Sheep mineral blocks/buckets

horsemad

Hi there
Just wondering what are the best source of minerals for sheep that have been housed and due to lamb in the next month.
Any idea of cost as I am in a small sheep area and hard to get anything

Username John

horsemad wrote: »

Hi there
Just wondering what are the best source of minerals for sheep that have been housed and due to lamb in the next month.
Any idea of cost as I am in a small sheep area and hard to get anything

I have used lifeline buckets in the past, and I found them good enough, I plan to use them again this year.
http://www.uniblock.ie/products.html

You could give uniblock a ring, and see who stocks them in your area. I would imagine even in a non sheep area, uniblock would supply cattle licks, so it should be easy enough to order them somewhere.

Others might have different recommendations though.

As for cost, not sure, but I would guess somewhere around €20 per bucket.

sea12

As for cost, not sure, but I would guess somewhere around €20 per bucket.[/Quote]

Hi john I pay €16 per bucket.

Username John

sea12 wrote: »

As for cost, not sure, but I would guess somewhere around €20 per bucket.

Hi john I pay €16 per bucket.[/Quote]

Hi Sea,

Thanks for that.
Twas last year when I got em last and I wasn't sure of the price now. Will be getting a few now in the next few weeks I guess...

Are you lambing at the minute Sea?

jomoloney

Was looking for the lifeline buckets myself but not available locally, lambing started last Friday with about 45 lambs born so far,

I noticed that the lambs are sluggish enough for the first few hours, but seem to kick after that, feeding about .75kg of 18% nut to the ewes along with silage but might up it a bit,


ewes were bolused pre tupping and are fairly good nick but the lambs seems to lacking

at this stage would the buckets help?

Username John

jomoloney wrote: »

Was looking for the lifeline buckets myself but not available locally, lambing started last Friday with about 45 lambs born so far,

I noticed that the lambs are sluggish enough for the first few hours, but seem to kick after that, feeding about .75kg of 18% nut to the ewes along with silage but might up it a bit,


ewes were bolused pre tupping and are fairly good nick but the lambs seems to lacking

at this stage would the buckets help?

Hello JoMaloney

I should start by saying I'm not at sheep farming that long (which is really what you want to read at the start of a response)

You'd think that the sheep would be getting enough minerals from the nut (assuming its a ewe nut they're getting)

But - having said that - for the sake of 50euro, you'd have 3 buckets, and you should see if they help or not.

We normally used the mineral buckets, but last year, I did the same as yourself - bolused and no mineral buckets, I had some issues, which I think might have been solved with the mineral buckets. But I couldn't say that for certain (and I don't want to be scaring you)

If I was you, I would get them.

Hope the lambing goes well for you.

Insp. Harry Callahan

Our policy for minerals to ewes is pre tupping all ewes get a good mineral dose(ie thriver) and then have one of those green lid mineral buckets with them till tupping is finished,
Then when housing(Christmas time)start feeding small amount of home mixed ration which has bagged sheep minerals included, sometimes feed ewe nuts also. After lambing when go to grass, they get access to a high mag(orange lid) bucket in the field. Find this all works well

tabby aspreme

[Quote=jomoloney;

I noticed that the lambs are sluggish enough for the first few hours, but seem to kick after that, feeding about .75kg of 18% nut to the ewes along with silage but might up it a bit,
[/Quote]

Check the protein source in the nut, soya is best. Some breeds of sheep have a tendency to be sluggish at birth ,

jomoloney

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Check the protein source in the nut, soya is best. Some breeds of sheep have a tendency to be sluggish at birth ,

thanks , think you're right about the breeds had the first of the vendeens this morning, twins were big & tangled up inside her, thought the second fellow was gonner , yet when i left them for a few minutes both were trying to get up and suck

much check the nuts also used the same nut last and the ewes seemed to have more milk lambing down , don't want up feeding too much as the lambs are big , looks like ewe is putting it into the lamb


have 40 acres closed since mid October to let the ewes and lambs on to , yesterday evening about 15 acres were under water

DMAXMAN

jomoloney wrote: »

thanks , think you're right about the breeds had the first of the vendeens this morning, twins were big & tangled up inside her, thought the second fellow was gonner , yet when i left them for a few minutes both were trying to get up and suck

much check the nuts also used the same nut last and the ewes seemed to have more milk lambing down , don't want up feeding too much as the lambs are big , looks like ewe is putting it into the lamb


have 40 acres closed since mid October to let the ewes and lambs on to , yesterday evening about 15 acres were under water

ewes slightly lacking in milk is a sign of protein deficiency, possibly your silage is not as good as last year. you could try sprinkling 50grams of soya per head per day on their silage to increase protein % of their diet