Sheep in or out?

eorna

Ewes in silage outside at the minute.. In two minds if to bring them in or leave them out with that weather, needles to say very very very very mucky around the bales.
Is earlier than i normally would like them in.
Any opinions?

Dickie10

if u usually have them in then might as well might the bullet, dont bring them in if their fairly wet wool though, try and get a dryish day. never housed here though

rangler1

eorna wrote: »

Ewes in silage outside at the minute.. In two minds if to bring them in or leave them out with that weather, needles to say very very very very mucky around the bales.
Is earlier than i normally would like them in.
Any opinions?

I usually let out 5 ewes/acre in march without meals, so like to have the ground stripped for 90 days.
plenty of grass around at the moment, but it'll be more valuable in the spring.
Ewe lambs won't be lambing till first week april so their division won't be stripped till jan

Green farmer

I've mine all out eating silage. The ground is deteriorating but By moving feeder around continually helps the ground. I also place a pallet under the silage, so reduces the mess further. With the setup I've here, there's still less work keeping them outside then in.

eorna

Thanks for replies.. Rangler i Have plenty of grass saved up for ewes and lambs in march so no problem there..
Green i am going to leave them out for another little while.. Definetly less work..weather will dictate though..

Surfn

do you lads dose then when you house them, wait a few weeks or do it a few days before housing

rangler1

Surfn wrote: »

do you lads dose then when you house them, wait a few weeks or do it a few days before housing

The experts say adult ewes don't need dosing but we find that if we dose the ewes when they are in, the lambs have less worms the following year, we'd do the adult ewes anytime during the housed period but we'd like to do the ewe lambs within a couple of weeks of housing.
We use the cheapest ivermctin because it's handiest and there;s always stuff in shops that is going out of date before next season and we get a deal on it.
Our local shop even gets 'nearly out of date' stuff that his suppliers are left with for us.
we'd be doing nearly 600 ewes, so they'd be glad to see us

White Clover

rangler1 wrote: »

The experts say adult ewes don't need dosing but we find that if we dose the ewes when they are in, the lambs have less worms the following year, we'd do the adult ewes anytime during the housed period but we'd like to do the ewe lambs within a couple of weeks of housing.
We use the cheapest ivermctin because it's handiest and there;s always stuff in shops that is going out of date before next season and we get a deal on it.
Our local shop even gets 'nearly out of date' stuff that his suppliers are left with for us.
we'd be doing nearly 600 ewes, so they'd be glad to see us

Rangler, do you get help in for jobs like dosing or is it just yourself and the boss?

rangler1

White Clover wrote: »

Rangler, do you get help in for jobs like dosing or is it just yourself and the boss?

No, we do all here ourselves, have had a student a few times at lambing when a neighbour would ask us to take their son/daughter, but find that we're set up to handle it and a stranger only delays the job. We've very good dogs though

Surfn

rangler1 wrote: »

The experts say adult ewes don't need dosing but we find that if we dose the ewes when they are in, the lambs have less worms the following year, we'd do the adult ewes anytime during the housed period but we'd like to do the ewe lambs within a couple of weeks of housing.
We use the cheapest ivermctin because it's handiest and there;s always stuff in shops that is going out of date before next season and we get a deal on it.
Our local shop even gets 'nearly out of date' stuff that his suppliers are left with for us.
we'd be doing nearly 600 ewes, so they'd be glad to see us

the dose id be going to use just because i have it laying here is levafas diamond. the only thing about using that indoors is the they do be very scittery for few days after it. do you know if you can dose and give them there heptovac shot at the sametime.

rangler1

Surfn wrote: »

the dose id be going to use just because i have it laying here is levafas diamond. the only thing about using that indoors is the they do be very scittery for few days after it. do you know if you can dose and give them there heptovac shot at the sametime.

Wouldn't know whether you can give the two together

Green farmer

On a general basis, how are lads getting on in this weather. Even through id have what would be considered relatively dry ground, the land is fair soft. The tractor is marking the field and I'm doing my best to keep the feeder moved around and stop any "soup" developing in the fields. I can only imagine the challenges lads are facing on soft ground at the moment. Here's hoping for some respite in the weather.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

On a general basis, how are lads getting on in this weather. Even through id have what would be considered relatively dry ground, the land is fair soft. The tractor is marking the field and I'm doing my best to keep the feeder moved around and stop any "soup" developing in the fields. I can only imagine the challenges lads are facing on soft ground at the moment. Here's hoping for some respite in the weather.

Over Two thirds of mine will be in by Wednesday, ewe lambs will have another fortnight.....won't be sorry , land is starting to poach badly.
it's really been a good autumn, often saw weather like this in October......or even at the ploughing

Green farmer

Amazing, you could have months of dry winter weather and no problems, them one month of cr*p weather and we're struggling. I suppose at the end of the day just goes to show the power of the elements .

rangler1

Was supposed to be fine this morning , but it poured all morning, they're drowned, but I put some in anyway.....hope they'll be alright.
Had one with pneumonia this morning too, there's no shelter in the field and its up on a height

Birdnuts

I'm lucky in that I have a small sheltered old quarry with a stoney/sandy bottom in which I can feed my lot hay etc.. Other than that it would be pretty grim as pretty much all the farm is near unusable at this stage in terms of ground saturation and general waterlogging.

AnFeirmeoir

Put mine in today ( can only fit about a third) picked the first due and any looking under par