General sheep thread

joe35 · 05-10-2022 10:15pm

Yea had a touch of maggots here this morning.

Going dipping next Saturday and wondering what's people's thoughts on a fluke does and a mineral drench for ewes pre tupping.

We never dose mature ewes here but think a fluke dose is needed.

Jonnyc135 · 06-10-2022 8:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706707#Comment_119706707

Fluke and mineral drench always given the ewes and hoggets pre tupping here, just to make sure there in their best condition. If your ground over the autumn and winter can be anyway wet or some water ling in it after heavy rain it would always no harm to fluke. The likes of Endo fluke is cheap enough anyway

wrangler · 06-10-2022 11:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707346#Comment_119707346

We don't have fluke but we give animax sheep and lamb to the ewes, I think it helps, we've a cobalt/iodine deficiency on the farm anyway

Bleating Lamb · 06-10-2022 11:47am

I have a few mature ewes quite dirty of their ends……would normally dose with something like Flukivor and also give them mineral drench a few weeks before letting ram out to ewes.

Thinking I might give them all a good Fluke and Worms combination dose like Supaverm instead,just in case they have any worm burden (especially dirty ended ones)…..or is that overkill as Supaverm isn’t cheap in fairness.

wrangler · 06-10-2022 12:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119708147#Comment_119708147

The advice now is not to dose ewes for worms

We never worm dose the adult ewes , We dose the hogget ewes at weaning but that's the oldest sheep we'd be dosing,

they're getting dirty now because of the wet grass

Bleating Lamb · 07-10-2022 12:10am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119708235#Comment_119708235

What worm dose you do give the hoggetts at weaning Wrangler?

Having seen pictures of your ground I can assure you it would be a lot drier than most of my land 🙂……

With the steeps of rain falling on and off in last 10 days and nights a lot of good grass getting trampled into the ground here by stock …happening on a lot of farms I would say.

wrangler · 07-10-2022 7:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119711308#Comment_119711308

We use what ever dose we're using on the lambs that year, We've found that putting ewe lambs in lambs hard on them and as hoggets they can be thin at mating. Giving them a dose at weaning seems to solve that problem. Interestingly teagasc are advising a dose for hoggets at weaning now too.

We're fairly well set up here for paddocks so if they were trampling a lot of grass we'd split the paddocks with an electric fence. Like you say they waste a lot of grass in bad weather

k mac · 07-10-2022 3:32pm

Have 2 ewes i intended to cull because although both reared 2 lambs about their 3 or 4th crop, one was hard lambed and the other prolapsed. But after looking at the marts online think they would go very small money they are only about 55kgs as they lambed late april and were left with the lambs until august. Not worth my while bring them to the mart so considering my options, could i run them with the ram and sell them in lamb (if scanned in lamb) next march and just advice any potential buyer of there problems. Other option is i have loads of grass so not put them to the ram and just let them fatten over time and bring to the factory next march/april.

White Clover · 07-10-2022 4:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713648#Comment_119713648

Option 2 if you can keep them from the rams. You might only get 70 for them now but could get 120 - 140 in April. Question is, is it worth the hassle for €100?

MIKEKC · 11-10-2022 8:29pm

Can someone who was not in the present sheep improvement scheme enter the new one? Already have sheep for a number of years

Jonnyc135 · 11-10-2022 9:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119731823#Comment_119731823

Yes you have to wait till next January though and join then. They will go off the amount of breeding sheep on your census for that year.

Dinzee Conlee · 11-10-2022 10:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732074#Comment_119732074

How exactly do you join Jonny?

roosky · 11-10-2022 11:17pm

GHi all, I’m upgrading a shed and need to buy a few feed barriers and walk through feeders.

so far I priced o Donovan’s, Cormac and Condon is there anyone else that makes them, I have o’Donnelly.

also have you any general tips or things to avoid when buying barriers and walk throughs !

TIA

Jonnyc135 · 12-10-2022 7:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732331#Comment_119732331

When the date opens for joining usually January time (new scheme next year, in a least 1 out of the 3 years you have to designate a year that you buy a genotyped ram) you can request an application off the sheep improvement scheme in Johnstown castle by ringing them directly, once that's filled out and you have chosen what tasks you will carry out it will be set up. Not sure on the payment dates though.

Thats the jist of what I got out of them at the ploughing as I am in the same boat, used do store lambs for years but have gone back to into the sheep

Tileman · 12-10-2022 1:59pm

Bought mine from Stanley last year, good job and sound lads

orm0nd · 12-10-2022 2:34pm

Try Stanleys and Bo Steel

Jd310 · 13-10-2022 8:37am

What fluke dose would be recommended for ewes before tipping this time of year. I’ve all hoggets bar 4/5 older ewes, want to get them all dosed and ready for the ram.

Also have a small number of inlamb hoggets that are lambing at Christmas, would the same fluke dose be safe enough on them? They were recently scanned during the week.

Im in a wet area in the Northwest

k mac · 13-10-2022 1:44pm

If you had a choice of buying a pedigree registered ram lamb with stars but thats fit for breeding but small, or a bigger ordinary 2 year old ram which would be the best buy in people's opinion. Should have said for the same money

Kevhog1988 · 13-10-2022 2:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713648#Comment_119713648

fatten & factory

Mad about baa baas · 13-10-2022 4:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119739021#Comment_119739021

If you think the lamb will grow I'd go with him. Plain lad will only get plainer

k mac · 13-10-2022 7:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119740067#Comment_119740067

Ya he possibly will grow from a pedigree breeder who says he's just a bit small was one of 2 lambs on a ewe that didn't just get going. Hes a vendeen

Western Pomise · 13-10-2022 10:25pm

A lot of people scimp on what they will pay for a ram and then wonder why they end up with poor lambs.The ram provides 50% of the genes with each ewe it mates with.Times that by your total female flock and rams importance increases exponentially.

You need to judge if the ram lamb would be strong enough to tip the tallest of your ewes,if so he’s a better buy than the plain older ram.

Bear in mind though that 20 ewes is enough to put with a ram lamb.

joe35 · 13-10-2022 10:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737720#Comment_119737720

And how soon after dosing would you put the ram out. Might dose this weekend but thinking of putting the ram out next Saturday

Jimbo789 · 14-10-2022 4:06pm

I tried the No Mate teaser harness for first time this year for the ram effect. I let 2 rams with a bunch of 80 ewes each for 2 days and will put all the rams out 12 days later.

I had a few old yellow crayons so decided to put them in the harness just out of curiosity of what number of ewes would get marked in the 2 days. Looks like around 15 or 16 so 10% or slightly less.

DJ98 · 14-10-2022 11:21pm

Anyone any experience with using blue texel rams on ewes, would they be as good as a normal texel?

Cran · 15-10-2022 4:01pm

Have a few Blues here, their the young fellas. They have surprised me easy lambed, hardy not as quick to grow as Charollais but kill out % makes up for it in someway.