How Many Sheep To The Acre/Hectare?

mikefoxo

What would be a good number to have that would efficently be grazing the land without leaving youself in trouble if the weather turned sour? On fairly good ground (well apart from a few spots:D)

Username John

mikefoxo wrote: »

What would be a good number to have that would efficently be grazing the land without leaving youself in trouble if the weather turned sour? On fairly good ground (well apart from a few spots:D)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83027250

Depends on your system though I would imagine.

mikefoxo

When they say 10 do they mean 10 breeding ewes or would that include the lambs they would have?

iverjohnston

Ten ewes I would imagine. thats 4 per Acre, to those of us still using Old money! Thats enough to be going on with , in these kind of years. Add in between 6 and 7 lambs, per acre, and they will keep the grass under control!

rancher

mikefoxo wrote: »

When they say 10 do they mean 10 breeding ewes or would that include the lambs they would have?

Yea that's what I meant, 10 breeding ewes with their lambs/ha.
Was at the sheep conference in Kilkenny today...seems we should be aiming for 14/ha. Anyone else at it, really enjoyed it, met a lot of friends at it, had good crack

iverjohnston

Great idea all right. If every fellow with 50 Ha followed the thinking, he would keep 200 extra ewes. Depending on your soil type etc, might not pay you, when you were done buying extra fertilizer etc. Any thoughts at the conference how we would profitably market a 40% increase in production?
Dont know about you, and its been a while since I was at Ag College, but the thoughts of 700 ewes here on the home place would have me a nervous wreck! Plus 1000 lambs!

Unless people stop eating beef altogether!

rancher

iverjohnston wrote: »

Great idea all right. If every fellow with 50 Ha followed the thinking, he would keep 200 extra ewes. Depending on your soil type etc, might not pay you, when you were done buying extra fertilizer etc. Any thoughts at the conference how we would profitably market a 40% increase in production?
Dont know about you, and its been a while since I was at Ag College, but the thoughts of 700 ewes here on the home place would have me a nervous wreck! Plus 1000 lambs!

Unless people stop eating beef altogether!

Actually fair dues, I put that very question to the speaker.....that you would have to reseed 10% of the farm every year to keep up production and pay extra labour etc. at lambing.....would it be worth the effort.
It was Philip Creighton from Athenry that was pushing that, suppose that's the sort of research he's paid to do.
However from my side, when I get 750 lambs out of 500 ewes I don't want to see another ewe never mind 200.
Very poor outlook for lamb price this year, bord bia reckons that there has to be approx. 750000 lambs overhanging the market in England as well as extra newzealand lamb being imported. Pity anyone coming into sheep farming now

razor8

the SBV virus in the UK will reduce the numbers coming on stream over there, alot of lambs lost with it i believe

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

the SBV virus in the UK will reduce the numbers coming on stream over there, alot of lambs lost with it i believe

James murphy IFA said that yesterday , But he also said that its unsustainable for Irish sheep farmers to depend on outside disasters to get what is basically a minimum price for our lambs, ie, the price we got in 2011 because one million baby lambs were killed in Newzealand due to freak snow storms at lambing.
He also talked about young farmers lack of interest in sheep and the future for them, He said that when he looks for help to get in his lame sheep on his farm in Kilkenny, suddenly hurling becomes a lot more interesting. he also made the remark that there might be a lot of lame sheep in Kilkenny and that's why the hurling is so good..... thought it was good

razor8

We definitely need more export markets something bord bia need to explore rigorously but every foreign sheep disaster does help as much as its cruel to say

Username John

rancher wrote: »

Actually fair dues, I put that very question to the speaker.....that you would have to reseed 10% of the farm every year to keep up production and pay extra labour etc. at lambing.....would it be worth the effort.

Hi Rancher,

Not sure if I missed something in your comment - but what the response to your question? Or was the question not answered?

rancher wrote: »

Very poor outlook for lamb price this year, bord bia reckons that there has to be approx. 750000 lambs overhanging the market in England as well as extra new zealand lamb being imported. Pity anyone coming into sheep farming now

rancher

Username John wrote: »

Hi Rancher,

Not sure if I missed something in your comment - but what the response to your question? Or was the question not answered?

Philip said yes, but I cant see it, applied here I'd have to start reseeding...at 10% of farm per year would take ten years and costing 3000euro to do 10 acres it would be a long time to see a return...I remain to be convinced

drive it

This thing of 10 or 14 sheep per ha is alright if you have the land to support them I know if I tried that at 10 per ha I would have about 180 ewes on wet, rushy, north facing doub(not sure of spelling) and have animal welfare on the case.