month before lambing. we spread nitrogen early september and block grazed from december on, we never fed outside. The year it didn't work we built the tunnel. Grass didn't grow in the autumn and land was very wet, tunnel was built in three weeks

Ard_MC

wrangler wrote: »

Ewes went in in early february and ewe lambs in early march, both about a month before lambing. we spread nitrogen early september and block grazed from december on, we never fed outside. The year it didn't work we built the tunnel. Grass didn't grow in the autumn and land was very wet, tunnel was built in three weeks

Would you be without the tunnel now? Toying with the idea myself. But say it will next year before I get to it.

wrangler

Ard_MC wrote: »

Would you be without the tunnel now? Toying with the idea myself. But say it will next year before I get to it.

Tunnel was a great job, but there's a couple reasons why it suited me,
1. I was nearly out of farming so it wasn't going to be needed to last very long.
On saying that the frame is strong and will last a long time, no sign of the polythene needing replacing yet either
Younger farmers should be going for a shed though
2. It was a good bit cheaper to put up and was needed quickly .
Putting it up on 2ft mass concrete walls is a great job, no messing pushing the dung against the Galebreaker with the tractor

farming93

wrangler wrote: »

Ewes went in in early february and ewe lambs in early march, both about a month before lambing. we spread nitrogen early september and block grazed from december on, we never fed outside. The year it didn't work we built the tunnel. Grass didn't grow in the autumn and land was very wet, tunnel was built in three weeks

Did you not find you'd get twin lamb disease only feeding a month pre lambing? I usually give a bit of meal from 6 to 8 weeks pre lambing.

wrangler

farming93 wrote: »

Did you not find you'd get twin lamb disease only feeding a month pre lambing? I usually give a bit of meal from 6 to 8 weeks pre lambing.

Triplets would be fed indoor that long alright
I don't remember it being a problem, if they were out they'd be on plenty grass and exercise,
We'd be moving up to a kg ad day as quick as was safe, they'd be a strong month in feeding before lambing, the early lambing pedrigrees would be put out 1st march and the ewe lambs would go into their shed

Straw use was €3/ewe then compared with more that twice that now. the ewes went in on straw and meal then too

farawaygrass

Thanks for sharing all your info wrangler. Did you have sheep slats or were you bedding as well as feeding straw?

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Thanks for sharing all your info wrangler. Did you have sheep slats or were you bedding as well as feeding straw?

I bed the ewes normally, they eat what they want, they're clever enough they eat mostly when it's thrown in first and clean.
The 200 in the tunnel used to get a bale a day, experts say that if a ration is over 7% fibre that they have enough fibre but I never tested that one. I know during the drought, the fields were bare and the suckling ewes were eating a kilo of meal without side effects but the ditches were well trimmed by them so couldn't say they were getting no extra fibre