General sheep thread

Green farmer

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Kerry buy roughly half their feed requirements from local cereal growers. Don't know about the rest.

Id say the barleys / oats are local, but things the soya bean hulls, maize and glutens, palm kernels, molasses etc comes into foynes and all the mills travel down with their artics.
Edit
I’m guessing even a lot of the barley / oats are imported as well. The Irish farmers probably wouldn’t be able to produce the shear quantity of stuff the mills churn out.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Green farmer wrote: »

Id say the barleys / oats are local, but things the soya bean hulls, maize and glutens, palm kernels, molasses etc comes into foynes and all the mills travel down with their artics.
Edit
I’m guessing even a lot of the barley / oats are imported as well. The Irish farmers probably wouldn’t be able to produce the shear quantity of stuff the mills churn out.

Yeah, just using Kerrys figures from 2016. It would be interesting to see who buys the imported stuff. And the poorer quality stuff would be interesting too.

Green farmer

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Yeah, just using Kerrys figures from 2016. It would be interesting to see who buys the imported stuff. And the poorer quality stuff would be interesting too.

I was talking to an old boy one day waiting to be loaded in the mill. He was waiting too. Anyway I said to him this mill make good stuff. He said their all the same and all their ingredients come in on the same boat. Said he lived in foynes. He see’s all their artics passing his door to the port every day. Have a look at the ingredients in the bag and try and buy whoever puts in more of the higher quality ingredients and fewer lower quality ones. You’d be surprised, a lot of them put in palm kernel and sunflower/rapeseed fairly high up on the list.

Siamsa Sessions

Bullocks wrote: »

Do we import grain for feed stuffs usually or are we self sufficient ?

Merchants/wholesalers definitely import grain but I'm not sure how much. The concentrates we used this year stated something like,"This product may contain GM ingredients."

It's another potential issue for Bord Bia and the green-washing brigade since the imported grain is not GM-free. Hence, they can't sell Irish products as GM-free.

There was something in the Journal last year about problems with Irish butter in Germany. As far as I remember, sales were dropping as it was being sold alongside GM-free butter and customers were opting for the GM-free stuff.

Lambman

Lambman wrote: »

Lambing slow till take off here despite a large number off ewes covered in the first week and raddle changed after 9 days there was that many covered... hopefully pick up soon tonight's the busiest so far... noticing a lot off rams being born especially twins with 20 sets off twins on the ground 16 is 2rams and the other 4 one off each.

Make it 25 sets off ram lambs 5 one off each never seen the likes off it... glad till have them alive all the same... brutal weather and shed and pens are moreless full... gonna have till bite the bullet and turn them till grass tomorrow... getting good cover on the ground now but there's not much shelter in the paddocks so might chance them on a small meadow till start off next week as it's more sheltered but hasn't much grass.

arctictree

I'm feeding outside now twice a day until the grass comes. Looks like some good growth forecast for this weekend.

charolais0153

arctictree wrote: »

I'm feeding outside now twice a day until the grass comes. Looks like some good growth forecast for this weekend.

A lot of rain friday though.

farawaygrass

charolais0153 wrote: »

A lot of rain friday though.

It’s like the middle of winter still.

Lambman

That's the strongest off them out this morning... bellys must be full there all lying happy as can be... Think tomorrow is mostly dry but bad weekend in store... thinking off leaving trailer open in field never did it before but see people at it would sheep be smart enough till use it? I have my doubts they'd be that smart!

Kevhog1988

Many of us feed beet pulp to sheep? Do ye soak first or feed dry??

Siamsa Sessions

theemigrant wrote: »

Many of us feed beet pulp to sheep? Do ye soak first or feed dry??

We’ve used the pellets before and you have to soak them in advance. Turns into flaky pulp then.

kk.man

Lambman wrote: »

That's the strongest off them out this morning... bellys must be full there all lying happy as can be... Think tomorrow is mostly dry but bad weekend in store... thinking off leaving trailer open in field never did it before but see people at it would sheep be smart enough till use it? I have my doubts they'd be that smart!

Not as stupid as u might think. I have a big double cattle troughs in ever field (help ewes scratching) and some lambs take shelter under them in the rain.

ganmo

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Merchants/wholesalers definitely import grain but I'm not sure how much. The concentrates we used this year stated something like,"This product may contain GM ingredients."

It's another potential issue for Bord Bia and the green-washing brigade since the imported grain is not GM-free. Hence, they can't sell Irish products as GM-free.

There was something in the Journal last year about problems with Irish butter in Germany. As far as I remember, sales were dropping as it was being sold alongside GM-free butter and customers were opting for the GM-free stuff.

That’s the soya beans. Very hard to get non gm soya

Bleating Lamb

Lambman wrote: »

That's the strongest off them out this morning... bellys must be full there all lying happy as can be... Think tomorrow is mostly dry but bad weekend in store... thinking off leaving trailer open in field never did it before but see people at it would sheep be smart enough till use it? I have my doubts they'd be that smart!

If you had a good few sets of twins and only lambs went up on the trailer or only one lamb from a set the poor ewes might get confused with the situation.

MeTheMan

Creep feeder doubles as a bit of shelter for the lambs. We have a small roofed one in each field at the start. Get them used to eating a bit and for some shelter. Longer open feeders come out then.

mcgiggles

kk.man wrote: »

Not as stupid as u might think. I have a big double cattle troughs in ever field (help ewes scratching) and some lambs take shelter under them in the rain.

Saw a post online that someone used a wheelie bin on its side when they were in a bind for coverage for lambs! every little helps!

arctictree

Lads, my last ewe to lamb was last Friday, I had 5 lamb that day. I have 10 left, mostly ewe lambs , all Scanned for singles but no lambs coming. Any idea how I can tell of they are in lamb? In my experience, the ewe lambs don't really 'bag up' so it's hard to tell. Getting sick of looking at them at this stage!

stantheman1979

Put your hand under them you should feel the lamb. If they’re due they will be making an udder. Have some patience:-)

ganmo

I’ve a lamb that’s a few days old and it’s blind. He has a kind of red mist over his eyes, no turned in eyelids. Any hope of his sight coming back?

mcgiggles

stantheman1979 wrote:

Put your hand under them you should feel the lamb. If they’re due they will be making an udder. Have some patience:-)

Must try this. We have one stubborn fkkr left with no sign of a bag yet :-)

Birdnuts

Got 2 lambs born last weekend with crusty red sores on their earlobes - would it be an orf type condition??

Lambman

Any body else's ewes slow in lambing only have 40% lambed in first 18 days... ewes with 2nd raddle colour lambing now but still a good 50% with first raffle colour till lamb... all scanned in lamb... seems till be the older ewes that's slower with hoggets lambing bang on time.

arctictree

Lads, finding a lot of lame lambs in the field. Been giving them Pen strep and it goes away after a few days. The real severe cases, all four limbs fecked, I have to put with the pets. Is this joint ill and any way to prevent?

sheepfarmer92

arctictree wrote: »

Lads, finding a lot of lame lambs in the field. Been giving them Pen strep and it goes away after a few days. The real severe cases, all four limbs fecked, I have to put with the pets. Is this joint ill and any way to prevent?

Id say it ls joint ill, all u can do is catch them and bring them in and pen strep or beta mox for a few days

charolais0153

Norpclav is drug for joint ill. Alamycin for lameness

stantheman1979

I’m getting crucified with joint ill this year myself. Sometimes 2 legs usually a week or 10 days old. Even mule lambs that were never in the shed. I’m giving them betamox in the field most of them clear up after two days treatment.

sheepfarmer92

stantheman1979 wrote: »

I’m getting crucified with joint ill this year myself. Sometimes 2 legs usually a week or 10 days old. Even mule lambs that were never in the shed. I’m giving them betamox in the field most of them clear up after two days treatment.

Always found betamox the best acting for joint ill

razor8

Noroclav is very good. Since I started using spectrum I never have a issue with joint Ill even though vets will tell you it’s not linked

Was going to chance not using it this year with all the talk of antibiotic resistantance. Didn’t do first 80 lambs and had one case and started using it straight away as had visions of running after lambs every evening injecting them and as a part time farmer I don’t have the time for it

I’d be curious to find out if anyone here using spectrum had any cases of joint I’ll??

Buford T. Justice XIX

razor8 wrote: »

Noroclav is very good. Since I started using spectrum I never have a issue with joint Ill even though vets will tell you it’s not linked

Was going to chance not using it this year with all the talk of antibiotic resistantance. Didn’t do first 80 lambs and had one case and started using it straight away as had visions of running after lambs every evening injecting them and as a part time farmer I don’t have the time for it

I’d be curious to find out if anyone here using spectrum had any cases of joint I’ll??

I've had no joint ill in donkeys years with lambs and using spectam with most of that time.

arctictree

razor8 wrote: »

Noroclav is very good. Since I started using spectrum I never have a issue with joint Ill even though vets will tell you it’s not linked

Was going to chance not using it this year with all the talk of antibiotic resistantance. Didn’t do first 80 lambs and had one case and started using it straight away as had visions of running after lambs every evening injecting them and as a part time farmer I don’t have the time for it

I’d be curious to find out if anyone here using spectrum had any cases of joint I’ll??

Use Spectam here and am having a lot of joint ill.