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Letting ewes and lambs out to grass
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30-03-2016 7:22am#1
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Yea, you're getting bad weather down south alright,
We're getting them out no problem and haven't anything stuck to the ground
yet. but the last few days have been giving lambs an extra 24hrs indoor.
Pulled a lamb coming backwards last night, got him passed the hips no problem, but he got wider and wider from then on.....desperate pull, dead of course by the time i got him out, usually you can just keep pulling if you get past the hips, he weighed 9.5kgs.
Every day's a schoolday......and then as usually happens in a hard lambing, she put out the whole uterus.
p....d off
Sickening... 9.5kg is some lamb... I lost one kinda the same last week, well, he wasn't big but he must taken a breath or something on the way out... He was backwards and I pulled quick but be just didn't do, not sure why...
It's annoying when things like that happen...
and I know I mull over em for too long, and lads say move on but tis easier said than done too... 0 -
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Username John wrote: »Nasty cold hail showers here now again...
Lovely day up here. Let out a batch of them that were born last week. Know it's wet on Friday but it's s good sheltered field0 -
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Username John wrote: »Sickening... 9.5kg is some lamb... I lost one kinda the same last week, well, he wasn't big but he must taken a breath or something on the way out... He was backwards and I pulled quick but be just didn't do, not sure why...
It's annoying when things like that happen... and I know I mull over em for too long, and lads say move on but tis easier said than done too...
Exact same story here with the first ewe with a single a few weeks ago. Could have waited for a triple and tried to foster one onto her but milked her colostrum off for the freezer and stuck her on donedeal, a few hours later she was off down the road as a foster ewe and I felt a whole lot better.0 -
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Jack180570 wrote: »
Think its dangerous to keep them in the shed too long as it makes them soft
Would have to strongly disagree there jack...
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I have suffolky ewes - they're soft to begin with...
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Username John wrote: »Well - turfed out my few ewes and lambs this afternoon...
Day isn't too bad - almost warm, but overcast, will rain soon I'd say, but hopefully not too much...
Oh - and just as a I type, started misting rain...
They out now anyways...
They'll be fine. There's heat in the air and the rain is light. Forecast looks good for week0 -
Username John wrote: »Well - turfed out my few ewes and lambs this afternoon...
Day isn't too bad - almost warm, but overcast, will rain soon I'd say, but hopefully not too much...
Oh - and just as a I type, started misting rain...
They out now anyways...
They'll be fine. There's heat in the air and the rain is light. Forecast looks good for week0 -
Username John wrote: »Would have to strongly disagree there jack...
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I have suffolky ewes - they're soft to begin with...
To be fair I should have qualified my statement that keeping them in the shed too long is dangerous... it does depend on the type of ewe you have and the system you operate, and of course the farmers preference...
We are running a hill flock of scotch and swale crosses so they are hardy to start with... just find that the lambs have a lot more risk of picking up disease in the shed than when they are out even though we clean out and disinfect every pen between lambing and disinfect the navals the minute we get the lamb in the field and all the ewes were vaccinated.0 -
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Jack180570 wrote: »To be fair I should have qualified my statement that keeping them in the shed too long is dangerous... it does depend on the type of ewe you have and the system you operate, and of course the farmers preference...
We are running a hill flock of scotch and swale crosses so they are hardy to start with... just find that the lambs have a lot more risk of picking up disease in the shed than when they are out even though we clean out and disinfect every pen between lambing and disinfect the navals the minute we get the lamb in the field and all the ewes were vaccinated.
I should have said as well - the ewes and lambs were in and out of the shed. They had access to a small paddock, so they were out by day and in by night. Although towards the end, when they were older I didn't bother closing em in at night, they could just come and go as they pleased.
I would agree tho, keeping em in the shed, without ever letting em out does make the lambs a bit soft... I try to put em out by day on day 2 or 3, and then after that its weather dependent on when they go out full time.
I don't clean out or disinfect the pens between lambings, but I use a lot of straw, and also don't spare the iodine on the navals as soon as they're born...
Its working out so far anyways...Green farmer wrote: »I hate losses. Was up in cormac's before lambing started. Bought some new additional penning especially for lambing. Saw some hanging buckets there. Asked how much ? €12 a bucket. Said I'd leave them as would have needed a few and was after spending enough on gates. Instead I continued to use empty mineral lick buckets. Week later found a lamb had jumped into one filled with water in the corner of pen and drowned. Cost of lost lamb would have bought a good few buckets !!!
Haven't lost one like that in a while, but we have in the past... sickening
I found one lamb 2 seasons ago, in the bucket, water up to his ears, but alive... and surprisingly he lived... I thought he was too cold, but no...
I always tie up the buckets with a bit of baling twine, to be a bit higher...0 -
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Jack180570 wrote: »We have gone away from using the buckets because of the risk and also the work... what we use now are 6 inch sewer pipes, three lengths at each side of the shed with a hole cut out on the top in each pen and a ballcock feeding each pipe.
Cost a bit to do a the start but works well, just flush out the pipe with the powerwasher before lambing season to clean it out... no losses and no work drawing water to the ewes.
Heard it done before, and its prob a good job.
But my facilities wouldn't as sophisticated as that. There is no set lambing area, with the lambing pens just put together in the bigger pen where the ewes are.
Think we're stuck with buckets for a long while to come yet...
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Username John wrote: »Heard it done before, and its prob a good job.
But my facilities wouldn't as sophisticated as that. There is no set lambing area, with the lambing pens just put together in the bigger pen where the ewes are.
Think we're stuck with buckets for a long while to come yet...
It's all about what works and what can be justified... we had a disused shed in the lower yard, about 60x18 and we built block pens and installed the sewer pipe for water at the time. It works well and at least its one less job to do during lambing.0 -
Jack180570 wrote: »It's all about what works and what can be justified... we had a disused shed in the lower yard, about 60x18 and we built block pens and installed the sewer pipe for water at the time. It works well and at least its one less job to do during lambing.
Well - you have my numbers (30 ewes)
Maybe 6 in pens at any one time, so 6 buckets... tisnt exactly hardship with those numbers Jack
with big numbers tho, I can see how the sewer pipe would be a good job, to be fair...0 -
Username John wrote: »Well - you have my numbers (30 ewes)
Maybe 6 in pens at any one time, so 6 buckets... tisnt exactly hardship with those numbers Jack
with big numbers tho, I can see how the sewer pipe would be a good job, to be fair...
Absolutely John... have to have a system than can be justified on cost too, we love the sheep but its about trying to make a bit of a living out of them too.
We started with 30 ewes also and its grown over the years. We lamb about 210 and carry about 120-140 ewe lambs to yearling stage. We joined organics last year and we sell about half the yearlings and keep the best half as replacements. A lot of work in it but we are getting there! :-)0 -
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Very bad conditions here now, land has gone into muck and paddocks only lasting half what they should.
Dairy farmers moaning about having to put cows back in........at least they have that option.
One group has about a weeks grass left in this rotation, but they;ll probably walk it into the ground by thursday
the other group has two weeks left. putting nuts out on the ground with the snacker really isn't working either
Not much joy in the weather forecast also.
rant over.....
with the exception of about 10 days in March, we are at this crack since the 20th January , disaster of year thrive wise for early lambs, & 4 times the work keeping strip wires moved, only feeding creep to the earlies
however the effort has been wothwhile and we are getting quality regrowth especally on recently reseeds,
midseason flock are on the out farm and getting moved every 10 days, ewe lambs & their offspring are cleaning up after cows
we're up in numbers both in sheep & cows, we sure picked a good year :rolleyes: keep an eye on Donedeal if you want a bargain
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with the exception of about 10 days in March, we are at this crack since the 20th January , disaster of year thrive wise for early lambs, & 4 times the work keeping strip wires moved, only feeding creep to the earlies
however the effort has been wothwhile and we are getting quality regrowth especally on recently reseeds,
midseason flock are on the out farm and getting moved every 10 days, ewe lambs & their offspring are cleaning up after cows
we're up in numbers both in sheep & cows, we sure picked a good year :rolleyes: keep an eye on Donedeal if you want a bargain
grass a big problem now for most sheep farmers I would think
which county on done deal should we be looking at?0 -
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Green farmer wrote: »A right dirty day here. Looking at hunched up lambs here in the corner of fields. All we can do it try and get food of any description to the ewes and hope that they can do the rest.
Have lambs here now over a mth old,mothers milk really isn't enough now, they really should be getting creep......still hoping for growth 0 -
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In the same boat here.Early lambs grand,well as good as can be expected in this weather but March lambs under pressure.Between weather and lack of grass lamb thrive has stopped.Have lambs here now over a mth old,mothers milk really isn't enough now, they really should be getting creep......still hoping for growth
Herding this morning and depressing to see sheep sheltering around hedges with hunched up lambs.
Not feeding nuts out but another week of this and might be forced to.
Few left in the sheds are grand.Was going to evict them last week but glad now as no point.
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