General sheep thread

Dickie10

I see a lamb with beginings of orf today, in the field with the group, no doubt will spread like wildfire around troughs, i heard of a lick you can get anyone know anything about it?

Dinzee Conlee

Dickie10 wrote: »

I see a lamb with beginings of orf today, in the field with the group, no doubt will spread like wildfire around troughs, i heard of a lick you can get anyone know anything about it?

Do you normally get it bad?

We used to tear here, and then we used to give the vaccine. Then in the end, we stopped doing anything. They got off some years, but it seemed to go through them handy enough. Rare that it would cause major issues...

I know that doesn’t answer your questions - is the bucket Tubbys?

https://www.thedandys.ie/product/tubby-orf

Don’t know anything about it...

Dickie10

never get it too bad but does knock lambs back at the wrong time. i have holy water thats supposed to cure it. also use jeyes fluid and rub it into scabuntil skin breaks, horrible job but u see it clearing up the next day

Kevhog1988

Dickie10 wrote: »

never get it too bad but does knock lambs back at the wrong time. i have holy water thats supposed to cure it. also use jeyes fluid and rub it into scabuntil skin breaks, horrible job but u see it clearing up the next day

I just spray it with alamycin

sandman30

White Clover wrote: »

Anyone got a good spreadsheet for recording data at lambing time?

Have you tried the sheep Ireland app? Think it's free for commercial farners

farawaygrass

sandman30 wrote: »

Have you tried the sheep Ireland app? Think it's free for commercial farners

I think there is a deadline for registering for the year and it has passed now

razor8

That only applies to pedigree breeders. Commercial farmers can join at any time

Young95

Question for the lads who lamb indoors. When after lambing when you have ewes and lambs in there individual lambing pens for a day or two how much meal a day per ewe do youz give them ? Always give a kilo to ewe with 3 lambs here or close to that for a ewe with twins . And half a kilo for a single . Just curious to know what others give them to keep ewe ticking on .

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Question for the lads who lamb indoors. When after lambing when you have ewes and lambs in there individual lambing pens for a day or two how much meal a day per ewe do youz give them ? Always give a kilo to ewe with 3 lambs here or close to that for a ewe with twins . And half a kilo for a single . Just curious to know what others give them to keep ewe ticking on .

We'd always give them less than they were used to if they're only in for 36 _ 48hrs.

Farm365

How many prolapses would you get in a normal year? I had one this morning and I’m getting around 5-6 a year in 150 ewes. I’ve tried everything diet, long tails, short tails, culling etc but no improvement

Mac Taylor

Hi, Ive noticed 5 or 6 lambs (about 2/3 weeks old) that are quite lame on one leg. Never noticed as many before. I have not yet managed to catch one...they can still move quite quickly and are not lacking thrive.....anyone any idea what might be the cause....thanks, Mac

Kevhog1988

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Hi, Ive noticed 5 or 6 lambs (about 2/3 weeks old) that are quite lame on one leg. Never noticed as many before. I have not yet managed to catch one...they can still move quite quickly and are not lacking thrive.....anyone any idea what might be the cause....thanks, Mac

Could be just hard ground? if it was joint ill id say youd notice fairly quickly

charolais0153

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Hi, Ive noticed 5 or 6 lambs (about 2/3 weeks old) that are quite lame on one leg. Never noticed as many before. I have not yet managed to catch one...they can still move quite quickly and are not lacking thrive.....anyone any idea what might be the cause....thanks, Mac

Catch one and see, you should see if it's scalding in between the toes

charolais0153

Farm365 wrote: »

How many prolapses would you get in a normal year? I had one this morning and I’m getting around 5-6 a year in 150 ewes. I’ve tried everything diet, long tails, short tails, culling etc but no improvement

Restrict the silage a bit, feed a bit more meal,
Don't keep the ones that prolapse or their progeny
Lack of exercise and too much feeding is cause of majority of prolapse

kk.man

charolais0153 wrote: »

Restrict the silage a bit, feed a bit more meal,
Don't keep the ones that prolapse or their progeny
Lack of exercise and too much feeding is cause of majority of prolapse

I think hay and straw helps too. Silage is too good for them imo.

lucky john

Farm365 wrote: »

How many prolapses would you get in a normal year? I had one this morning and I’m getting around 5-6 a year in 150 ewes. I’ve tried everything diet, long tails, short tails, culling etc but no improvement

For the first time ever I have not had a single prolaps. Always had 2 or 3 minimum. Any issues from last year were culled and this year I stuck to a strict feeding plan. Started with 0.2kgs 7 weeks out from lambing. 0.4kg second week. 0.6kg 3rd week. split into 2 x 0.4kg and then 2 x 0.5kg until lambing. Ad lib silage or hay from start of december. Singles and trebles fed separately. I think the feeding twice a day made the big difference.

I did have a different problem with the ewes carrying triplets though. I gave them up to 1.4kg's a day 20% protein pellet. 4 out of the five lambed so far have had perfect elders but almost no milk. all looked fine until I lost one of their lambs and I released lambs were sucking and getting almost nothing.
I cut their meal to the minimum for a couple of days, bottled the lambs and now building up meal again. Seems to be working but still a couple of lambs to bottle.

Farm365

charolais0153 wrote: »

Restrict the silage a bit, feed a bit more meal,
Don't keep the ones that prolapse or their progeny
Lack of exercise and too much feeding is cause of majority of prolapse

I don’t keep any or their progeny. All sheep are outside so exercise shouldn’t be a problem. I switched from hay to silage this year to see if it makes any difference. I only feed to recommendations based on scan. I’ve tried lots of different things to no avail.

J.O. Farmer

Farm365 wrote: »

I don’t keep any or their progeny. All sheep are outside so exercise shouldn’t be a problem. I switched from hay to silage this year to see if it makes any difference. I only feed to recommendations based on scan. I’ve tried lots of different things to no avail.

What breed of ewes have you. Maybe the breed is more prone to prolapse.

Also any lameness problems with the same ewes, just because they have space doesn't mean they're moving much.

Birdnuts

kk.man wrote: »

I think hay and straw helps too. Silage is too good for them imo.

Yep - its the same reason to avoid heavy monoculture PRG covers later in the year. Sheep are a bit like ponies that way, they tend to develop foot problems similar to laminitis in horses or gout in humans on such ground.

Farm365

Farm365 wrote: »

I don’t keep any or their progeny. All sheep are outside so exercise shouldn’t be a problem. I switched from hay to silage this year to see if it makes any difference. I only feed to recommendations based on scan. I’ve tried lots of different things to no avail.

it could be breed?

I kept ewe lambs off a texel ram one year,and none made it to 4th season lambing,biggest cull was for prolapses

Where as i kept same amount off a different ram and some of them are on 7th lambing,and no prolapse between em

Farm365

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

What breed of ewes have you. Maybe the breed is more prone to prolapse.

Also any lameness problems with the same ewes, just because they have space doesn't mean they're moving much.

No lameness only a small bit of scald during the summer. I’ve a mixed batch but mainly Mules, Lleyn crosses and some Scotch. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern of one breed getting it more than another.

arctictree

charolais0153 wrote: »

Restrict the silage a bit, feed a bit more meal,
Don't keep the ones that prolapse or their progeny
Lack of exercise and too much feeding is cause of majority of prolapse

Agreed, I used to be plagued with prolapses. This year I started feeding 4 weeks out instead of 8. The harnesses have not been used at all. Also, I have smaller lambs and much less lambing problems.

farawaygrass

Had my share of trouble this year with prolapses too, never as bad tbh. Lost 4 to putting out their guts, found them dead. All carrying triplets. Had to put the harness on one for a small prolapse, she lambed ok. Fed meal a bit strong this year but did the latter last year and was shy of milk at the start of lambing. They got ad lib silage in a round feeder in the shed and fed meal twice a day. Changed to hay though after the 3rd one prolapsed.
They are always going on about making top quality silage (my silage wasn’t near top quality). Maybe that suits sheep in a shed that are fed through a barrier, you can restrict them easier. It’s hard to get the balance right

Siamsa Sessions

farawaygrass wrote: »

Had my share of trouble this year with prolapses too, never as bad tbh. Lost 4 to putting out their guts, found them dead. All carrying triplets. Had to put the harness on one for a small prolapse, she lambed ok. Fed meal a bit strong this year but did the latter last year and was shy of milk at the start of lambing. They got ad lib silage in a round feeder in the shed and fed meal twice a day. Changed to hay though after the 3rd one prolapsed.
They are always going on about making top quality silage (my silage wasn’t near top quality). Maybe that suits sheep in a shed that are fed through a barrier, you can restrict them easier. It’s hard to get the balance right

Plenty trouble here too this year and I'm wondering if silage is partly to blame. It's my first (and last) year feeding it to them. Would chopping it when it's cut/baled make any difference I wonder?

Anyway, lost 2 ewes who pushed out their intestines and another 4 prolapsed. Got a harness on them but 1 lost 2 lambs and another lost 1. 3rd one was shook after it all and lost a lamb a few days out in the field. 4th one still hasn't lambed but I'm not holding out much hope of a good result. She had what looked like a water blister out one day and I handled her, but the cervix was still closed. Took the harness off her and she hasn't prolapsed since but that's a week ago and her dug/udder is getting smaller by the look of it now!

I know you have to look at it as a business but your heart would still be broken with it at time.

wrangler

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Plenty trouble here too this year and I'm wondering if silage is partly to blame. It's my first (and last) year feeding it to them. Would chopping it when it's cut/baled make any difference I wonder?

Anyway, lost 2 ewes who pushed out their intestines and another 4 prolapsed. Got a harness on them but 1 lost 2 lambs and another lost 1. 3rd one was shook after it all and lost a lamb a few days out in the field. 4th one still hasn't lambed but I'm not holding out much hope of a good result. She had what looked like a water blister out one day and I handled her, but the cervix was still closed. Took the harness off her and she hasn't prolapsed since but that's a week ago and her dug/udder is getting smaller by the look of it now!

I know you have to look at it as a business but your heart would still be broken with it at time.

Prolapses seem to be very common this year and ewes putting out their guts,
What's really frustrating is there's no explanation or cure. I know that when we were feeding silage in december I couldn't believe the amount of silage they eat, they really stuff themselves when silage is well preserved so I can see the problem as lambs get bigger.

farawaygrass

wrangler wrote: »

Prolapses seem to be very common this year and ewes putting out their guts,
What's really frustrating is there's no explanation or cure. I know that when we were feeding silage in december I couldn't believe the amount of silage they eat, they really stuff themselves when silage is well preserved so I can see the problem as lambs get bigger.

Ya when I changed over to the hay I couldn’t believe how much they slowed down. One thing I think might be the problem Is letting ewes getting too fat after weaning. So when you flush them and from there on in there are putting on condition. Maybe if they were a touch thinner going to the ram it might be no harm

DJ98

Anyone any tips to getting 2 week old pet lambs started on a feeding bucket, they were used to getting a bottle.

Siamsa Sessions

DJ98 wrote: »

Anyone any tips to getting 2 week old pet lambs started on a feeding bucket, they were used to getting a bottle.

Patience!

Use warm milk for the first few feeds if possible. Hunger is a great sauce too. It helps them concentrate on the teat!

All I do here is manually open their mouths, shove them onto the teat, and repeat this 10 times. I usually curse and swear a bit too which I find helpful

arctictree

Lads - I have a hogget (2020) that threw her lamb yesterday. Could she be thrown in with a batch of hoggets at the Mart?

kk.man

arctictree wrote: »

Lads - I have a hogget (2020) that threw her lamb yesterday. Could she be thrown in with a batch of hoggets at the Mart?

No injections etc can't see a problem but I'd be open to others views.