General sheep thread

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119509052#Comment_119509052

In almost the same situation,not quiet at putting out bales stage (almost all my neighbours are out with diet feeders,and milking at maybe 2 o'clock-some lads drying off already around here)

But I have wet ould bogs that are just about keeping me out of trouble,but I gotten droughts here 5 of the last 7 years in April/may......

so known the signs and pulled lambs off ewes early to keep condition,ewes might not over thrive on the bogland,but won't fall back......realistically looking at feeding meal here to flush em(must research this),and likely a later lambing date next year....

.if ya told me in middle may,I'd be looking for rain by end summer,id have laughed at you😑

joe35

Noticed that myself. If it happens I put the tag in upside down (put the male end underneath the ear). This seems to work better.

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525762#Comment_119525762

I use a wrap around management tag in spring time from them and I had the same problem.

Young95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119514286#Comment_119514286

How long wrangler do you feed them at that rate ? Would they be finished at 6 weeks of feeding .5 of a kg per day?

Jimbo789

With hoggets that got 2 Heptavac P vaccines 6 weeks apart as lambs is it ok to wait until 4 to 6 weeks before they lamb to give the next vaccine? This would be approx 18 to 20 months after the previous vaccine.

When buying hoggets that you don’t know for certain their vaccine status. When would be the best time to vaccinate them? Would a second vaccine 6 weeks before the usual one 4 to 6 weeks before lambing be ok?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119526082#Comment_119526082

If the gap is more thn 12 mths since the last injection you have to give the two injections again

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525830#Comment_119525830

We've very little grass now so they're going up to a kilo/day now, they were leavung very little grass for the ewes.

at that level of feed I'd expect most to be gone by end of september

.5kg /day works well if you've good grass, it slows up the autumn grass going through them and they get better valeue out of it

wrangler

Any one at the sheep ireland ram sale, George Chandler was boasting about being half an hour ahead of time but I thought he was knocking down the rams too quick...... prices definitely improved when he left

George Chandler was promoting Richrd and Chris Bourns clearance sale next saturday in Portumna.

1100 mules

It'll be some dairy farm when it gets going

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530247#Comment_119530247

That's George for ya. Ah he's not the worst either.

I was thinking the Bourns were getting into dairying alright.

Lot's of big places gone or going that way.

orm0nd

Bought 2 rams there, was late leaving home and then got held up for ages with a road race, on the outskirts of tullamore

The vendeens were in the passage way up when I eventually got in.

Eventhough I was in the rings I bid online.

Young95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119509052#Comment_119509052

Did you need to train the lambs to ab lib by feeding them up or did you just stick the creep feeder out with them and they got in on it ?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530499#Comment_119530499

Lambs that have never had meal train themselves up grand if you just give them a creep feeder, they get in on it very quick without sickening them selves.

But lambs that know what meal is can sicken themselves on a creep feeder, I don't know what the answer is there,

Jimbo789

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530247#Comment_119530247

I just saw the 12 Lleyns rams selling. Only around half of them were sold and top price was €600.

I was delayed by the road race too so was lucky to make it on time because they were 10 minutes ahead of schedule at that stage.

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531241#Comment_119531241

I saw the texels being sold, they were a great trade. I'm not sure what top price was but I think over €1200 with quite a few over €1,000.

€600 was nearly the minimum price for a nice ram. The trade only cooled off in the last 20 or so.

I thought it interesting that some rams opened below €400 and were slow to get there but once they got there they were over €500 in the blink of an eye. It was like some bidders had a minimum before they'd bid almost like they didn't trust their judgement of the ram.

farawaygrass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525762#Comment_119525762

Funny you mentioned that because I was cursing them yesterday and getting my spiel ready to tackle Cormac if they have a stand at the ploughing. Going to try a different brand when buy again. Can’t be any worse I’d imagine

orm0nd

We modified the tagger a bit which helped a little. Haven't used them since though.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531527#Comment_119531527

Vendeens were a poor trade, but were pooor enough Quality, Pippa hackett bought two good ones though.

Young95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532189#Comment_119532189

I suppose she has to spend her big fat dail cheque on something wrangler !😂😜

DJ98

Could hay that was made in early July be wrapped and stored outside? Going to put new floor into the shed its in so that it can be used for lambing next spring and have no other shed to store it in

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119535080#Comment_119535080

No need to wrap it....we used put pallets/logs down and build em on it and cover with a second hand put cover and old tyres before we had a shed.....used hold perfect

weatherbyfoxer

Thinking of heading down to the llyen sale in roscommon on Saturday as I could do with 20 or 30 hoggets...what are people experience with pb lyens as commercial ewes rearing lambs for the factory?..have a good few llyens here but they are near all texel x..just wondering would pure breeds be softer?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119535682#Comment_119535682

We didnt do well with the purebreds, they are a small breed naturally and need something to cross with.

We bought the most expensive on the day and only had 20% of them left after two years, so they proved very soft here. In hindsight I fell for the best fed ewes so maybe that was my mistake

I try to buy the best ram I can get and alternate with texel every couple years and it works well. there's great opportunities now to do that now that sheep ireland figures are dependable if the accuracy figure have more than 70% for lambs and 80% for hogget rams.

sheep ireland say that 50% accuracy is good but I'd like more

weatherbyfoxer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119535713#Comment_119535713

Definitely agree with you there wrangler,we have alot of texels ewes that are by high index maternal rams and notched at birth out of our best preforming ewes,the best of these are bred to high maternal index llyen rams to breed replacements. porblem was we were hit with toxo back in the spring and as a result we ended up with alot of barren ewes heading to the factory..so 20 or 30 bought in hoggets would see us back up to numbers along with our own replacements...any advice on buying hoggets wrangler?

wrangler

It's difficult to get lleyn x alright, I'd usually buy texel cross and breed on from there.

joe35

What way are lambs graded. What's the difference between R and U grades, RE and R3??

And what is the ideal grade to be aiming for.

Dinzee Conlee

Grass is getting tight around here…

Debating throwing the sheep into a small paddock with a round bale rather than baring every paddock pure bare… I don’t have many, so a bale or two would keep them a while anyways…

Anyone else in the same boat?

DJ98

Grass completely gone here for about 2 weeks now at this stage, not feeding ewes but considering starting to give them meal now for a few weeks as they'll have no grass for flushing this year.

Dinzee Conlee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119540046#Comment_119540046

Where are you based DJ?

Country lad

grass surely needs rain now was lucky myself as sold.most lambs as stores a month ago so have still some grass for flushing ewes

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530499#Comment_119530499

I weighed the lambs that are on adlib for last fortnight, they've eaten a kilo/day and put on 5.9 kgs in the fortnight, they're going to the factory on thursday, it'll be interesting to see if they increease the KO percentage compared to the last load that were grass only

I should've weighed last week, one put on 9kgs in the two weeks, three of the load are 50kg, them and more should be gone last week