sheep for the winter

Muckit

I was toying with the idea of buying in a few sheep to eat off old butt of grass over the winter.

But the thing is.... l know jack sh*t about the little wooly buggers. I'd be thinking about 20 max.

Am l mad??

ganmo

yes but all sheep farmers are :P

Farrell

Muckit wrote: »

I was toying with the idea of buying in a few sheep to eat off old butt of grass over the winter.

But the thing is.... l know jack sh*t about the little wooly buggers. I'd be thinking about 20 max.

Am l mad??

Go for it, you may regret if you don't (what if & all), while if you do & even if problems think of the knowledge gained

razor8

Nothing to lose really, if they start giving trouble just get rid of them again, how's the boundary fences?

20 across how many acres?

Muckit

They'd have the run of 30 acres. Maybe 15 would be enough? Really l haven't a clue. Plus what would l be buying? The more I think about it the more this is a bad idea!!

AP2014

Muckit wrote: »

They'd have the run of 30 acres. Maybe 15 would be enough? Really l haven't a clue. Plus what would l be buying? The more I think about it the more this is a bad idea!!

In a similar situation. Neighbour wants to throw a few on my land. Big problem is I don't have the fences for it.

Wondering the advantages/disadvantages?

Clean the rough grass, help neighbour, get a few pound.

Disadvantages?

ganmo

you've 3 options
store lambs(pricey atm)
ewe lambs(gives you more options than stores)
feeding ewes(should be the cheapest and riskiest imo)

MayoAreMagic

You could buy some decent quality broken mouths, put them in lamb, let them eat the grass over the winter and sell them as ewes with lambs at foot. With good grass under them they should do well. Or if you don't fancy lambing them, scan them and sell them in-lamb. You could get the loan of a ram for a few weeks handy enough I would say.

Another option is to buy ewe lambs and sell them as hoggets. This might sound the most straight forward, but nothing will keel over faster than ewe lambs for a guy that doesn't have experience of dosing and disease prevention. Saying that, there isn't much involved in this - 2 shots of heptavac p+, 3 fluke doses over the winter and a worm dose to catch worms coming out of the autumn. Trimming any strong briars in the field would be worth doing too. Might sound like a lot but nothing to it in all honesty.


Or you could rent it out to a neighbour and put the feet up

k mac

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

You could buy some decent quality broken mouths, put them in lamb, let them eat the grass over the winter and sell them as ewes with lambs at foot. With good grass under them they should do well. Or if you don't fancy lambing them, scan them and sell them in-lamb. You could get the loan of a ram for a few weeks handy enough I would say.

Another option is to buy ewe lambs and sell them as hoggets. This might sound the most straight forward, but nothing will keel over faster than ewe lambs for a guy that doesn't have experience of dosing and disease prevention. Saying that, there isn't much involved in this - 2 shots of heptavac p+, 3 fluke doses over the winter and a worm dose to catch worms coming out of the autumn. Trimming any strong briars in the field would be worth doing too. Might sound like a lot but nothing to it in all honesty.


Or you could rent it out to a neighbour and put the feet up

Why is there a need to trim the briars ?

Nekarsulm

Cause sheep get tangled up in them. (as you and every sheep knows, there is always a tastier bit just through the hedge)

5live

AP2014 wrote: »

In a similar situation. Neighbour wants to throw a few on my land. Big problem is I don't have the fences for it.

Wondering the advantages/disadvantages?

Clean the rough grass, help neighbour, get a few pound.

Disadvantages?

Advantages. Getting to meet the neighbours often.

Disadvantages. Getting to meet the neighbours often.

Cutting briars very important so lambs don't get stuck in them.

Nekarsulm

Also handy for a bit of pre season training. Nothing like short sprints and sudden direction changes while wearing wellies , pull ups and a top coat.

DarByrne1980

as da lads are saying. Fencing is a priority and get briars and stuff cut back. If you have to go and get fencing done and sort out briars and gates etc then you might be as well off just setting out the land for the year. What do you do wit those 30 acres the rest of the year?

MayoAreMagic

You cut back the briars because lambs tend to get tangled up in them a lot and die. It isn't a big deal to cut them back though. Just cut the stalks fine and far back and then spray a bit of round up onto the open stalks. A mr muscle bottle or something along those lines is perfect for the job. You don't even have to bother with the roundup but it is a better job and for the sake of a minute or two extra on each bunch it would be worth your while.