General sheep thread

farawaygrass

Many here tag lambs at birth?

Sami23

farawaygrass wrote: »

Many here tag lambs at birth?

No - tagged the day they leave farm

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Many here tag lambs at birth?

,

Yes, We started when we had a lot of ewes, it made it easy to keep track of everything, then graduated to the prattley scales where we punched in the numbers and then to having a reader in the scales that recorded automatically.
People have asked do we get joint ill due to tagging and castrating at a day old, we wouldn't even have 1% joint ill

Siamsa Sessions

wrangler wrote: »

,

Yes, We started when we had a lot of ewes, it made it easy to keep track of everything, then graduated to the prattley scales where we punched in the numbers and then to having a reader in the scales that recorded automatically.
People have asked do we get joint ill due to tagging and castrating at a day old, we wouldn't even have 1% joint ill

We had one case of joint ill last year and it wasn't down to tagging as the lamb wasn't tagged at the time.

If you're doing things properly and recording data to pick out the best ewes for replacements, then I'd say tag at birth.

But we have small numbers here and after recording data for a few years I got fed up of it. There's too much randomness in small numbers. Plus there was always a few lambs that lost tags out in the fields and had to be re-tagged when they were loaded for sale. So, now we only tag when they're in the yard an hour before the lorry backs in.

And those expensive EID tags spend a grand total of less than 12 hours in the lambs ears before being discarded with the lambs head in the factory. But that's a whole other argument, unless you're getting some value from them like Wrangler describes above.

Box09

No, better ways to spend your time at lambing. And some always fall out. Tag going into trailer. Ear clip potential replacements.

weatherbyfoxer

an ear notcher is one of the most important things here at lambing.. Lyen ewe lamb left here texel x mule ewe lambs right ear and a problem ewe double left notches

Lano Lynn

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

an ear notcher is one of the most important things here at lambing.. Lyen ewe lamb left here texel x mule ewe lambs right ear and a problem ewe double left notches

much better getting rid of sure trouble and give another a chance to prove her worth.....

weatherbyfoxer

Lano Lynn wrote: »

much better getting rid of sure trouble and give another a chance to prove her worth.....

yep,anything with 2 notches here doesnt seem the ram again here..hard miss them going thru the race too pre tupping

farawaygrass

I eat notched the problem ewes a few years ago but found it hard to pick them out again so put red management tags on them now.
I was concerned about lambs losing tags alright if you tag at birth.
Whst I was wondering though, if a lamb dies after a few days/weeks as lambs do, do you need to send them all off to the Knackery? Foxes usually take any dead lamb here. If one died snd was gone unknown to you, you’d have a job accounting for all the tags

farawaygrass

farawaygrass wrote: »

I eat notched the problem ewes a few years ago but found it hard to pick them out again so put red management tags on them now.
I was concerned about lambs losing tags alright if you tag at birth.
Whst I was wondering though, if a lamb dies after a few days/weeks as lambs do, do you need to send them all off to the Knackery? Foxes usually take any dead lamb here. If one died snd was gone unknown to you, you’d have a job accounting for all the tags

Right being right,your supposed to send em to knackery

There was a poster here before,who got asked for knackery receipts during a QA inspection iirc



If its tagged,and added to flock register(as in thory supposed to happen),you could be in for a world of hassle

arctictree

I use management tags here for the lambs. Blue for males and pink for females. I write the ewe number on the tag and A, B, C if single, twin, triplet. Works well for me during the year as its easy to see the number from a distance and easy to pick out males/females. Then straightforward to cut out the tag and retag when leaving.

Each ewe gets her lambing performance recorded on the phone. Then each one gets checked at weaning and marked for keeping/culling.

roosky

Has anyone here got a really good torch or headlamp for checking livestock

I have a few of the small headlamps that are grand for working up close but I need something to be able to scan the hedges and save walking them all evening !

Thinking something like this

https://www.donedeal.ie/view/26622720

Or something like this

https://agridirect.ie/product/clulite-rechargeable-head-a-lite

Thanks

kk.man

roosky wrote: »

Has anyone here got a really good torch or headlamp for checking livestock

I have a few of the small headlamps that are grand for working up close but I need something to be able to scan the hedges and save walking them all evening !

Thinking something like this

https://www.donedeal.ie/view/26622720

Or something like this

https://agridirect.ie/product/clulite-rechargeable-head-a-lite

Thanks

Cheetah

wrangler

Deleted User wrote: »

Right being right,your supposed to send em to knackery

There was a poster here before,who got asked for knackery receipts during a QA inspection iirc



If its tagged,and added to flock register(as in thory supposed to happen),you could be in for a world of hassle

We'd have them tagged and just throw the dead ones into the knackery, never caused any hassle and wouldn't be on a death cert. they'd be recorded on the computer program alright. we'd have a death cert on anything over 15 or 20kg.
We never lose tags, tag them near the head with Utags and they'll never have cause to fall out, anyone tagging breeding ewe lambs in a trailer has very little respect for either the lamb or the next owner..... it's scandalous the way they're tagged by some, big rips and out on the end of the ear

farawaygrass

wrangler wrote: »

We'd have them tagged and just throw the dead ones into the knackery, never caused any hassle and wouldn't be on a death cert. they'd be recorded on the computer program alright. we'd have a death cert on anything over 15 or 20kg.
We never lose tags, tag them near the head with Utags and they'll never have cause to fall out, anyone tagging breeding ewe lambs in a trailer has very little respect for either the lamb or the next owner..... it's scandalous the way they're tagged by some, big rips and out on the end of the ear

Did you find the pratley crate good wrangler? Was it an automatic one, as in would divide the sheep into groups according to the info you requested?

wrangler

farawaygrass wrote: »

Did you find the pratley crate good wrangler? Was it an automatic one, as in would divide the sheep into groups according to the info you requested?

No, ours is the bog standard Prattley. It was €3100 including vat at the time, the fancy one was €7000, we've a neighbour with the automatic alright, great job, it'll sort sheep away on its own, naturally the ones that are picked for killing need to be checked for finish as they're only picked based on weight.
The fact that our scales doesn't rattle and bang like the ordinary scales means the lambs are keen to go into it. The reader we have isn't great, short range and you'd have to wait a few seconds for the lamb to put his ear near it , but it's fine though, it register the number and weight and a light comes on then to tell you when to open the gate and which of the gates to open, there's left right and straight ahead

razor8

roosky wrote: »

Has anyone here got a really good torch or headlamp for checking livestock

I have a few of the small headlamps that are grand for working up close but I need something to be able to scan the hedges and save walking them all evening !

Thinking something like this

https://www.donedeal.ie/view/26622720

Or something like this

https://agridirect.ie/product/clulite-rechargeable-head-a-lite

Thanks

Bought one of these awhile ago. Good value and excellent range

Bought the NEW PREDATOR FOX HUNTER HANDHELD

Have headlights too

https://wildhunter.ie/collections/lampshandheld

early_riser

early_riser wrote: »

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

Scanned 1.7 for what's in lamb, 10 out of 50 not in lamb early but they mostly hoggets and they are back with ram a month so should be got this time around, happy enough with results

Kevhog1988

Anyone selling a cheap ram in the leinster area?. Only have 12 ewes so don't want to spend big money.

joe35

Do people dose mature ewes for fluke. Sent a few away to the factory a few weeks ago and one came back with fluke.

Ewes are in good form but seen one there with fluke symptoms, so was thinking of blanket dosing them. How long after dosing would you leave it before dosing or should I leave it all together. TIA

Tileman

joe35 wrote: »

Do people dose mature ewes for fluke. Sent a few away to the factory a few weeks ago and one came back with fluke.

Ewes are in good form but seen one there with fluke symptoms, so was thinking of blanket dosing them. How long after dosing would you leave it before dosing or should I leave it all together. TIA

Yes mature ewes do need to be dosed if they are exposed to wet land. Very little land would not be wet in winter so yes you absolutely should dose them all.

joe35

Would you dose them in lamb

Westernrock

joe35 wrote: »

Would you dose them in lamb

If you didn’t they would be dead before lambing here in the west! We would have to dose every 6-8 weeks during the winter here.

Ard_MC

joe35 wrote: »

Would you dose them in lamb

Yes get dosed twice in lamb here and once before ram goes out.

Green farmer

Any recommendations as to which ewe fluke dose ? Successfully used duotech in the past here, but the amended withdrawal takes abit of good out of it, flexibility wise.

kk.man

Green farmer wrote: »

Any recommendations as to which ewe fluke dose ? Successfully used duotech in the past here, but the amended withdrawal takes abit of good out of it, flexibility wise.

I don't find it very effective tbh. I think it does only one stage two max. I'd go expensive and the 3 stages. Like it's not like you going to be bringing the ewes to the factory anytime soon.

eire23

Think the general line of thought is go with a triclabendazole based dose first then a clonsatel like flukiver and if a third one is needed maybe rafoxinide for the third one. I give the first one going to the ram and work from there. These are ewes that are out for the winter. Try to never give the same dose twice in a season.

DJ98

What do people find works best in a footbath? Using formalin at the moment but think it's hard on man and beast, vet said not to use copper so any other suggestions?

wrangler

DJ98 wrote: »

What do people find works best in a footbath? Using formalin at the moment but think it's hard on man and beast, vet said not to use copper so any other suggestions?

Zinc sulphate has worked here for years, have never used anything else,

DJ98

wrangler wrote: »

Zinc sulphate has worked here for years, have never used anything else,

Is there not something about that being hard to get rid of or something as it's a metal?