Light lambs and short on grass

Username John

Hello,
Weighed my lambs there this evening, and they are not doing well to be honest.
Also - I am looking at my weaned ewes, and they could do with some better grass, as they are a bit thin some of em.
And I don't know if I'll have enough grass to put enough weight on everything.

The annoying thing is I will prob have loads of grass in Oct, as I should have after-grass and reseeding up by then...

So the debate currently is
1) hold onto the lambs, accepting that they might only put on weight slowly over the next few months maybe
2) Sell the lighter lambs now as stores? What would 35kg lambs make in the mart?

Not sure what to do...

Thoughts? (I am thinking more towards option 1 above, but interested to hear other opinions)

DJ98

Username John wrote: »

Hello,
Weighed my lambs there this evening, and they are not doing well to be honest.
Also - I am looking at my weaned ewes, and they could do with some better grass, as they are a bit thin some of em.
And I don't know if I'll have enough grass to put enough weight on everything.

The annoying thing is I will prob have loads of grass in Oct, as I should have after-grass and reseeding up by then...

So the debate currently is
1) hold onto the lambs, accepting that they might only put on weight slowly over the next few months maybe
2) Sell the lighter lambs now as stores? What would 35kg lambs make in the mart?

Not sure what to do...

Thoughts? (I am thinking more towards option 1 above, but interested to hear other opinions)

I see people feeding silage and to light lambs now due to grass shortage

Ard_MC

Sell sell sell...with the store trade so good!!

eorna

They'll be worth a try in the mart, sure bring them home if not happy and go back to option 1.
( you also have option 3 that is to feed them lambs)

Birdnuts

DJ98 wrote: »

I see people feeding silage and to light lambs now due to grass shortage

I'm in that boat - no summer in North Mayo this year so struggled to keep grass ahead of stock:(

sea12

Similar story myself john. Never had so many lambs left at this dtGe. They are all light due to poor grass growth. Should have plenty of grass in 3-4 weeks time.

Think I I'll try hold onto them. Price always starts to creep up from October

Username John

eorna wrote: »

They'll be worth a try in the mart, sure bring them home if not happy and go back to option 1.
( you also have option 3 that is to feed them lambs)

Yes and no - the price would want to be shocking bad to bring em home, as I'd have to pay someone to take em, regardless of if they sold or not.
I'd be very reluctant to bring em home again really... But, as you say it's an option...

Username John

sea12 wrote: »

Similar story myself john. Never had so many lambs left at this dtGe. They are all light due to poor grass growth. Should have plenty of grass in 3-4 weeks time.

Think I I'll try hold onto them. Price always starts to creep up from October

My lamb thrive has been shocking for July and August. The grass hasn't been too bad, but it seems to be running through em. They were dosed about 3 weeks ago, and while they needed it, they looked dirtier after getting it than before, just from grass...

On one hand I think selling stores would be maybe the smart thing to do, but I'd prefer to finish em myself, if I could. I accept that's a bit of stubbornness on my part, but the plan was to factory em, so selling em store somehow seems cheating...
But we'll do some sums, make some calls, see what stores are making and we'll let that decide...

Thanks all...

Bullocks

Would a pinch of nuts help keep them thriving better or would it pay ?

razor8

If they were dry looking lack of cobalt could be a problem, do you supplement minerals at all?

Username John

razor8 wrote: »

If they were dry looking lack of cobalt could be a problem, do you supplement minerals at all?

Gave em cobalt last night.

They got a bolus a month ago, but I dunno did it do the job. Some of looked a bit wirey in the wool all right...
I don't think I'll be going the bolus route again, think the dose every few weeks is better (although more work all right)

EDIT : I'll see how they do now with the cobalt. But I have some of that growvite stuff, and I might try that if they still spin bad. Used it on the ewes last year and I thought 'twas good, but it's hard to know too... (I think you used it as well did you Razor?)

Username John

Bullocks wrote: »

Would a pinch of nuts help keep them thriving better or would it pay ?

It would help, but there are a bit if a mix of weights, so I dunno would it pay...

If I was keeping em, I'd nearly look to keep em tickin over on grass for another while. The weight gain is poor, bit it's cheap too...
Then maybe start giving em a bit of ration or barley October time, to have em ready for factory after Christmas.

The only thing is the ewes, and they'll be going with the ram end October, so could do with good grass now too...

razor8

Username John wrote: »

Gave em cobalt last night.

They got a bolus a month ago, but I dunno did it do the job. Some of looked a bit wirey in the wool all right...
I don't think I'll be going the bolus route again, think the dose every few weeks is better (although more work all right)

EDIT : I'll see how they do now with the cobalt. But I have some of that growvite stuff, and I might try that if they still spin bad. Used it on the ewes last year and I thought 'twas good, but it's hard to know too... (I think you used it as well did you Razor?)

Someone explained the use of bolus's very well on another forum using a 5 rail gate analogy

You need to get lambs across the gate to get them thriving and bolus's are supposed to lift them around two rails

So if you are starting at rail one bolus will only get you to rail 3 and you won't see a significant difference but if you are starting at 3 and bolus gets you to 5 you will

I used a 6 month bolus back in June then at end of July I thought they were getting dry looking. I gave them a mineral drench 1 wk apart and it transformed the lambs and they have a lovely yellow bloom in the wool now. From previous grass tests I know cobalt levels are on the floor here. Bolus's are a slow release and should be considered more for maintainance of levels IMO so il probably drench along with bolus next year.

I gave the growvite to ewes pre tubbing last year at about 1.5 recommended dose and it defentitely made a difference

Username John

razor8 wrote: »

Someone explained the use of bolus's very well on another forum using a 5 rail gate analogy

You need to get lambs across the gate to get them thriving and bolus's are supposed to lift them around two rails

So if you are starting at rail one bolus will only get you to rail 3 and you won't see a significant difference but if you are starting at 3 and bolus gets you to 5 you will

I used a 6 month bolus back in June then at end of July I thought they were getting dry looking. I gave them a mineral drench 1 wk apart and it transformed the lambs and they have a lovely yellow bloom in the wool now. From previous grass tests I know cobalt levels are on the floor here. Bolus's are a slow release and should be considered more for maintainance of levels IMO so il probably drench along with bolus next year.

I gave the growvite to ewes pre tubbing last year at about 1.5 recommended dose and it defentitely made a difference

I think we read the same websites razor

Yeah, hopefully now the cobalt dose will do the job. We'll see... If it does the job, we'll try to keep em well topped up with it...

razor8

The cobalt will only last a week in them so it maybe the second or third dose before you start seeing an improvement IMO

It's a lot cheaper to keep in the minerals in them than spending money on meal to get them shifted

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

I think we read the same websites razor

Yeah, hopefully now the cobalt dose will do the job. We'll see... If it does the job, we'll try to keep em well topped up with it...

I spread a bag of CAN/ac a fortnight ago and it kicked off the grass well here.
Nitrogen increases the leaf as well as the bulk so it helps the thrive, also they'll need less area which will leave more for the ewes.
It's very expensive to finish light lambs on meal, better to let them grow into weight on grass and maybe introduce meals at 37+kg.

Green farmer

Maybe offload a % of the lambs john. Will leave more grass for the ones left behind. All the vitamins in the world won't solve your issues if you don't have enough grass. The other thing you might factor in is grass for flushing ewes in autumn, with an eye on a decent lamb crop next year.

Username John

Green farmer wrote: »

Maybe offload a % of the lambs john. Will leave more grass for the ones left behind. All the vitamins in the world won't solve your issues if you don't have enough grass. The other thing you might factor in is grass for flushing ewes in autumn, with an eye on a decent lamb crop next year.

Should be ok for flushing, as have a reseed coming through now.

But it's just having some good(ish) grass for the ewes, to put some flesh on them before they go to the ram is my issue...