General sheep thread

roosky

rangler1 wrote: »

The farm is fragmented and we've only 10 acres at our house, we're going to keep that ourselves for privacy, there's 15 nice 5 and 6 year old ewes that's too good to cull and 23 nice ewe lambs so probably another 15 from the ones we're sellingwill stock the ten acres

Struggling with fragmentation myself, as many are!

Makes the job all that much more difficult and time consuming

rangler1

roosky wrote: »

Struggling with fragmentation myself, as many are!

Makes the job all that much more difficult and time consuming

Father moved here from Shannonbridge in 1947 and bought bits and pieces anywhere he could.......it's more than I was able to do

tomwaterford

rangler1 wrote: »

The farm is fragmented and we've only 10 acres at our house, we're going to keep that ourselves for privacy, there's 15 nice 5 and 6 year old ewes that's too good to cull and 23 nice ewe lambs so probably another 15 from the ones we're sellingwill stock the ten acres

Sickened not in Ireland,I'd buy a clatter of them

Good proper sheep,wishing you the best In the sale!

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

The farm is fragmented and we've only 10 acres at our house, we're going to keep that ourselves for privacy, there's 15 nice 5 and 6 year old ewes that's too good to cull and 23 nice ewe lambs so probably another 15 from the ones we're sellingwill stock the ten acres

What did you do with the rams?

DJ98

Why do people house ewes after weaning, what are the pros and cons of this?
What are the pros and cons of letting ewes straight back to grass after weaning?

Farmer_3650

DJ98 wrote: »

Why do people house ewes after weaning, what are the pros and cons of this?
What are the pros and cons of letting ewes straight back to grass after weaning?

To be honest, I've never heard of people housing Ewes after weaning. I don't know why anyone would do that. It would cost less if they are out and they would be far healthier than they would be indoors.

sea12

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

To be honest, I've never heard of people housing Ewes after weaning. I don't know why anyone would do that. It would cost less if they are out and they would be far healthier than they would be indoors.

People did it to help dry up the ewes. As there was the risk of getting mastitis. Also it helped to prevent them breaking out and bawling to the lambs. Nothing like s couple of days in the shed on hay and water to help them forget the lambs. Fencing wasn't as good years ago as now.

ganmo

sea12 wrote: »

People did it to help dry up the ewes. As there was the risk of getting mastitis. Also it helped to prevent them breaking out and bawling to the lambs. Nothing like s couple of days in the shed on hay and water to help them forget the lambs. Fencing wasn't as good years ago as now.

ya the main thing would be no attemped fence jumps
after about 2 days let them out on the lane and they clear the place up nicely

Sheep breeder

We housed the first batch weaned for three weeks, first week on barley straw and then hay and then silage, ewes went out well dried off and in great condition and saved up three weeks of grass and no mastitis, no ewes with maggots or on there back and easy to herd and feed and ewes dosed in the shed to clean out ready to go back to the ram.
Second batch in for two weeks the same way.

Hard Knocks

Have a pet Ewe lamb (40kg) after being tipped by Suffolk ram.
Had intended a Charolais ram around the middle of October.
Can you get an injection to abort? Or would you take a chance

spudeater

What did anyone think of the sheep a tullamore today?

Farmer_3650

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Have a pet Ewe lamb (40kg) after being tipped by Suffolk ram.
Had intended a Charolais ram around the middle of October.
Can you get an injection to abort? Or would you take a chance

Wait and she if she comes into heat again anyway. I don't think I would take a chance. We put a Suffolk Ram to Ewe Lambs years ago since all the rest of the Rams were related to them. Most of the lambs heads were swelled since the Ewes were a while lambing, many lambs died at lambing and we also lost 2 Ewe Lambs.

DJ98

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

Wait and she if she comes into heat again anyway. I don't think I would take a chance. We put a Suffolk Ram to Ewe Lambs years ago since all the rest of the Rams were related to them. Most of the lambs heads were swelled since the Ewes were a while lambing, many lambs died at lambing and we also lost 2 Ewe Lambs.

Would ewe lambs/ewes be naturally in heat this time of year, thought you would have to sponge to her ewes cycling this early.

Hard Knocks

DJ98 wrote: »

Would ewe lambs/ewes be naturally in heat this time of year, thought you would have to sponge to her ewes cycling this early.

Trying the ram effect (first time), he was with ewes last week & put with light Ewe lambs this week (thinking they'd be too young) & back next week
This Ewe lamb was with her twin brother all summer & with other Ewe lambs for last 2/3 weeks

tomwaterford

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Trying the ram effect (first time), he was with ewes last week & put with light Ewe lambs this week (thinking they'd be too young) & back next week
This Ewe lamb was with her twin brother all summer & with other Ewe lambs for last 2/3 weeks

Is the option of factorying her aswell

(This may be a difficult option if kids after rearing her as a pet?)

Hard Knocks

tomwaterford wrote: »

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Trying the ram effect (first time), he was with ewes last week & put with light Ewe lambs this week (thinking they'd be too young) & back next week
This Ewe lamb was with her twin brother all summer & with other Ewe lambs for last 2/3 weeks

Is the option of factorying her aswell

(This may be a difficult option if kids after rearing her as a pet?)

She's kids lamb alright, which is main reason she's been kept.

DJ98

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Trying the ram effect (first time), he was with ewes last week & put with light Ewe lambs this week (thinking they'd be too young) & back next week
This Ewe lamb was with her twin brother all summer & with other Ewe lambs for last 2/3 weeks

How does the ram effect work? What do you need to do

Buford T. Justice XIX

DJ98 wrote: »

Would ewe lambs/ewes be naturally in heat this time of year, thought you would have to sponge to her ewes cycling this early.

You'll get a certain percentage cycling outside of the 'normal' cycling periods, higher in some breeds like lowland breeds and lower in others like mountain breeds.

Most of my ewes are in lamb now and I haven't sponged in 20 years, just kept the early lambers and their ewe lambs and breed from them.

rangler1

DJ98 wrote: »

How does the ram effect work? What do you need to do

Ewes have to be out of sight and smell of a ram for six weeks before hand and then a fortnight before mating put the rams beside them or in a pen in the field for two days and then put the rams with them in 14 days.
You can get attachments to put on ram harnesses to stop them serving ewes as well.
It definitely works if it's done right, tightens up the lambing and suppose to increase litter size

Farmer_3650

rangler1 wrote: »

Ewes have to be out of sight and smell of a ram for six weeks before hand and then a fortnight before mating put the rams beside them or in a pen in the field for two days and then put the rams with them in 14 days.
You can get attachments to put on ram harnesses to stop them serving ewes as well.
It definitely works if it's done right, tightens up the lambing and suppose to increase litter size

Would there be a lot of pressure on the Ram though? Also how far does the Ram have to be away from the Ewes? I think I read somewhere 2km but that's not possible on most farms.

rangler1

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

Would there be a lot of pressure on the Ram though? Also how far does the Ram have to be away from the Ewes? I think I read somewhere 2km but that's not possible on most farms.

I doubt it needed 2km but I suppose it's one of the few advantages of a fragmented farm.
We put one ram to forty ewes for mating after the ram effect and it seems to be enough, over ninety percent lambed in 17 days

Green farmer

Do you think shearing the ewes later in the year, as you do contribute anything to increased scanning numbers rangler ?

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Do you think shearing the ewes later in the year, as you do contribute anything to increased scanning numbers rangler ?

I doubt it, I shear later purely because easier and the lambs are off them, they've usually lost their daggings by august too....this year might be different.
I sheared mid july this year to have them wooly for the sale and they were a lot dirtier.
Have you sheared yet

Green farmer

Store lads shear lambs to give them a thrive, so was thinking would the Aug/ sept shearing wont do any harm in bulking up and flushing ewes for Rams.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Store lads shear lambs to give them a thrive, so was thinking would the Aug/ sept shearing wont do any harm in bulking up and flushing ewes for Rams.

That's true, the ewes do a serious thrive after shearing, first year that I sheared late I was worried they were so thin....you don't see their condition until you shear them, whereas you'd be aware of it if they were sheared in june.
but they were up to condition in the eight weeks or so before mating. Whether you shear in june or August it's important to have condition score 3 -3.5 to get the optimum lamb crop. At the moment our thin ones are grazing good grass and the good ones are going around after the lambs cleaning off paddocks, even at that they're putting up condition

Sheep breeder

spudeater wrote: »

What did anyone think of the sheep a tullamore today?

The big thing is how the breeds have changed over recent years by the new craziness, the stripping texel, the crossing blue Leicester, the bucket head Suffolk, the white head charollais, and this all for head colour and wool fads and two things the factory don't pay for.

Bullocks

Hard Knocks wrote: »

She's kids lamb alright, which is main reason she's been kept.

I had the same here with one of the kids pets . Brought her to the vet twice to give her every chance but she couldnt get up at all in the end and rang the vet again so he just put her down cos there was going to be no improvement . It's a sickener when they seem healthy every other way

Willfarman

Sheep breeder wrote: »

The big thing is how the breeds have changed over recent years by the new craziness, the stripping texel, the crossing blue Leicester, the bucket head Suffolk, the white head charollais, and this all for head colour and wool fads and two things the factory don't pay for.

The big thick legs and a massive heads on the Suffolk which guarantee lambing difficulty and neither of which have a value..

charolais0153

Willfarman wrote: »

The big thick legs and a massive heads on the Suffolk which guarantee lambing difficulty and neither of which have a value..

Was passing a place with pedigree Suffolk ewes the last day after being shorn and they looked so out of proportion the smaller ewes still had big stacks of legs and big heads too.

Lambman

Anyone on here usemullinahones fleximatic tag tagger and would u recommend it?