General sheep thread

It can be used instead of the dispatch book for farm to farm movements and after time will probably replace the dispatch book for marts and factory too

For those that are lambing now, do ye creep feed the lambs to get them away early? Looking at creep feeders and not convinced if they will pay

I lamb this time of year for work commitments, more time now but I get what you are saying

I lamb my few ewes at the end of January as it suits to get a week off work then..I give the lambs a bit of creep but wouldn't push them too hard..usually sell the end of May..

Good hay will stay good for 2 or 3 years so I’d give them the 2022 hay.

What sheep feeding barriers do people find best?

The guy that has my shed rented uses one 4 by 4 round bale per day with two hundred ewes, I use two round bales every five days with 70,

a round bale has 8 - 10 bales in them.

There's no cheap straw this year unless it's rotten.

Concrete floor, I used to have stone under sheep in another shed and it was no better than concrete once the floor sealed up with dung.

I dug it out eventually and put in Concrete

What spacing would you lads reccomemd for feed barriers?

Only have a few, but have a similar situation.

Debating keeping empties. Plan was to sell all empties. But like you say - sell em for maybe 100, and then have to replace come August for 150+

My final decision will be made come April, as should be able to carry en easy enough til then. But if I feel be cheaper to keep than replace, will keep…

How long was the ram out with the ewes? If he was long enough for the ewe to have been cycled and been tipped multiple times I would be wary of her in the future..if she was only tipped once and didn't hold I would be inclined to chance her on.as you said it won't cost much to keep her for the year

My ewes are eight weeks out from lambing, and have been getting .5kg ration for the last two weeks, theyre scanned now and the triplets will be put up to .75kg now and then up to a kilo/day from four weeks out . the doubles will be built up to kilo/day at about four weeks out, you have to build up slowly and make sure they clear the trough in five minutes, very easy to sicken them in this system,

Singles can get .5kg day now building up to .75kg/day at four weeks out and then 1kg/day at 2 weeks out

As you get nearer to lambing you can build the multiples up to 1.3kg/day if they can take it. don't give them anymore than .5kg in a feed which means you'll be feeding three times day near lambing.

Ration is far better for their digestion than nuts,

Scanned 84 ewes.

47 twins

17 singles

15 triplets

1 quad

4 empty

190% if my sums are correct

A lovely scan in one way but would prefer more twins of course! Disappointed with the 4 empty. They were with the one ram. I had them on a new bit of winter grazing post tipping and they went back a bit on it. I suspect some embryo loss there. One was an old sheep but others are 3 year olds.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, they were in 2 bunches of 42 with a ram in each bunch and I keep a spare ram too. Mostly Suffolk ewes now with some Belclare X Suffolk X Texel and a handful of Blue faced Leicester out of those Belclare X ewes. I have one 4 year old Cheviot X ewe that surprising scanned with triplets.

My sample of Cheviots couldn't be any smaller so I wouldn't really know the breed. I actually checked back her history, she's actually a 5 year old, born in 2019, had a single as a ewe lamb, twins as a 2 year old, single as a 3 year old, twins last year and scanned with 3 this year.