General sheep thread

Green farmer

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Would I be right in saying people buy them for pets like cats and dogs more than meat-producing farm animals?

Their meant to be docile and are in fashion. Wouldnt be my cup of tea as everything here has to pay it's way.

charolais0153

Scanned today 137 ewes
5 quads
28 trebles
69 couples
27singles
8 enpty(ram still running so some may prove in lamb)
Lot of lambs but 70 or 80% couples be lovely

Dinzee Conlee

Normally shear the store lambs in September, but didn’t this year... Not entirely sure why. Bit of mane-ness I suppose, and just to see how I’d get on not shearing...
Very much regretting it now - my heart is fcukin broken from them getting stuck in briars...

Found one this evening that managed to somehow get stuck in briars and then roll into a wet furrow
Brought her into the shed, hopefully she’ll do. I think she should, but it’s often them ones wouldn’t

Birdnuts

Anyone else notice sheep going mad for ivy atm??

roosky

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Normally shear the store lambs in September, but didn’t this year... Not entirely sure why. Bit of mane-ness I suppose, and just to see how I’d get on not shearing...
Very much regretting it now - my heart is fcukin broken from them getting stuck in briars...

Found one this evening that managed to somehow get stuck in briars and then roll into a wet furrow
Brought her into the shed, hopefully she’ll do. I think she should, but it’s often them ones wouldn’t

Done the same here, usually shear but didn’t due to broken weather all through September.....every day I’m cutting 10/15 out of the briars

Green farmer

Birdnuts wrote: »

Anyone else notice sheep going mad for ivy atm??

Have a few store lambs atm. Put them on some fresh grass the other day. Went back the next day and some had taken the bark off a few trees, even though plenty of grass there.

Tileman

Green farmer wrote: »

Have a few store lambs atm. Put them on some fresh grass the other day. Went back the next day and some had taken the bark off a few trees, even though plenty of grass there.

Probably due a mineral dose?

eire23

Gave all the ewe lambs and ewes here a bolus this year. Went with the mayo health care 5 in 1 six month one. Theirs two versions, the high in copper one and another lower in copper. The rep convinced me to go with the high copper one even though I've a lot of white faced sheep
The sheep look great after it, no scaley ears on the lambs and they just seem to have a really healthy look to them. Now maybe it's in my head but I'm happy enough with it amd it will save the bother of cobalting the ewe lambs

wrangler

eire23 wrote: »

Gave all the ewe lambs and ewes here a bolus this year. Went with the mayo health care 5 in 1 six month one. Theirs two versions, the high in copper one and another lower in copper. The rep convinced me to go with the high copper one even though I've a lot of white faced sheep
The sheep look great after it, no scaley ears on the lambs and they just seem to have a really healthy look to them. Now maybe it's in my head but I'm happy enough with it amd it will save the bother of cobalting the ewe lambs

Copper works very well, but I used it here on the Lleyns and got a lot of photosynthesis which can come from the liver. The liver is where copper poisons in white sheep. Maybe I would've got more photosynthesis that year anyway.
The ones that didn't get photosynthesis looked great.
I'd be interested to hear if you think they got enough cobalt in the bolus as well

eire23

wrangler wrote: »

Copper works very well, but I used it here on the Lleyns and got a lot of photosynthesis which can come from the liver. The liver is where copper poisons in white sheep. Maybe I would've got more photosynthesis that year anyway.
The ones that didn't get photosynthesis looked great.
I'd be interested to hear if you think they got enough cobalt in the bolus as well

It's funny that ya say that, had a lot of photosynthesis in the lleyn lambs this year, two charollais also got it. Now they all came right but its a nuisance. The ewes only got the bolus in November but if they had got the bolus last year amd after reading that I'd be blaming it!
I'm going soil testing the farm in the new year as its a good while since it was done but in nearly sure were in a high molybdenum area. I think this locks up copper as well?

On the lambs getting enough cobalt, at weaning I do give them the Mayo lamb bolus and a dose of cobalt b12 and then follow with a dose of cobalt every 2/3 weeks. Get a lot of lambs away of grass so I think it's a help. So it will be interesting to see how they go on the 6 month bolus.

Green farmer

Tileman wrote: »

Probably due a mineral dose?

I dont know, they were dosed in the last 2-3 weeks and got the cobalt dose as well. I know it only lasts a short time. But who knows, the Joy's of sheep ???

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

I dont know, they were dosed in the last 2-3 weeks and got the cobalt dose as well. I know it only lasts a short time. But who knows, the Joy's of sheep ???

Wet grass, no fibre in it, they're probably looking for fibre.

Ard_MC

Green farmer wrote: »

Have a few store lambs atm. Put them on some fresh grass the other day. Went back the next day and some had taken the bark off a few trees, even though plenty of grass there.

Funny I have the same. Was blaming the donkeys till the old man told me the ewes are at it. Seems to be the 1 type of tree they like!

Ard_MC

eire23 wrote: »

Gave all the ewe lambs and ewes here a bolus this year. Went with the mayo health care 5 in 1 six month one. Theirs two versions, the high in copper one and another lower in copper. The rep convinced me to go with the high copper one even though I've a lot of white faced sheep
The sheep look great after it, no scaley ears on the lambs and they just seem to have a really healthy look to them. Now maybe it's in my head but I'm happy enough with it amd it will save the bother of cobalting the ewe lambs

Same as that. All horned ewes here. But bolus seems to be working well.

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

Wet grass, no fibre in it, they're probably looking for fibre.

Fair enough. Hard to keep them all happy at this time of year.

Birdnuts

Green farmer wrote: »

Have a few store lambs atm. Put them on some fresh grass the other day. Went back the next day and some had taken the bark off a few trees, even though plenty of grass there.

As others have hinted at, I would say that heavy wet grass at this time of year is lacking alot of essential elements - especially on more monoculture swards. I've seen similar issues with cattle too

MIKEKC

If using a SIM card for lambing camera is there a contract or charge for sim

arctictree

Scanned today:

6 empty
40 single
24 Twins
8 Triplets
1 quad

Happy enough considering I have 50 ewe lambs in that bunch.

ganmo

MIKEKC wrote: »

If using a SIM card for lambing camera is there a contract or charge for sim

Most data plans are geared towards charging for downloading but uploading is what you'll be doing.

MIKEKC

ganmo wrote: »

Most data plans are geared towards charging for downloading but uploading is what you'll be doing.

Thanks will look into it further

joe35

What binoculars do people use for checking sheep on the mountain. I've a sh1t pair here and I'm constantly thinking about upgrading them. Think it's time I treated myself, any suggestions

joe35

joe35 wrote: »

What binoculars do people use for checking sheep on the mountain. I've a sh1t pair here and I'm constantly thinking about upgrading them. Think it's time I treated myself, any suggestions

Mine are Opticron

https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/binoculars/imagic-bga-vhd-binoculars/imagic-bga-vhd-8x42

What you need is clarity rather than big magnification.

If you need to identify something really far away then I have a cheapie 20-60 mag spotting scope from Aldi/Lidl, but it's only good in good light conditions.

Donegalforever

Crow Pigeon and Pheasant wrote: »

Is it foot rot? That's what it looks like from the picture!

That is also what I think it is.

joe35

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Mine are Opticron

https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/binoculars/imagic-bga-vhd-binoculars/imagic-bga-vhd-8x42

What you need is clarity rather than big magnification.

If you need to identify something really far away then I have a cheapie 20-60 mag spotting scope from Aldi/Lidl, but it's only good in good light conditions.

Must keep an eye out in Aldi, them opticron would be a bit pricey for me. Thanks all the same

joe35

joe35 wrote: »

Must keep an eye out in Aldi, them opticron would be a bit pricey for me. Thanks all the same

The spotting scope is just an aid to save walking, they won't replace good binoculars. They're fairly crap most of Winter when it's often overcast.

wrangler

A lot of problems with Brexit highlighted on IFJ this week, but I wasn't expecting unrestricted access for UK lamb into Europe .
So competition from Northern Ireland lamb continues.
It'll be interesting to see will present prices continue for another twelve months

weatherbyfoxer

wrangler wrote: »

A lot of problems with Brexit highlighted on IFJ this week, but I wasn't expecting unrestricted access for UK lamb into Europe .
So competition from Northern Ireland lamb continues.
It'll be interesting to see will present prices continue for another twelve months

only thing regardless of brexit is alot of the high output lowland sheep farms have switched to milk,..a small parish not far from me has 4000 less lowland ewes all replaced with cows...id doubt its the only area its happened too

Green farmer

The other thing that's being going on without much attention, it theres been a big drop of NZ lamb into the european market. Think NZ is more focused on the chinese market. So thats creating huge demand for our lamb on the continent. Hopefully, that would keep prices strong next year ?

Siamsa Sessions

wrangler wrote: »

A lot of problems with Brexit highlighted on IFJ this week, but I wasn't expecting unrestricted access for UK lamb into Europe .
So competition from Northern Ireland lamb continues.
It'll be interesting to see will present prices continue for another twelve months

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was business as normal in lots of areas, despite all the huffing and puffing over the past 4 years.

Really shows up the politics and media bubble as removed from everyday life

lucky john

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

only thing regardless of brexit is alot of the high output lowland sheep farms have switched to milk,..a small parish not far from me has 4000 less lowland ewes all replaced with cows...id doubt its the only area its happened too

I wouldn't be in a big dairy area and what I notice is farmers moving away from sucklers. Some are buying and fattening store but many are increasing ewe numbers or going all sheep. I think sheep numbers will balance out in the end.