General sheep thread

First bit of fly strike here today. A hogget just swishing the tail. Clipped back and a big lump of maggots just about to break skin. Lucky to catch it as they're at the homeplace and I don't see them as often as I'd like (father checked every day but just to see none have 4 feet up 🤣)

thanks ya I haven’t put in the creep feeder until I get a handle on the lameness

Was hoping to avoid seperating lame ones because it’s so hard to find the mother/sibling of the lame one now that numbers are starting to fade but I’ll have to try !

I won’t do a blanket antibiotic treatment anyway, I’m completely against that because so many farms are getting antimicrobial resistance when they really need the antibiotic to work so I’ll avoid that route at all costs.

I’ll double down on the footbathing and hopefully I get ahead of it

I'd agree with you regarding the irresponsible use of antibiotics and worm doses , but I did say to consult your vet,

I've only once blanket injected and it was for abortion and it cured the lameness for the whole housing season as well.

We never got ahead of the lameness last year and it had a huge impact on lamb thrive

I've a lamb that fostering didn't work out so giving him a bottle 4 times a day getting 1.6 to 1.8ltrs in total.

He's getting Red Mills creep also but not eating that much of it for some reason so struggling to build it up as was hoping to wean him off milk when the current bag of frisky is gone. Not much more I can do I suppose. Only concern is I don't creep feed the lambs so when he goes back with the flock it will be only grass he will be getting so hoping he will do ok then.

He's not getting any Hay or Silage just the 4 bottles a day and fresh meal every day also.

He seems to eat the bits he likes out of the meal and leaves the rest the fussy little scut.

I didn’t look to get Draxxin from my vet but was discussing other drugs with him and asked it if was something they use. He said it was usually used in cases where nothing else worked.

So I was just curious if it was widely used by farmers or how effective it was against lameness.

Fair enough, that what i was told but again i have no experience of it.

It's absorbed by now, it lasts like 3 mths

The pink is a dye to help you know what is done, it usually disappears quick

We always test before dosing and it can range between 4 - 8 weeks. We dosed on the first of may and had to dose again today. The rule of thumb used to be 5, 8, and 12 weeks in march born lambs before the wormer resistance was a problem

you probably just need them sharpened & set right

That seems to be the run of it now, a good little earner for a good shearer that can do 30 - 40/hr

I was talking to my shearer at the weekend, he was telling me he did 1000 last week at €3, his ex isn't well so he has to bring his daughters , 11 and 13, with him and they got €90 each after school from the farmers over the week, One pushes up the sheep and the other packs the wool.

He'll have another shearer with him from now on

Working with a fella doing ground works here. He's on over 1000 a week. Not Dublin hours. Starts at 8, he lives 10 mins from work finishes at half 4 or before it. Said he cleared 1400 in 2 wee jibs he done in evenings and Saturday.

No late evenings, and he wouldn't be busted

Just as in any industry there are well and poorly paid, there are people on tills in a national supermarket very nearly grossing €1000 without overtime or weekend rate. But a work colleague may be on €12 / hour.

Construction work is more cyclical, so more prone to boom/bust. Also fewer youths are going the route of manual labour.

Tilers are clearing about €60 an hour gross, but work is still building up in front of them. ( they price by area ).

there is but they only treat adult liver fluke,(eg Zanil & Levafas Diamond) better to do both separately in my opinion

Would you always dose for fluke over the summer?

I thought dosing for fluke was an autumn/winter thing more so?

EDIT : What dose did you give em in the end?

Up here in NW if you have only middling ground you need to dose ewes for fluke right through the Summer in a wet year…….they can lose condition quickly if infested with fluke and they are trying to feed a lamb or lambs as well as looking after themselves.

Ya I’ll see if they improve but I’ll keep that in mind 👍

you can go to the sheep Ireland website and in the ram search section put in the tag number of the ram in the search by ram id place.

It will show how many stars they have now and if they are still eligible for the SIS scheme. I don’t think the are any rules about the same ram being sold multiple times to satisfy the SIS criteria for each new owner.

I did an FEC last week - tested for stomach worms & cocci. Tested positive for both. Dosed for stomach worms (clear dose)

Will test again after 2 weeks, to see how the dose did.

I didn't dose for cocci, as I read somewhere that cocci will always be present in low numbers, and only becomes a problem when something else is wrong. My hope is, the worm dose will clear them up and cocci will right itself…

I could be 100% wrong here - FEC results next week will tell I guess…

Lambs seem to be thriving, don't look drawn or dry in the wool that you sometimes see with cocci.

Would be interested to hear what others think, as I could be well wrong in what I did…