Shearing ewe lambs

Username John

Hello all,

So - my few ewes are in the process of being sold. Wont be laming in 2017, just cant justify the time to be honest.

I have bought some ewe lambs, and will hold onto them til this time next year, and sell then as breeding hoggets. Not sure how profitable it'll be, I guess it'll change year on year. We'll give it a whirl anyways...

After all that - my question is - do lads here shear ewe lambs for the winter?

I was talking to a lad who was recommending it, as it he said it
- Helped thrive
- Reduced chances of flystrike (at least for a few weeks)
- Reduced chances of lambs getting stuck in briars

Any thoughts, for or against... also - when do lads do this? I know twould be weather depending, but I would have said after start Sept it would be getting too late would it?

Oh, I should add, they will spend all winter outside, wont be housed (hopefully anyways)

We never did it here, so its a new 'idea' to me

Thanks...

roosky

Ya i would recomend it....it cleans up the lambs and helps with all the above mentioned points

The lack of wool means the lamb is colder so eats more to keep warm....increased intake equals increased thrive....thats the logic anyway

I will shear mine in mid spetember so they have 8 weeks wool on them before the real harsh winter weather sets in

arctictree

I always throw a batch of ewe lambs onto winterage but havn't bothered shearing yet. Important to check them regularly for the first couple of days and remove any that are getting stuck in briars or fences. Its always the same ones! Sometimes, a lamb is just too light/weak to break free from briars. And some are just stupid enough to keep getting their head stuck in the fence!

ganmo

Username John wrote: »

Hello all,

So - my few ewes are in the process of being sold. Wont be laming in 2017, just cant justify the time to be honest.

I have bought some ewe lambs, and will hold onto them til this time next year, and sell then as breeding hoggets. Not sure how profitable it'll be, I guess it'll change year on year. We'll give it a whirl anyways...

After all that - my question is - do lads here shear ewe lambs for the winter?

I was talking to a lad who was recommending it, as it he said it
- Helped thrive
- Reduced chances of flystrike (at least for a few weeks)
- Reduced chances of lambs getting stuck in briars

Any thoughts, for or against... also - when do lads do this? I know twould be weather depending, but I would have said after start Sept it would be getting too late would it?

Oh, I should add, they will spend all winter outside, wont be housed (hopefully anyways)

We never did it here, so its a new 'idea' to me

Thanks...

the lads up this way that are selling hoggets shear very early(april/start of may) next year so they have a nice fleece come selling time.

I've heard lads singing the praises of shearing ewe lambs but never tried it

Username John

ganmo wrote: »

the lads up this way that are selling hoggets shear very early(april/start of may) next year so they have a nice fleece come selling time.

I've heard lads singing the praises of shearing ewe lambs but never tried it

Hi Ganmo,

Yeah, seen a few lads do that down here too - I dunno would I be that hung up on shearing too early.

We always shear around start June, not sure I'd be into shearing much earlier, I like to be very sure of good weather...

ha - we'll see if we shear em in Sept first, before I start wondering when to shear in May / June

sheepfarmer92

Yea id recommend it, they seem to grow better and stay clean and they will have a nice cover of wool for the winter, planning pn shearimg ours in a week or two, been shearing them for the last 15 odd years here

Lano Lynn

highly recomended ,if only to keep them from sticking in hedges
any time will do if the weather is bad at the time just leave them in a shed for a day or two till they get used of being bare and a nice shelterd field after that .....goats don't die of the cold

orm0nd

we done ours last monday, maybe it was a bit early but we wanted to move them to the outfarm where hopefully they will stay until new year,

unlike John all ours will be going to the ram,

most of the lads turning dry hoggets around here don't bother shearing, but they would be much younger sheep than ours, we usually don't keep any lambs born after end of february

Sheep breeder

arctictree wrote: »

I always throw a batch of ewe lambs onto winterage but havn't bothered shearing yet. Important to check them regularly for the first couple of days and remove any that are getting stuck in briars or fences. Its always the same ones! Sometimes, a lamb is just too light/weak to break free from briars. And some are just stupid enough to keep getting their head stuck in the fence!

I think if your lambs is getting stuck in the briars it's not a wool problem and more like minerals and hunger. Shearing won't solve that.

Sheep breeder

We sheared the ewe lambs last year for the first time after threatening to do for years and a good job, made them stretch out well before Christmas and were bigger at the turn of the year, when we sheared we left them in the shed for a week and could not believe how quick the wool came back. One small lamb was missed at shearing and was run with them and at shearing this summer was a long way behind the ones the same size, hope to shear this week the ones being kept for this year.

davidk1394

We used do it. Thought it was a fantastic job. Thinking of doing it again thid year. However we don't shear them until their going into the shed

MayoAreMagic

roosky wrote: »

Ya i would recomend it....it cleans up the lambs and helps with all the above mentioned points

The lack of wool means the lamb is colder so eats more to keep warm....increased intake equals increased thrive....thats the logic anyway

I will shear mine in mid spetember so they have 8 weeks wool on them before the real harsh winter weather sets in

It definitely helps them, no question. But Ive heard that logic about being cold and so eating more in the past, and to me it doesn't really make sense. Surely the extra they eat, as a result of the cold, goes into keeping them warm and not a lot else - they don't all of a sudden increase intake and uptake exponentially - above what their requirements are. I just don't see how being half naked in the cold, with the result being that they have to work harder, can be the reason that they perform better.

Id be of the thinking that a young animal not having to carry around the extra weight of the fleece (generally wet to boot) is a big factor in it. The devil is in the detail though, shear them too tight or leave it too late and they struggle, which kinda puts pay to the cold-eat more theory for me. I think it is more taking off extra layers they don't need, which gets them thriving quicker, and easier, for longer. Who wouldn't do better if they didn't have to carry around a big wet donkey jacket all winter?!

Buford T. Justice XIX

orm0nd wrote: »

we done ours last monday, maybe it was a bit early but we wanted to move them to the outfarm where hopefully they will stay until new year,

unlike John all ours will be going to the ram,

most of the lads turning dry hoggets around here don't bother shearing, but they would be much younger sheep than ours, we usually don't keep any lambs born after end of february

+1 on shearing ewe lambs. We did it for the first time about 5 years ago when we made the decision to breed the ewe lambs. We kept a few that weren't shorn as well and the shorn ones were in better condition and had most inlamb compared to the unshorn ones.

We do ours at shearing in early june when selecting the replacements for the following year but I imagine they would want to be done soon to get a nice bit of growth before the wet winter sets in.

paddysdream

Have shorn the replacement ewe lambs here for a few years apart from one where weather didn't permit.
Good job as they do grow better and find that when they lamb their lambs find it easier to suck.No dirty tails and bigger lambs(I think anyway's).
Easier to judge condition and this is very important with ewe lambs before lambing.
Normally shear ewe lambs mid to late September.

roosky

So the concencus is that they thrive better so should i be shearing all my remaining lambs to help thrive

Username John

roosky wrote: »

So the concencus is that they thrive better so should i be shearing all my remaining lambs to help thrive

I was into my shearer with the same questions rooskey...
In short he said ewe lambs and runts... He said lambs go back after shearing and by the time they come back again, they could be into 60kg which is too wavy for factory...
Now - never done it here, so just repeating what I was told...

On another note - I didn't shear me ewe lambs yet as for one reason or another, they just didn't get done...

How late is too late for shearing? Weather is trying mucky now... Some cold evenings around....

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

I was into my shearer with the same questions rooskey...
In short he said ewe lambs and runts... He said lambs go back after shearing and by the time they come back again, they could be into 60kg which is too wavy for factory...
Now - never done it here, so just repeating what I was told...

On another note - I didn't shear me ewe lambs yet as for one reason or another, they just didn't get done...

How late is too late for shearing? Weather is trying mucky now... Some cold evenings around....

Doing mine tomorrow morning, later than i'd like alright.
A lot of farmers around here shear stores if they're going for the long keep.
Weighed my ewe lambs yesterday, they're between 40 and 45kgs so well on target for mating in eight weeks

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

Doing mine tomorrow morning, later than i'd like alright.
A lot of farmers around here shear stores if they're going for the long keep.
Weighed my ewe lambs yesterday, they're between 40 and 45kgs so well on target for mating in eight weeks

Did you get your lambs shorn Rangler?

Forecast isn't great here and time is pushing on...

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Did you get your lambs shorn Rangler?

Forecast isn't great here and time is pushing on...

yea, did them yesterday, seemed fine this morning, had maggots in the hoggets that were shorn in tullamore show....... barely a month shorn, heard maggots were busy alright.
Dipping all at the end of the week

mcgiggles

rangler1 wrote: »

yea, did them yesterday, seemed fine this morning, had maggots in the hoggets that were shorn in tullamore show....... barely a month shorn, heard maggots were busy alright.
Dipping all at the end of the week

Feckin maggots, our ewes and the ewe lambs we bought in were fine, but some of our lambs got a doing with them. dirty rotten fkkrs.

Sheared our ewes/ ewe lambs over a week or so ago, they seem to have come on great condition wise in the short time they are done already! gona dip them soon.
Dip before ram goes out to them the best option? Figuring we don't want to stress them out after the rams done his job.

Username John

Sheared the ewe lambs there yesterday evening...
Was a nice day yesterday...

Dirty morning here today tho...
Not mad cold, car says 16deg but a ****ty wet mist...

Had a look there and one or two lambs are a bit humpy looking...

I'll leave em now, it's supposed to dry in a bit... But I might put em into the shed tonight...

Very sorry I didn't keep em in last night...

jd06

Was thinking of shearing the ewe lambs in the next two weeks
Is it too late.

AntrimGlens

jd06 wrote: »

Was thinking of shearing the ewe lambs in the next two weeks
Is it too late.

I've fifty left to do, did 150 about 3 weeks ago and they've never looked back, but i'd say if i get these ones done on saturday they'll stay in for a few days to acclimatise as it's fair cold at night now. All bolused and Hep P done so don't need any of them to keel over now.