When are ye planning on letting rams out?

DJ98

As above for me it'll be late next week!

weatherbyfoxer

Turning them out Saturday here hope to start lambing the end of February and finish most by paddy's day

mcgiggles

weatherbyfoxer wrote:

Turning them out Saturday here hope to start lambing the end of February and finish most by paddy's day

Same!

roosky

Planning on starting lambing paddys day so rams wont be out until 22nd of october, trying to lamb to grass.

How are other peoples ewes looking, condition wise, mine are behind where i would like

mcgiggles

Ours weren't great at all when we sheared them a few weeks ago, but they have definitely come on better since. There's one thats still skinnier than we would like but she's been fairly skinny all along, (we might be getting rid of her next year anyways but we said we'd give her another go and see how she is) we've been giving them more nuts since shearing to help up the weight a bit before the ram goes out

Sami23

How long do ye plan on leaving your Rams in with the ewes and what do ye do with the Ram for the rest of the year ?

mcgiggles

We've only 30odd ewes so it will depend on what his daily tipping rate is. Put him out Saturday, none tipped sunday morning, but 2 tipped when we checked again sunday evening, so if he does 2 a day he'll only be out the 2 or so weeks. Till he gets the job done really..

Ours just eats sleeps and sh*ts for the rest of the year... tough life.

roosky

Sami23 wrote: »

How long do ye plan on leaving your Rams in with the ewes and what do ye do with the Ram for the rest of the year ?

I will be leaving him out for 4 weeks this year, used to do 6 weeks but its a waste of time and lambing runs on too long for the sake of 1 ewe.

I have a few rams together so just let them hang out for the other 48 weeks of the year

Sami23

mcgiggles wrote: »

We've only 30odd ewes so it will depend on what his daily tipping rate is. Put him out Saturday, none tipped sunday morning, but 2 tipped when we checked again sunday evening, so if he does 2 a day he'll only be out the 2 or so weeks. Till he gets the job done really..

Ours just eats sleeps and sh*ts for the rest of the year... tough life.

I let my lad to the ewes Sunday evening. Checked this evening and he had 11 tipped in under 24 hours so he was a busy boy.....
only have 30 odd also so hope he keeps goin like this n it'll b short lambing season but there's always a few late.

My question really was where do ye keep the rams when separate from the ewes ?

roosky

My question really was where do ye keep the rams when separate from the ewes ?[/QUOTE]

I have an acre garden that they live in for the year and get a bit of hay over the winter

razor8

A few days later than normal. Planning to let them out the 22nd of October

mcgiggles

Sami23 wrote: »

mcgiggles wrote: »

We've only 30odd ewes so it will depend on what his daily tipping rate is. Put him out Saturday, none tipped sunday morning, but 2 tipped when we checked again sunday evening, so if he does 2 a day he'll only be out the 2 or so weeks. Till he gets the job done really..

Ours just eats sleeps and sh*ts for the rest of the year... tough life.

I let my lad to the ewes Sunday evening. Checked this evening and he had 11 tipped in under 24 hours so he was a busy boy.....
only have 30 odd also so hope he keeps goin like this n it'll b short lambing season but there's always a few late.

My question really was where do ye keep the rams when separate from the ewes ?

He was busy indeed! Good lad himself! Did you tease them or sponge them?

That'll be a busy few days come lambing ours were typically one a day last year, quite slow but then we were stupid enough not to take time off work so lambing was easy enough as was only one a day aswell, we're gona take the time off next year though.

We just keep him in a separate field, the ewes are out about a kilometer from the house and the ram we keep in the field beside the house.

Sami23

[/quote]

He was busy indeed! Good lad himself! Did you tease them or sponge them?

We just keep him in a separate field, the ewes are out about a kilometer from the house and the ram we keep in the field beside the house.[/quote]

No I didn't do anything special with them tbh.
They are weaned about 6-8 weeks minimum n got dosed for worms and fluke as well as a mineral dose about 2 weeks ago.

stantheman1979

Think 11 in one day is busy. Friend of mine lambed 2500 ewes this year from March 10th to 1st April for guy in Tipperary.

sheepfarmer92

Let the ram out with half the ewes here on saturday, letting them with the rest in two weeks

Username John

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Think 11 in one day is busy. Friend of mine lambed 2500 ewes this year from March 10th to 1st April for guy in Tipperary.

That's about 120 ewes / day lambing (if my maths is right)

He must have had a serious setup?

stantheman1979

Not really. Nothing special he just had a lot of sheds. 3 sheds filled with about 100 lambing pens. Ewes and lambs stay in for 2days. Go out on day 3. They stay in the pens till they go out so a lot of donkey work. Bedded twice a day, water 3times a day into gallon cans with the top cut off tied to the side of pen. Pens never cleaned out or limed just topped up with fresh straw. Small square bales of hay fed into home made racks along the back of pens. Like i said very basic but he had a lot of help.

mcgiggles

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Ewes and lambs stay in for 2days. Go out on day 3. They stay in the pens till they go out so a lot of donkey work.

How do ye work this? what we did last year (now keep in mind we've only small numbers, we only had 20 last year) was mother went into pen to lamb, left on their own for a day or two, numbered and docked tails, then we put them into a bigger pen with another mother and her lamb/s for a day or two.. and then they all went into a bigger run with all the rest and then out to field. We were wary about putting them out cos some of the suffolk crosses had less wool than the rest. It was a lot of moving around and we actually lost a lamb because one of the mothers was a complete bitch and kept dunting the lamb whether the lamb was going for her milk or not. (We separated them when we realised what she was doing but she must have gotten a good shot at him when we weren't there and the lamb was scrunched up on one side and didn't thrive and only lasted a few weeks) Would we be better to put them out to field a couple days after they lamb to save all the in between?

J.O. Farmer

Your better off with less moving with those numbers. Let the ewe lamb with the bunch. If she only has a single leave her with the bunch just watch the lamb actually sucks.
If she has more than one move her to the small pen for a day or two and watch that she's taking to both lambs and both are sucking. After a day or 2 let the ewe and lambs back to the bunch or out to the field if you are happy to do so.
With putting ewes in small pens as much as you are you are making work for yourself.
A ewe can mind 1 lamb until the lamb knows it's mother. If she has more than one the lambs could go different directions and the ewe can lose one and forget about it so that's the reason for the small pen until the lamb knows it's mother.
Also suffolk cross lambs tend to have reasonable wool. What other lambs had you.

stantheman1979

3 sheds with about 100 pens in each. Day 1 shed 1 filled, day 2 shed 2 filled. Day 3 shed 3 filled and all of shed one tailed and casterated. Morning day 4 shed 1 emptied to field and shed bedded and filled again!! Also there are a few singles in a small shed and they go out usually after a day!! Like I said a lot of work keeping them bedded and fed!!

mcgiggles

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

Your better off with less moving with those numbers. Let the ewe lamb with the bunch. If she only has a single leave her with the bunch just watch the lamb actually sucks.
If she has more than one move her to the small pen for a day or two and watch that she's taking to both lambs and both are sucking. After a day or 2 let the ewe and lambs back to the bunch or out to the field if you are happy to do so.
With putting ewes in small pens as much as you are you are making work for yourself.
A ewe can mind 1 lamb until the lamb knows it's mother. If she has more than one the lambs could go different directions and the ewe can lose one and forget about it so that's the reason for the small pen until the lamb knows it's mother.
Also suffolk cross lambs tend to have reasonable wool. What other lambs had you.

Thanks for that! Will keep all in mind next year.
Yeah we had one mother that forgot about lamb#1 when she had lamb#2 and we ended up having to put her in a foster crate. worked a charm.

I'm not sure what is in some of our crosses, we have straight texels and some texels that have something else in them they have speckeld ears and across the tops of their heads. We have a few full suffolks and a few speckled face crosses, thought they were suffolk x texels but I'm thinking they aren't now. They have the texel shaped face but speckled with brown/grey.
2 of our lambs came out looking dorset (gorgeous lambs! have a photo of one attached there) and I think it was 2 more pairs that I called "inside out" lambs as they were kind of pinkey black with very light wool cover, longer narrower face than a texel.. I'm trying to think now what the rest of them looked like, we crossed them with a charollais ram. Most of them looked typical texel/ charollais. I'll see if I have any photos!

mcgiggles

Sorry didn't attach to the previous post