General sheep thread

Dinzee Conlee

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Thoughts welcome on below...

Would I be better creeping hog and moving around what bit of grass I have...

Or...
Putting them in a small paddock with a round bale and the creep feeder? And hold them there til things look like they have turned around a bit?

Have you bales,or have to buy in??

Dinzee Conlee

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Have you bales,or have to buy in??

Buy in.

But, to be fair Blaz, I don’t have many hog now. So a few bales would carry me a long ways...

Dinzee Conlee

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Buy in.

But, to be fair Blaz, I don’t have many hog now. So a few bales would carry me a long ways...

Theres for and againest,but if bales could be got reasonable,id go with that personally


Reddening a place and there a potential drought like last few aprils/may and june is a risky stragedy.......worse come to worse you'll have extra grass later in the year and need to make bales

Dinzee Conlee

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Theres for and againest,but if bales could be got reasonable,id go with that personally


Reddening a place and there a potential drought like last few aprils/may and june is a risky stragedy.......worse come to worse you'll have extra grass later in the year and need to make bales

Hard to know what to do...

I won’t be making bales, land doesn’t suit and even if it did, I don’t know if I would...

orm0nd

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Thoughts welcome on below...

Would I be better creeping hog and moving around what bit of grass I have...

Or...
Putting them in a small paddock with a round bale and the creep feeder? And hold them there til things look like they have turned around a bit?

You will never build up a bank of grass if you keep chasing your tail. Lock them up until you get a decent cover on your best plot and then move around

Traditionally we used to free roam the silage fields with the early lambers. A few years back we began strip grazing and back fencing.

The benefits in the second round is immense and well worth the effort (and the occasional fook)

Green farmer

Nice bit of rain fell here overnight. Cannt do the grass situation any harm

Dinzee Conlee

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Thoughts welcome on below...

Would I be better creeping hog and moving around what bit of grass I have...

Or...
Putting them in a small paddock with a round bale and the creep feeder? And hold them there til things look like they have turned around a bit?

Keep them in the one spot. It'll take longer for grass to grow if it keeps being grazed before it's ready.

joe35

Hi, a fella I was at school with asked me would I be interested in grazing a few horse paddocks. Kinda came from no where with this and I'm just curious as to what the benefits are for both of us.

He has about 40 acres and his main problem is with rag weed. He has a 3 rail ranch fencing round most paddocks so would need sheep wire, or 3 strands of barb wire. All perimeter is fairly well fenced with good hedgerow.

Would sheep be that good at clearing rag weed from fields. I'd want to run a few sheep in the fields after the horses. It's a bit of work to set up and I'm wondering is it worth it?

Mad about baa baas

joe35 wrote: »

Hi, a fella I was at school with asked me would I be interested in grazing a few horse paddocks. Kinda came from no where with this and I'm just curious as to what the benefits are for both of us.

He has about 40 acres and his main problem is with rag weed. He has a 3 rail ranch fencing round most paddocks so would need sheep wire, or 3 strands of barb wire. All perimeter is fairly well fenced with good hedgerow.

Would sheep be that good at clearing rag weed from fields. I'd want to run a few sheep in the fields after the horses. It's a bit of work to set up and I'm wondering is it worth it?

Would it be possible to run a strand of electric under bottom rail and another between bottom and middle rail..
I'd imagine sheep will only eat ragworth at.the very early stages..
I run my sheep through a stud farm in winter.. have to put wire up temporarily.. there was lots of cheap 2ft wire there so I use that . You get very quick at putting up.. I use baling twine every second post. I put one up high then 2 posts time I put the twine low. If you know what I mean.. easy enough to get a pull when tightening such a short distance .. I'm actually able to put up 200m in just over an hour if I have twins cut and ready...

Westernrock

Mad about baa baas wrote: »

Would it be possible to run a strand of electric under bottom rail and another between bottom and middle rail..
I'd imagine sheep will only eat ragworth at.the very early stages..
I run my sheep through a stud farm in winter.. have to put wire up temporarily.. there was lots of cheap 2ft wire there so I use that . You get very quick at putting up.. I use baling twine every second post. I put one up high then 2 posts time I put the twine low. If you know what I mean.. easy enough to get a pull when tightening such a short distance .. I'm actually able to put up 200m in just over an hour if I have twins cut and ready...

Sheep are the job for ragwort, but you need to graze if for 2years plus as it’s a bi annual plant. I’d be thinking dry ewes after weaning onto it and they might even stay without fencing. Only if they have too much of a run they could get too fat, but they would make a great job of it

Dinzee Conlee

Westernrock wrote: »

Sheep are the job for ragwort, but you need to graze if for 2years plus as it’s a bi annual plant. I’d be thinking dry ewes after weaning onto it and they might even stay without fencing. Only if they have too much of a run they could get too fat, but they would make a great job of it

I thought the sheep would only eat the ragwort in the springtime when it’s young?

joe35

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I thought the sheep would only eat the ragwort in the springtime when it’s young?

Do dairy farmers not like sheep grazing fields in the winter to keep the rag weed down.

I think this might be a fairly permanent job so was thinking 2 strands of barbed wire below bottom rail and 1 strand between bottom and middle.

Wouldn't be a major problem if the start breaking as perimeter is fairly good.

Just wondering how good they are at eating the ragweed. He was talking about grazing the sheep after horses to clean up the fields

Westernrock

joe35 wrote: »

Do dairy farmers not like sheep grazing fields in the winter to keep the rag weed down.

I think this might be a fairly permanent job so was thinking 2 strands of barbed wire below bottom rail and 1 strand between bottom and middle.

Wouldn't be a major problem if the start breaking as perimeter is fairly good.

Just wondering how good they are at eating the ragweed. He was talking about grazing the sheep after horses to clean up the fields

They eat the rosette stage which then grows and flowers the following year, so if it’s eaten out for two years you have no flowers and no seeds, obviously the longer it’s grazed by sheep the cleaner it will be. I don’t know how keen he would be to have barbed wire around horses, they’re a great animal to get caught in something they shouldn’t be near! I’d be thinking electric wire would be best if you do have to put up anything, that way the horses won’t pull it down pawing at it either. They can get stuck in sheep wire and cut with barbed and even a small cut can be serious if it’s in the wrong place on a horse.

wrangler

joe35 wrote: »

Hi, a fella I was at school with asked me would I be interested in grazing a few horse paddocks. Kinda came from no where with this and I'm just curious as to what the benefits are for both of us.

He has about 40 acres and his main problem is with rag weed. He has a 3 rail ranch fencing round most paddocks so would need sheep wire, or 3 strands of barb wire. All perimeter is fairly well fenced with good hedgerow.

Would sheep be that good at clearing rag weed from fields. I'd want to run a few sheep in the fields after the horses. It's a bit of work to set up and I'm wondering is it worth it?

If he's like some of the horse guys around here there won't be much grass for your sheep, Horses can graze tighter than sheep
If it's a good stud farm you'll be in business. Wait to see what grows before you commit

Young95

How are lads finding there grass situations at present? Feeding beet and meal outside now here still . Need rain badly as place is dry and no grass growth atal .

joe35

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a chat with him. See how much he'll pay me for controlling his weed problem ðŸ˜

Kevhog1988

Young95 wrote: »

How are lads finding there grass situations at present? Feeding beet and meal outside now here still . Need rain badly as place is dry and no grass growth atal .

Not great but not as bad as last year. Could do with a drop of rain tbh.

DJ98

When selling stock online on the likes of done deal what do people find to be best way of getting payment??

Siamsa Sessions

DJ98 wrote: »

When selling stock online on the likes of done deal what do people find to be best way of getting payment??

Cash is king!

Or a cheque that is cleared before anyone collects the stock.

Kevhog1988

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Cash is king!

Or a cheque that is cleared before anyone collects the stock.

Some weirdos on donedeal. Had a lad ringing me a few weeks ago asking me how big the rams Co*k was...

Young95

Kevhog1988 wrote: »

Some weirdos on donedeal. Had a lad ringing me a few weeks ago asking me how big the rams Co*k was...

Haha most of been a prank

Danzy

How did Lads find the drought in 2018.

Dinzee Conlee

Danzy wrote: »

How did Lads find the drought in 2018.

Housed the animals I had and fed them hay for a while... Think it was in July - feeding them hay that had been saved in June... :rolleyes:

Danzy

Danzy wrote: »

How did Lads find the drought in 2018.

Creep grazed lambs,found it v.difficult to get ewes upto condition in time and lambing % was down


Had several fields burned to crisp,some of which never recovered....but was never so glad the father/grandfather never planted the swampy fields,were an absolute lifesaver

Dickie10

bought in thistles and rushes silage at 35 euro a bale and lucky the water hole natural spring never missed a beat, once cattle had plenty of water and pick of something they seemed happy

Danzy

I found cattle grand that year, you'd give them little and they wouldn't finish it in the time given.

Didn't have sheep then.

Found that grazing to a higher residual Left the grass come back some bit, twas on advice from someone here, suppose it could be done with sheep if they were moved early.

wrangler

Danzy wrote: »

I found cattle grand that year, you'd give them little and they wouldn't finish it in the time given.

Didn't have sheep then.

Found that grazing to a higher residual Left the grass come back some bit, twas on advice from someone here, suppose it could be done with sheep if they were moved early.

Sheep can be selective grazers, if you moved early some part of the paddock would be skinned and others not touched, they leave the same area ungrazed till last every round so you can imagine what that area would be like by the second or third round.
They don't thrive on long grass either

orm0nd

DJ98 wrote: »

When selling stock online on the likes of done deal what do people find to be best way of getting payment??

bank transfer

joe35

On Irish sheep discussion page on Facebook there is a lot of talk about sickness in lambs could be down to ticks.

I never heard of ticks being a problem for lowland sheep or lambs out on grass. I thought ticks only affected sheep on rough ground where ticks would thrive

wrangler

joe35 wrote: »

On Irish sheep discussion page on Facebook there is a lot of talk about sickness in lambs could be down to ticks.

I never heard of ticks being a problem for lowland sheep or lambs out on grass. I thought ticks only affected sheep on rough ground where ticks would thrive

I'd say you're right, never had them here anyway