General sheep thread

davidk1394

Bought 2 more easy car rams for the ewes. Would any of ye know anyone selling a belted ram down the south east area ?

Siamsa Sessions

We’re housing the ewes here around Christmas and will be feeding them hay. The Journal has a feature this week about winter feeding and DMD of silage, etc.

Is it possible to test DMD of hay?

Or should I just stop reading the Journal? :-)

rangler1

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

We’re housing the ewes here around Christmas and will be feeding them hay. The Journal has a feature this week about winter feeding and DMD of silage, etc.

Is it possible to test DMD of hay?

Or should I just stop reading the Journal? :-)

It's just common sense, if you make good silage you will get away with less meal, whether it's worth the bother I don't know, I don't feed silage her I feed straw, at least I know the straw is only fibre but I'd imagine there's a lot of hay out there not much better than the straw and farmers are calling it feed and then wondering why the ewes aren't lambing with good milk.
The Guys that test silage would test hay as well, be important to get a representative sample or even samples across the crop

rangler1

Another wet day, sheep really shine in a autumn like this, not a mark anywhere. It would be the main reason that I went for sheep, land is very heavy here and wet weather plus cows destroy it even in july.
Okay they're regarded as land lice and wooly vermin but it's not hard to gross 8 or nine lambs to the acre with very little cost, tillage wouldn't come near it coupled with huge cost.

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

Another wet day, sheep really shine in a autumn like this, not a mark anywhere. It would be the main reason that I went for sheep, land is very heavy here and wet weather plus cows destroy it even in july.
Okay they're regarded as land lice and wooly vermin but it's not hard to gross 8 or nine lambs to the acre with very little cost, tillage wouldn't come near it coupled with huge cost.

Id regard this as dry land here . Had the ewes in a reseed and by god youd know their in it.

Hard Knocks

rangler1 wrote: »

Another wet day, sheep really shine in a autumn like this, not a mark anywhere. It would be the main reason that I went for sheep, land is very heavy here and wet weather plus cows destroy it even in july.
Okay they're regarded as land lice and wooly vermin but it's not hard to gross 8 or nine lambs to the acre with very little cost, tillage wouldn't come near it coupled with huge cost.

Know a few that have replaced cows with more sheep earlier this year due last few wet years, they’re happy with their decision

rangler1

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Know a few that have replaced cows with more sheep earlier this year due last few wet years, they’re happy with their decision

Nothing in doors till christmas week and most sheep out first week april is a huge benefit here too... very short winter. our cows were often in early october.
Hopefully prices wll improve with the swing to dairying

rangler1

charolais0153 wrote: »

Id regard this as dry land here . Had the ewes in a reseed and by god youd know their in it.

Did you plough it, probably very soft if you did. Tenant here direct seeded and it's the same as permanant pasture....great job. went in straight after silage

tomwaterford

rangler1 wrote: »

Nothing in doors till christmas week and most sheep out first week april is a huge benefit here too... very short winter. our cows were often in early october.
Hopefully prices wll improve with the swing to dairying

I heard there's tagasc meetings to discuss/prepare lads for poor prices with all the extra calves about after low numbers exporter in spring....

was also talking to another lad,who's thinking getting into sheep/dairy,he has roughly 140 suckler cows (fattens all calves aswel)


But do hope this won't cause a flood to sheep and inevitable price collaspe

rangler1

tomwaterford wrote: »

I heard there's tagasc meetings to discuss/prepare lads for poor prices with all the extra calves about after low numbers exporter in spring....

was also talking to another lad,who's thinking getting into sheep/dairy,he has roughly 140 suckler cows (fattens all calves aswel)


But do hope this won't cause a flood to sheep and inevitable price collaspe

Above average ewe kill for the last two years is what I'm pinning my hopes on.
Very hard to get a decent price for cull ewes now, have 100 good ewes here waiting for the price rise but i don't think I'll live that long

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

Did you plough it, probably very soft if you did. Tenant here direct seeded and it's the same as permanant pasture....great job. went in straight after silage

Disced it. Should turnout grand just a bit of superficial damage. thats the worst part

rangler1

charolais0153 wrote: »

Disced it. Should turnout grand just a bit of superficial damage. thats the worst part

That's hard to credit, ewes grazing with five mouths

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

That's hard to credit, ewes grazing with five mouths

What do you mean by that?

rangler1

charolais0153 wrote: »

What do you mean by that?

The four feet are using as much grass as the mouth....it's an old sayng around here

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

The four feet are using as much grass as the mouth....it's an old sayng around here

The only other option is zero grading, and I hear of several dairy lads feeling burnt out from the workload that entails.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

The only other option is zero grading, and I hear of several dairy lads feeling burnt out from the workload that entails.

doesn't usually happen with sheep, it's just because it's a reseed.
The neighbours seem to have a bigger problem with the zero grazing, there seems to be whiff of slurry abounding all the time in the area where it's practised
Definitely a lifestyle advantage with sheep if not monetary

Hard Knocks

rangler1 wrote: »

Did you plough it, probably very soft if you did. Tenant here direct seeded and it's the same as permanant pasture....great job. went in straight after silage

Never seen that done
What’s the method/procedure

tomwaterford

Green farmer wrote: »

The only other option is zero grading, and I hear of several dairy lads feeling burnt out from the workload that entails.

Dairy farmers around here....do be buying up after grass for zero grazing


Lads that would traditionally bought store lambs etc,having gotten slightly burnt last year are now taking the gaurenteed money

Slightly killed the trade for them though

rangler1

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Never seen that done
What’s the method/procedure

sprayed the silage with roundup a week before cutting, cut it as usual, 100kg granlime, slug pellets, and 200kg 10.10.20, to the acre then sow the grasseed straight in

This is the seeder he used, I thought the rows were too far apart but they've grown in great,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSfMP9wBFQk

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

doesn't usually happen with sheep, it's just because it's a reseed.
The neighbours seem to have a bigger problem with the zero grazing, there seems to be whiff of slurry abounding all the time in the area where it's practised
Definitely a lifestyle advantage with sheep if not monetary

You'd imagine the zero grazing is very hard on the land and the amount of slurry they have to put back on to it cannot be great either.

rangler1

Going on a break now to Belgium, gonna also have a break from boards.
You'll find me (and a few others) at this link.
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php

Like Arnie I'll (Probably) be back.
Best of luck

Hard Knocks

rangler1 wrote: »

Going on a break now to Belgium, gonna also have a break from boards.
You'll find me (and a few others) at this link.
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php

Like Arnie I'll (Probably) be back.
Best of luck

Enjoy

Willfarman

tomwaterford wrote: »

rangler1 wrote: »

Nothing in doors till christmas week and most sheep out first week april is a huge benefit here too... very short winter. our cows were often in early october.
Hopefully prices wll improve with the swing to dairying

I heard there's tagasc meetings to discuss/prepare lads for poor prices with all the extra calves about after low numbers exporter in spring....

was also talking to another lad,who's thinking getting into sheep/dairy,he has roughly 140 suckler cows (fattens all calves aswel)


But do hope this won't cause a flood to sheep and inevitable price collaspe

I have a suspicion that beef is in for a better run than sheep in the short term.. A well known ex meat baron hotelier farmer with a considerable holding here in the south east seems to think so anyway.

Siamsa Sessions

Willfarman wrote: »

I have a suspicion that beef is in for a better run than sheep in the short term.. A well known ex meat baron hotelier farmer with a considerable holding here in the south east seems to think so anyway.

You have our attention now!

Why does that man think beef is going to pick up in the short term?

For what it’s worth, I was thinking there might be less lambs on the ground for slaughter next June/July since the current breeding season is very wet and there’ll be fewer lambs conceived/born. So, that might mean a lift in price?

Birdnuts

Anyone else having problems with scuttery sheep in this weather??. I'm finding it very hard to keep this years lambs clean with all this heavy wet grass:(

Siamsa Sessions

Birdnuts wrote: »

Anyone else having problems with scuttery sheep in this weather??. I'm finding it very hard to keep this years lambs clean with all this heavy wet grass:(

Only ewe lambs we’re keeping are around at home now but there’s a few with “high dag scores” as the polite people say. Even a few sheep are kinda mucky around the business end. Grass is just going thru them.

Nearly all the ewes have been tipped at this stage but not a single ewe lamb has a raddle mark

Willfarman

Willfarman wrote: »

tomwaterford wrote: »

rangler1 wrote: »

Nothing in doors till christmas week and most sheep out first week april is a huge benefit here too... very short winter. our cows were often in early october.
Hopefully prices wll improve with the swing to dairying

I heard there's tagasc meetings to discuss/prepare lads for poor prices with all the extra calves about after low numbers exporter in spring....

was also talking to another lad,who's thinking getting into sheep/dairy,he has roughly 140 suckler cows (fattens all calves aswel)


But do hope this won't cause a flood to sheep and inevitable price collaspe

I have a suspicion that beef is in for a better run than sheep in the short term.. A well known ex meat baron hotelier farmer with a considerable holding here in the south east seems to think so anyway.

They bought 1000s of lambs for feeding into the spring trade up to this year but this year has seen the construction of a large shed to hold 1500 finishing cattle. (Starting to buy) Grassland has been ploughed to make way for whole crop wheat for next year. With regard to peak demand for next year just look up the Muslim festival calendar.

arctictree

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Only ewe lambs we’re keeping are around at home now but there’s a few with “high dag scores” as the polite people say. Even a few sheep are kinda mucky around the business end. Grass is just going thru them.

Nearly all the ewes have been tipped at this stage but not a single ewe lamb has a raddle mark

Exactly the same here. Silly question but could the ram have difficulty detecting heat if the ewe lambs are very dirty?

tomwaterford

Willfarman wrote: »

They bought 1000s of lambs for feeding into the spring trade up to this year but this year has seen the construction of a large shed to hold 1500 finishing cattle. (Starting to buy) Grassland has been ploughed to make way for whole crop wheat for next year. With regard to peak demand for next year just look up the Muslim festival calendar.

Alot of lads got burnt so bad at store lambs last year,it's no wonder there going away from it


Know a few who were left with bills over 50K after all sales etv that still had to be cleared

Bullocks

tomwaterford wrote: »

Alot of lads got burnt so bad at store lambs last year,it's no wonder there going away from it


Know a few who were left with bills over 50K after all sales etv that still had to be cleared

How many lambs would you want to have to loose 50k ? Seems a massive loss ....
EU10 loss each on 5000 lambs I suppose would do it