General sheep thread

wrangler · 20-02-2019 10:24pm

razor8 wrote: »

You’ll be feeding lambs all winter if you haven’t any grass when they lamb. Good green grass is rocket fuel for a milking ewe

Letting a batch of ewes into lush grass could cause prolapses

Yea, meal will keep them going at the moment but it's vital to have grass when they lamb

Dickie10 · 20-02-2019 10:29pm

id save it til after they lamb, ewes heavy in lamb wont have enough room for the amount of forgae they need to get their minerals and nutririon from and you will need to feed them meal anyway 6 weeks out from lambing, i find ewes on bare ground with a pick of grass and hay along with a lifeline bucket and nuts do very well. lush grass isnt much use to them now

wrangler · 20-02-2019 10:50pm

Green farmer wrote: »

I don’t know lads, flip a coin. The weather is all over the place , totally unpredictable, but luckily on the right side of that unpredictablility.
Edit,
Actually I’m going to see if I can tighten them up further and fertilise a paddock or two and see what growth is coming. If it’s shooting up, might then leave ewes in to others, on a limited basis.

Do you have loads of grass for the ewes when they lamb, big difference comparing to dairy farmers with their fancy grass varieties and super fertility, don't graze it if you're not sure it'll grow back/
As you have a lot of singles you could do something different with them, a neighbour put his out on grass and even though he was strip grazing them very tight to avoid big lambs, they've all scoured , they'll be some mess for lambing

Green farmer · 20-02-2019 11:52pm

Fair enough lads, will keep them out of it, tempting and all it is. Might still put out some fert on later closed up ground and see how it comes back.

roosky · 21-02-2019 12:22pm

Green farmer wrote: »

Fair enough lads, will keep them out of it, tempting and all it is. Might still put out some fert on later closed up ground and see how it comes back.

I await your post in early April of you cutting excess silage off the said paddock telling us that we are all a bunch of clowns

Green farmer · 21-02-2019 1:06pm

roosky wrote: »

I await your post in early April of you cutting excess silage off the said paddock telling us that we are all a bunch of clowns

Even if I don’t have a blade of grass, I’ll post it for the crack, just to wind lads up !!!

White Clover · 21-02-2019 1:25pm

What way are lads here going to tag lambs this year?
Is it as well to double tag them at birth, be easier for management records too, or are the Cormac tags I usually use too big for young lambs?

ganmo · 21-02-2019 1:38pm

White Clover wrote: »

What way are lads here going to tag lambs this year?
Is it as well to double tag them at birth, be easier for management records too, or are the Cormac tags I usually use too big for young lambs?

i'd wait for a day or 2 at least.

White Clover · 21-02-2019 1:49pm

ganmo wrote: »

i'd wait for a day or 2 at least.

Ya, sorry ganmo, I meant tag them when they're going out after being in the individual pens for a couple of days. Would the tags be too big/heavy or is there a smaller option?

Mad_maxx · 21-02-2019 2:11pm

I bought and owned a dozen ewe lambs for five months last year to keep the field surrounding house eaten down, got away with only dosing once, what is the earliest you might be able to buy weaned lambs which wouldn't need shearing for the coming season, with the early spring, I've a nice cover of grass developing, would mid April see any weaned lambs or is that far too early

roosky · 21-02-2019 3:00pm

Mad_maxx wrote: »

I bought and owned a dozen ewe lambs for five months last year to keep the field surrounding house eaten down, got away with only dosing once, what is the earliest you might be able to buy weaned lambs which wouldn't need shearing for the coming season, with the early spring, I've a nice cover of grass developing, would mid April see any weaned lambs or is that far too early

Probably looking later like june, Early lambs will either be pedigree or be finished commanding a high price as its out of season

Mad_maxx · 21-02-2019 4:08pm

roosky wrote: »

Probably looking later like june, Early lambs will either be pedigree or be finished commanding a high price as its out of season

Ok thanks, not the end of the world to wait until june

chippy78 · 22-02-2019 1:57am

Hi lads
I’m lambing on April 1st and housing on Paddy’s day. I have plenty grass and am wondering if I should supplement ewes at grass before they go indoors to lamb or is the grass sufficient?

I can’t find a grass based supplement table online all of them seem to be silage based.

Lambman · 22-02-2019 2:37am

chippy78 wrote: »

Hi lads
I’m lambing on April 1st and housing on Paddy’s day. I have plenty grass and am wondering if I should supplement ewes at grass before they go indoors to lamb or is the grass sufficient?

I can’t find a grass based supplement table online all of them seem to be silage based.

What do u intend till feed indoors? If silage then I'd want them eating silage pre housing.

arctictree · 22-02-2019 9:46am

And we're off. Triplets born to a scanned twin. Good start!

Lambman · 22-02-2019 9:58am

You must a scanned over the 90 days when he couldn't pick the 3 up?

Siamsa Sessions · 22-02-2019 10:11am

chippy78 wrote: »

Hi lads
I’m lambing on April 1st and housing on Paddy’s day. I have plenty grass and am wondering if I should supplement ewes at grass before they go indoors to lamb or is the grass sufficient?

I can’t find a grass based supplement table online all of them seem to be silage based.

Have a look at the bottom of p.21 here: http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/BRP-Improving-ewe-nutrition-manual-12-050416.pdf

If a ewe is eating a kg of grass she'll get 10-11MJ of her nutrition. The table on p.4 will tell you you how much she needs as she gets into her last weeks before lambing.

A decent meal/concentrate ration will have 12MJ per kg. So, if he needs say 17MJ the week she's lambing, 0.5kg of meal will give her the 6MJ she needs in addition to the 10-11MJ she gets from the kg of grass.

Double-check all these numbers for your own situation but this example should give you ball-park figures at least.

arctictree · 22-02-2019 10:13am

Lambman wrote: »

You must a scanned over the 90 days when he couldn't pick the 3 up?

Yeah, think so. Ram in on 30/09 and scanned on 06/01. Plan was to bring in the flock today. Nice to see 3 healthy lambs born without assistance in the field.

charolais0153 · 22-02-2019 1:38pm

arctictree wrote: »

Yeah, think so. Ram in on 30/09 and scanned on 06/01. Plan was to bring in the flock today. Nice to see 3 healthy lambs born without assistance in the field.

Had 3 born last night fine lambs were all standing last night. Gave them a suck and went to bed,got up this morning at 9 woke up and went out,nothing happening so i ate my breakfast and went inside. Came out at half 9 and one was lied on. Sheep eh:rolleyes:

Willfarman · 22-02-2019 3:07pm

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Have a look at the bottom of p.21 here: http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/BRP-Improving-ewe-nutrition-manual-12-050416.pdf

If a ewe is eating a kg of grass she'll get 10-11MJ of her nutrition. The table on p.4 will tell you you how much she needs as she gets into her last weeks before lambing.

A decent meal/concentrate ration will have 12MJ per kg. So, if he needs say 17MJ the week she's lambing, 0.5kg of meal will give her the 6MJ she needs in addition to the 10-11MJ she gets from the kg of grass.

Double-check all these numbers for your own situation but this example should give you ball-park figures at least.

if you have good grass under them then just give the triplets a half kg a this stage. make sure have the doubles on a kg a week before you house or the change will have you in bother from calcium deficiency.

Siamsa Sessions · 22-02-2019 4:54pm

Took soil samples from a few fields recently and got the results back today. The pH is better than I thought and is higher now than it was before we put the sheep on the fields back in 2016. The fields got lime in late 2016 but never too much fertiliser and no slurry or dung. We took a few bales off them here and there but again never anything too intensive.

Do people think sheep are good for soil fertility overall?

Do many others regularly do soil tests?

charolais0153 · 22-02-2019 5:43pm

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Took soil samples from a few fields recently and got the results back today. The pH is better than I thought and is higher now than it was before we put the sheep on the fields back in 2016. The fields got lime in late 2016 but never too much fertiliser and no slurry or dung. We took a few bales off them here and there but again never anything too intensive.

Do people think sheep are good for soil fertility overall?

Do many others regularly do soil tests?

Ya sheep are great for land. Their dung is richer than cattles

arctictree · 22-02-2019 7:09pm

charolais0153 wrote: »

Had 3 born last night fine lambs were all standing last night. Gave them a suck and went to bed,got up this morning at 9 woke up and went out,nothing happening so i ate my breakfast and went inside. Came out at half 9 and one was lied on. Sheep eh:rolleyes:

Not much you can do about that! I always use double pens for triplets if I have the space.

wrangler · 22-02-2019 7:23pm

charolais0153 wrote: »

Ya sheep are great for land. Their dung is richer than cattles

but don't forget that every lamb brings a bit of P and K out the gate with them

Bleating Lamb · 22-02-2019 10:08pm

Sitting here bringing Flock register up to date for an elderly neighbour ....he asked me to do it for him a few days back...first time helping him with flock register.....quick question to anyone looking in at mo....his system is buying in ewe lambs in August September and selling a year later....in perfect world should he have retagged lambs on coming in the gate with his own electronic tags or is it time enough that he tagged them at later stage with his own tags?.....don’t want to do book up wrong for him.
Thanks for any answers ASAP.

White Clover · 22-02-2019 10:28pm

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Sitting here bringing Flock register up to date for an elderly neighbour ....he asked me to do it for him a few days back...first time helping him with flock register.....quick question to anyone looking in at mo....his system is buying in ewe lambs in August September and selling a year later....in perfect world should he have retagged lambs on coming in the gate with his own electronic tags or is it time enough that he tagged them at later stage with his own tags?.....don’t want to do book up wrong for him.
Thanks for any answers ASAP.

Not certain on this, but, should he have put an Eid tag in the right ear matching the mart tag in the left ear, or else cut out the mart tag and re tag with his own Eid tag set cross referencing these with the original mart tag.

Dinzee Conlee · 22-02-2019 10:39pm

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Sitting here bringing Flock register up to date for an elderly neighbour ....he asked me to do it for him a few days back...first time helping him with flock register.....quick question to anyone looking in at mo....his system is buying in ewe lambs in August September and selling a year later....in perfect world should he have retagged lambs on coming in the gate with his own electronic tags or is it time enough that he tagged them at later stage with his own tags?.....don’t want to do book up wrong for him.
Thanks for any answers ASAP.

I have the same system...

As White Clover said - I cut out the old mart tags, and replace with two EID of my own. Record in flock register as numbers 1 - x retagged with tags 99 - y...
As regards dates, I only do mine around Christmas and they are bought in Sept.
I thought the rule was lambs had to be tagged at months, so I kinda stuck to that (given they would be March Lambs)

Bleating Lamb · 22-02-2019 11:21pm

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I have the same system...

As White Clover said - I cut out the old mart tags, and replace with two EID of my own. Record in flock register as numbers 1 - x retagged with tags 99 - y...
As regards dates, I only do mine around Christmas and they are bought in Sept.
I thought the rule was lambs had to be tagged at months, so I kinda stuck to that (given they would be March Lambs)

Grand....another man helped him retagging them....they cut out the mart tags and put in his EID tags in January.He has nearly 80 ewe lambs bought in 4 or 5 different bunches at marts so I will just put in dates and original tag nos that were in lambs using the movement sheets and will then put down a date in January that they were all retagged on....thing is they were all mixed through each other on day they had EID tags put in them so isn’t it ok just to say in comments column that all bought in lambs retagged with tags nos x to y on such a date?

Thanks.

kk.man · 23-02-2019 12:01am

I think a lamb must be 12 months old to 're tag. Tbh who knows their age! I use the foot pare thingy and cut out old ones ...used a knife the 1st year and it was cumersome.

ganmo · 23-02-2019 1:24am

kk.man wrote: »

I think a lamb must be 12 months old to 're tag. Tbh who knows their age! I use the foot pare thingy and cut out old ones ...used a knife the 1st year and it was cumersome.

As long as ya link the cut out tag and the new tag it doesn't matter what age they are

General sheep thread

Comments