General sheep thread

Sheep breeder

Was a sheep meeting back in the day and frank Crosby was at it and a guy asked the question about his ewes lacking milk and what was the problem and frank answer was simple Hunger.
We are using a 20% ration at 270 in the yard and always have the ewes strong before lambing, a weak ewe can’t lamb,milk, and rear lambs.

wrangler

Sheep breeder wrote: »

Was a sheep meeting back in the day and frank Crosby was at it and a guy asked the question about his ewes lacking milk and what was the problem and frank answer was simple Hunger.
We are using a 20% ration at 270 in the yard and always have the ewes strong before lambing, a weak ewe can’t lamb,milk, and rear lambs.

[ always did well with Flynns( mullingar) they've sold the business now and I've changed to Grennans , Hopefully it's good now, it reads well 330 delivered in bags

charolais0153

wrangler wrote: »

[ always did well with Flynns( mullingar) they've sold the business now and I've changed to Grennans , Hopefully it's good now, it reads well 330 delivered in bags

Changed to grennans from kiernans this year. Big difference from soyabean at 5th on the list to top.

Mineral content is lower than the likes of nutrias or kiernans though so had to buy a few bags of loose minerals

Lambman

Doing a bitta reading up on housing sheep there last nite before housing today and one thing keeps popping up is putting sheep in prior till lambing reduces gestation length could this be true?

wrangler

charolais0153 wrote: »

Changed to grennans from kiernans this year. Big difference from soyabean at 5th on the list to top.

Mineral content is lower than the likes of nutrias or kiernans though so had to buy a few bags of loose minerals

Yea, as I said it reads well,
Use a lot of meal here so they get loads of minerals, I'd be feeding 30% more meal to compensate for the straw

Hard Knocks

wrangler wrote: »

There'd be oats in most rations, no need to add oats.

Do you scan and divide the multiples from the singles,
IF you don't you'll get big lambs if you feed the singles and triplets the same amount

Yes scan, never separated, generally don’t have problems with the singles, more the doubles.
Although this year a single which was supposed to be a double was caught at head.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Sheep breeder wrote: »

Was a sheep meeting back in the day and frank Crosby was at it and a guy asked the question about his ewes lacking milk and what was the problem and frank answer was simple Hunger.
We are using a 20% ration at 270 in the yard and always have the ewes strong before lambing, a weak ewe can’t lamb,milk, and rear lambs.

Nice man, Frank, but he must be near 80 now?

wrangler

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Nice man, Frank, but he must be near 80 now?

Frank Crosby always told us that when he started working the national average lamb crop was 1.3 lambs/ewe and after 30years the national average is ....1.3lambs/ewe

Siamsa Sessions

Lambman wrote: »

Doing a bitta reading up on housing sheep there last nite before housing today and one thing keeps popping up is putting sheep in prior till lambing reduces gestation length could this be true?

Housed for first time here this year and gestation isn’t shorter. Due to start any day but it’ll be another 4-5 days before the craic gets going. Using a Charollais ram and a few lads here said they have longer gestation so have to bear that in mind too

Bleating Lamb

Important to get a good 18% nut though that has soya bean as one of main ingredients to boost quality of colostrum and initial milk.
Not always possible to get accurate breakdown of nuts but imo you need high soya level to make the difference for milk:

Bleating Lamb

Important to get a good 18% nut though that has soya bean as one of main ingredients to boost quality of colostrum and initial milk.
Not always possible to get accurate breakdown of nuts but imo you need high soya level to make the difference for milk:

Lambman

Yea used charrlois here aswell and it's true longer gestation there like the limousine in cattle carry longer but you'll have as good if not a better end product

White Clover

Charollais ram here too. The longer they stay in the ewes this year the better, with the way the weather is!
First ewes tipped on 10th Oct, when could I expect lambs?

charolais0153

White Clover wrote: »

Charollaois ram here too. The longer they stay in the ewes this year the better, with the way the weather is!
First ewes tipped on 10th Oct, when could I expect lambs?

First week of march

White Clover

charolais0153 wrote: »

First week of march

Hopefully it'll be the second half of the week!

White Clover

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, as I said it reads well,
Use a lot of meal here so they get loads of minerals, I'd be feeding 30% more meal to compensate for the straw

What rates are you feeding now wrangler if you don't mind?

wrangler

White Clover wrote: »

What rates are you feeding now wrangler if you don't mind?

Adults
Doubles and triplets 1.4kg/day
Singles .9kg/day

Yearlings
Doubles 1.25kg/day.
Singles .9kg/day
These were all increased very gradually and are all in three feeds.

White Clover

wrangler wrote: »

Adults
Doubles and triplets 1.4kg/day
Singles .9kg/day

Yearlings
Doubles 1.25kg/day.
Singles .9kg/day
These were all increased very gradually and are all in three feeds.

Thanks wrangler.

roosky

wrangler wrote: »

Adults
Doubles and triplets 1.4kg/day
Singles .9kg/day

Yearlings
Doubles 1.25kg/day.
Singles .9kg/day
These were all increased very gradually and are all in three feeds.

I assume they are only getting straw along with that?

wrangler

roosky wrote: »

I assume they are only getting straw along with that?

Yea, 80 getting a round bale every three to four days

Hard Knocks

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, 80 getting a round bale every three to four days

Would you give as much if they were on grass?

wrangler

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Would you give as much if they were on grass?

I don't feed any ewes outdoors in late pregnancy, they're always indoors so wouldn't know much about feeding outdoors.
I doubt they'd eat any straw if they were on grass, it's only because they have nothing else that they eat it indoors.
If you have grass the sheep wouldn't need that level of meal feeding either, you'd feed meal according to the amount and quality of grass available, as I said I wouldn't have a clue in that situation

Forgot to say that my ewes are due to start lambing on the 1st march

roosky

wrangler Your system seems very simple.....in a good way !

So my general feeding would be feed twins from seven weeks out, rising from 0.2 kg to 0.7/0.8 kg/day

If I used your system I think you said before you would give 0.5kg to replace the silage/hay so that would be 0.7kg rising to 1.3kg /day???

A few questions, if you don't want to answer them I understand:

1. do you make any silage at all,
2. How long are they housed,
3. have you any idea how much straw you use per ewe
4. how much meal do you end up feeding as in kg per ewe.

My last two questions are based on the fact im sick of feeding silage and want to try your approach but just want see the cost implications.

Thanks.

charolais0153

roosky wrote: »

wrangler Your system seems very simple.....in a good way !

So my general feeding would be feed twins from seven weeks out, rising from 0.2 kg to 0.7/0.8 kg/day

If I used your system I think you said before you would give 0.5kg to replace the silage/hay so that would be 0.7kg rising to 1.3kg /day???

A few questions, if you don't want to answer them I understand:

1. do you make any silage at all,
2. How long are they housed,
3. have you any idea how much straw you use per ewe
4. how much meal do you end up feeding as in kg per ewe.

My last two questions are based on the fact im sick of feeding silage and want to try your approach but just want see the cost implications.

Thanks.

Why are u sick of feeding silage?

roosky

charolais0153 wrote: »

Why are u sick of feeding silage?

A few reasons:

Terrible summer meant silage is wet !

I have had 3 or 4 cases of listeria

I am working away from home so coming home and starting into opening bales and graping silage is a pain.

wrangler

roosky wrote: »

wrangler Your system seems very simple.....in a good way !

So my general feeding would be feed twins from seven weeks out, rising from 0.2 kg to 0.7/0.8 kg/day

If I used your system I think you said before you would give 0.5kg to replace the silage/hay so that would be 0.7kg rising to 1.3kg /day???

A few questions, if you don't want to answer them I understand:

1. do you make any silage at all,
2. How long are they housed,
3. have you any idea how much straw you use per ewe
4. how much meal do you end up feeding as in kg per ewe.

My last two questions are based on the fact im sick of feeding silage and want to try your approach but just want see the cost implications.

Thanks.

Like you I got sick of feeding silage and between my age and the fact that my sheds didn't lend themselves to mechanisation I started to look at alternatives.
Straw/concentrates is expensive but also convenient, you should be able to work out your own costs.
My sheep would be in about 110 -120 days so at .5kg/day extra meal it's 50kg extra or €15 extra on what you would usually have been feeding any way.
The straw usage here would be about half a bale per ewe over the 110 days,
When the tunnel was full it had 200 ewes and used a bale/day.

I don't make silage so the grazing/fertilising system had to change too, spreading nitrogen in April was a disaster because the grass would go out of control in may so I'D go with a bag of CAN first week of march only and no more until end of august
That was at a stocking rate of 5ewes/acre....sometimes a paddock would go out control and a neighbour would take it for silage at €8 bale and i'd just spend what I'd get on 10 10 20, but that'd only happen once every 2 or 3 years....selling silage is a waste of time.
That was my system, only farmng 12 acres now so going to try 7ewes/acre this year :eek:

Green farmer

Followed wrangers system here last year when I ran out of silage and it worked out fine. Due to run out of silage again here in 7 days time, but going to lamb them out in April this year so will have to tweak system. Did the figures before and think if your paying any more then €25 a bale for silage, then it’s just as cheap to go the meal route. Added benefit of knowing exactly what their getting into them from the consistently of meal, has its benefits as well.

razor8

Just done a few match box calculations. My indoor feeding regime is about 60days pre lambing as ewes away on winter grazing until mid January

If 200 ewes are fed 0.5kg extra to substitute silage for 60 days @280 a ton = €1620

200 ewes using a bales of straw a day @€;22 a bales in this end of country for 60 days = €1320

In that 60 days period 200 ewes would eat 60 bales of silage at a cost of €14 a bales is €980

Bedding straw for that period, this is costing me €18 and il use 30 bales = €540

So straw plus meal is €2940
Silage and straw is €1520

That’s €1420 extra cost working out @€;7.1 a ewe

Still a significant difference but obviously I could stock more ewes to acre if making no silage. Could I keep extra 40 ewes on same land selling 1.6 lambs €100 a piece would be an extra €6,800 without costs. At a cost of keeping a ewe €100 that’s €2800 in the bank

It’s a head scratcher!!

wrangler

razor8 wrote: »

Just done a few match box calculations. My indoor feeding regime is about 60days pre lambing as ewes away on winter grazing until mid January

If 200 ewes are fed 0.5kg extra to substitute silage for 60 days @280 a ton = €1620

200 ewes using a bales of straw a day @€;22 a bales in this end of country for 60 days = €1320

In that 60 days period 200 ewes would eat 60 bales of silage at a cost of €14 a bales is €980

Bedding straw for that period, this is costing me €18 and il use 30 bales = €540

So straw plus meal is €2940
Silage and straw is €1520

That’s €1420 extra cost working out @€;7.1 a ewe

Still a significant difference but obviously I could stock more ewes to acre if making no silage. Could I keep extra 40 ewes on same land selling 1.6 lambs €100 a piece would be an extra €6,800 without costs. At a cost of keeping a ewe €100 that’s €2800 in the bank

It’s a head scratcher!!

I reckoned That silage at 25/bale (which I think is nearer to the true cost) is the same cost as ration at 300 and straw at 15 same as Green farmer....or very little in the difference. You're fortunate to be able to rent land for winter, I tried strip grazing grass here for a few winters and it destroyed the ryegrass in the sward, (hence the tunnel).
Apart from that, we've no dependants, pay a lot of tax , hate forking silage and were looking for an easier life.

razor8

We always try and justify our own system but €25 for silage if making your own seems excessive to me. Granted you won’t buy quality for less than that