General sheep thread

Sami23

roosky wrote: »

Now, if its not too much hassle for you i would not wean anything over 40kg and try to get them to factory off the ewe as it will take little time at this stage.

For the rest of the flock wean them, tighten the ewes up and give lambs the best of the grass

That's sounds like a good plan.
Will be weighing them Saturday so will take it from there.
I had some sold this time last year so they didn't do as well for me this year

wrangler

Sami23 wrote: »

That's sounds like a good plan.
Will be weighing them Saturday so will take it from there.
I had some sold this time last year so they didn't do as well for me this year

We have the ewes grazing after the lambs here and working great,
We weaned 12 days ago and they gained 380gms/day since....which is a record for here.

razor8

wrangler wrote: »

We have the ewes grazing after the lambs here and working great,
We weaned 12 days ago and they gained 380gms/day since....which is a record for here.

On small acres do the lambs and ewes not be unsettled after weaning so close to each other?

wrangler

razor8 wrote: »

On small acres do the lambs and ewes not be unsettled after weaning so close to each other?

They seemed happy enough to lie either side of the electric fence, roared a bit the first night alright, I think the ewes were glad to be rid

charolais0153

wrangler wrote: »

They seemed happy enough to lie either side of the electric fence, roared a bit the first night alright, I think the ewes were glad to be rid

Lambs grazing aftergrass here..... Leaving nothing for ewes so there is 90 odd ewes in 2 acres for last 2 weeks

DJ98

Looking at increasing numbers here this year along with keeping the majority of the ewe lambs, I was wondering if it would be best to buy hogget ewes or 3 and 4 year olds?

charolais0153

DJ98 wrote: »

Looking at increasing numbers here this year along with keeping the majority of the ewe lambs, I was wondering if it would be best to buy hogget ewes or 3 and 4 year olds?

Id buy hoggetts...

thelegend1979

Id buy hoggets too. With good maternal breeding and they should be fine. Hard to beat young sheep. Very hard to get genuine older breeding ewes these days. Men would take great pride in having good 2nd crop ewes at marts years ago. That day is gone and its basically ewe hoggets and culls or ewes that should be culled.

early_riser

Increased numbers here a few year ago with mostly 3 and 4 year old ewes but i knew they were genuine sheep as they came from 2 flocks that the owners were retiring. Got a great crop of lambs from them and most reared their lambs, too many young ewes and first time mothers when you increase flock could be a lot of work come lambing time so id be inclined to get some hoggets and older ewes aswell if i was you

DJ98

What are the signs of good quality hay that would be suitable for ewes and young suck calves?

ganmo

DJ98 wrote: »

What are the signs of good quality hay that would be suitable for ewes and young suck calves?

You want plenty of leaf and stick a hand or an iron bar into the middle of the bale to check the heat. too much heat will give ya dusty hay

Sami23

ganmo wrote: »

You want plenty of leaf and stick a hand or an iron bar into the middle of the bale to check the heat. too much heat will give ya dusty hay

Is a little heat in bales after baling ok or should there be no heat at all if it was fit to bale in first place ?

Green farmer

Creed has come out defending his eid On farm Ireland this morning, says it offers labour saving to farmers. Amazes he how far out of touch this man is with the small farmer on the ground. Maybe for the 2% that tag at birth, but for the other 98% that tag going out the gate, it only adds cost to everything. Pure waste of time and money.

Siamsa Sessions

Green farmer wrote: »

Creed has come out defending his eid On farm Ireland this morning, says it offers labour saving to farmers. Amazes he how far out of touch this man is with the small farmer on the ground. Maybe for the 2% that tag at birth, but for the other 98% that tag going out the gate, it only adds cost to everything. Pure waste of time and money.

One size fits all and the world has only one type of farmer according to these men in suits.

ganmo

Sami23 wrote: »

Is a little heat in bales after baling ok or should there be no heat at all if it was fit to bale in first place ?

Little heat

J.O. Farmer

Green farmer wrote: »

Creed has come out defending his eid On farm Ireland this morning, says it offers labour saving to farmers. Amazes he how far out of touch this man is with the small farmer on the ground. Maybe for the 2% that tag at birth, but for the other 98% that tag going out the gate, it only adds cost to everything. Pure waste of time and money.

Labour saving????

The only way it saves labour is if you have all the recording equipment and electronic drafting etc. What percentage of sheep farmers have those.

For everyone else it's extra labour. Instead of 1 tag in every sheep it's 2. Workload instantly doubled when tagging. It's probably even more than that for lads firing in factory tags with them semi automatic taggers.

Green farmer

I cannt see it saving any labour for anyone other then Larry being able to cut down on a few jobs, while everyone’s else pays for it.

Hard Knocks

Green farmer wrote: »

I cannt see it saving any labour for anyone other then Larry being able to cut down on a few jobs, while everyone’s else pays for it.

You could see despatch dockets going paperless with every farmer giving 1 rid reader with marts & factories being the winners

Cran

Hard Knocks wrote: »

You could see despatch dockets going paperless with every farmer giving 1 rid reader with marts & factories being the winners

Needs department to go electronic for that to happen, and official stance is no plans for that.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Cran wrote: »

Needs department to go electronic for that to happen, and official stance is no plans for that.

The whole idea for moving to a wholly numeric tagging system was so everything would go electronic in the end.

Sheep are just the thin end of the wedge, pigs next probably and cattle last.

Cran

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

The whole idea for moving to a wholly numeric tagging system was so everything would go electronic in the end.

Sheep are just the thin end of the wedge, pigs next probably and cattle last.

Correct but info from dept is no plans for dispatch dockets & their systems to go electronic as in UK

arctictree

Anyone know roughly how much weight gain a kilo of nuts would give lambs? Just trying to work out the economics of feeding them.

Green farmer

roughly when you bring em to the factory, the extra weight they put on, half goes to you and half goes to paying for the meal.

AntrimGlens

arctictree wrote: »

Anyone know roughly how much weight gain a kilo of nuts would give lambs? Just trying to work out the economics of feeding them.

think the figure used was 7kg of meal for 1kg of weight gain, iirc

wrangler

AntrimGlens wrote: »

think the figure used was 7kg of meal for 1kg of weight gain, iirc

Feeding meals also increases KO by up to 5%, which helps the conversion rate too

2OldBoots

Can anyone tell me if the sheep fencing grant is still available?

Siamsa Sessions

2OldBoots wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the sheep fencing grant is still available?

Yes, TAMS is still open and will be into 2019 too: https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/farmingschemesandpayments/farmbuildings/tamsiisupportdocs/TAMSIITrancheDatesupdateJune27062018.pdf

Dinzee Conlee

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Yes, TAMS is still open and will be into 2019 too: https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/farmingschemesandpayments/farmbuildings/tamsiisupportdocs/TAMSIITrancheDatesupdateJune27062018.pdf

I didn’t think it was - cos the uptake the last time it was available was so bad...

But, am open to correction on that...

2OldBoots

Thanks

arctictree

Going to spray the ewes this evening. I notice a good few with big cuts on them where they are scratching and surrounded by flies. Same with some of the weaned ewes with sores on their udders. Weather can't help either.