General sheep thread

somofagun

Lost a good ewe this evening, first timer scanned with Single and lamb was rotten inside her. Vet says it was dead a couple of weeks.

Never showed any signs it was in trouble, eating away with the rest of them.

farawaygrass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121876626#Comment_121876626

If they had a couple last year and you pulled one lamb for the factory and left the other lamb with her, imo that could be a factor. The lambs nearly stay sucking the one side and she’d still be producing milk. But if you felt the bags letting out the ram and didn’t notice anything, I’d be inclined to say maybe environmental factors

Jonnyc135

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121883011#Comment_121883011

Wet mucky mild winter, worse thing for bacteria spreading. I'm see imm ng good few cases of footrot creeping in too

farawaygrass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121884031#Comment_121884031

Lots of lame sheep here too in the last couple of weeks, especially when it started drying up a bit up to yesterday

Bleating Lamb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121881326#Comment_121881326

You are having a bad run of it…….hopefully things improve for you.

First lambs should be arriving here any day now.Weather given very wet for the next few days but at least there was good drying over the last week or dos.

Best of luck to everyone lambing……I always find that you have more problems at the beginning of lambing rather than the end.

farawaygrass

I think I was reading here before about people using 50% iodine and 50% of an alcohol based disinfectant. The alcohol makes the navel dry out and wither quicker. Anyone know what is used?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121887197#Comment_121887197

If the navel dries too quick it can crack and let in infection that way, We always used hibitane and haven't had any problems with it.

We couldn't get it this year so we're using vetscrub mixed at 9 parts water/ alcohol mix with 0ne part Vetscrub.

So that's 10% vetscrub, 45% water, 45% alcohol

farawaygrass

Thanks wrangler. Is it just methylated spirits you use for the alcohol component?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121887974#Comment_121887974

yea surgical spirits

eire23

Using a spirit based iodine here now, had a water based one last year and it wasn't worth a curse.

Dickie10

i read in farming independent tueday the new sheep welfare scheme has a payment of 8 euro a ewe, takes the average of your ewe numbers from 2020,21 and 22. i thought it was up to 20 euro a head now?

eire23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891305#Comment_121891305

It is up to 20. You have the original 12 Euro a head scheme with the actions picked. New scheme is a additional one with 8 euro a head, options for it, are clostridial vaccine, shearing, bcs and plunge dipping. Two actions have to be picked for the extra 8 euro. In fairness it's all stuff that one should be doing anyways.

Dickie10

aw grand yeah i do those already anyway.

joe35

I've 3 old horn ewes, scanned empty and with no flesh on them. What should I do with them.

They're getting nuts but not putting on any cover.

Should I just factory them and take the couple of euro I get.

DJ98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895725#Comment_121895725

Bring them to the mart, sheep are a great trade at the minute and always men looking for store or feeding type ewes

wrangler

Terrible weather, TBF ewes and lambs are standing up to the weather well

If sheep have any advantage to other enterprises, it's in wet years like this.

Those trying to get cows out on grass at the moment are destroying fields and maybe cows too

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901077#Comment_121901077

Wrangler, we have only just started lambing here, 8 lambed so far. 3 sets of twins with one big lamb and one small lamb. Any idea why this is happening?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901646#Comment_121901646

It's supposed to be down to stress/underfeeding in the first trimester when the placenta is being formed and from there on one of the lambs doesn't get enough nutrients. I've more than the usual amount of them this year myself. and i'm putting it down to the appalling weather.

Our ewes had lots of grass but I introduced .5kg meal after the first weeks mating because of the rain . They looked miserable,

The second weeks lambing had less small ones than the first weeks lambing

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121902449#Comment_121902449

Thanks for that. I was thinking weather/stress alright. It's awful frustrating dealing with small lambs. Complete difference to last year's lambing where I can't remember anything like this.

weatherbyfoxer

Think we have came to the decision here to get out of sheep,this years lambing was the straw that broke the camel's back for us.will continue on till the lambs are weaned and have a clearance sale in the mart at the end of August

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904221#Comment_121904221

You won't be the only ones I fear, It's a shame the way farming is gone now...... another industry that has run its course

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121903204#Comment_121903204

Our lambing is very slow too, thankfully we only left the ram out 35 days, so at least every day is a day nearer the finish.

I think the weather has us all more depressed than the sheep have.

Bleating Lamb

The reality is margins are getting tighter on people lambing sheep…….Bumped into a fella in a shop yesterday that I would often see at sheep marts in the Summer/Autumn……a good farmer who would always have had 500 ewes+………I asked him had he many lambs yet?, (most people around here would aim for lambing from Paddy’s Day on.)

’Only have around 30……..but thankfully I’ve only around 200 ewes now, too much work with them for what’s out of them,so am running dry Hoggetts in place of other sheep I had’

He was saying that when he done the sums over last two years returns the lambs profit return wasn’t justifying the amount of time and cost especially trying to get bunches of straggler lambs away in late September etc when they would need nuts to help them on their way.He said when you factor in caesareans, milk replacer for pets, clostridial diseases vaccines, 2+ worm and mineral doses before sale etc it doesn’t be long putting a dent in profit on lambs.

Have 6 ewes lambed myself,3 set of twins,a ewe with a single who another lamb died on and 2 singles so a good enough start🙂

Happy St Patrick’s Day ☘️ to one and all!☘️🍻

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904282#Comment_121904282

Things have improved here since! I hope it continues this way. A couple of sets of twins and a set of triplets this morning and all decent size. I don't think our lambing will take too long this year. Only about 4 sheep raddled on week 4 of mating and rams out after 5 weeks

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904221#Comment_121904221

Sorry to read this. Were the problems weather related or a combination of a few things? Ignore if you don't want to say.

Mad about baa baas

The weather at the moment is very depressing. I'd say every farmer in Ireland is sick of looking at wet dirty animals and waterlogged fields..even good dry land is wet at the moment

Dinzee Conlee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904282#Comment_121904282

Would ye always leave the ram out for that length of time Wrangler?

I only had the ram out for 19 days. Normally do 21 days, but he got savage lame, so felt was only wasting everyone’s time leaving him there. Out of 42ewes, 40 were in young. Small numbers I know, but with the ‘real job’ as well don’t want lambing to be dragging on for too long…

weatherbyfoxer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904591#Comment_121904591

Just a long list of time consuming and exspencive problems over the past few years,.major worm resistance problem last summer,major foot rot problems,abortion,sheep scab and now endless problems at lambing...we will increase our calf to beef enterprise and buy some hill store lambs at the end of the summer to graze and finish in the spring time

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904652#Comment_121904652

We always left out the rams for 35 days even when we had 5 -600 sheep, but using the ram effect we'd always have 90% lambed in the first 14 days.

It had to be that way as we were lambing 200 every 14 days, Luckily it always worked out oor we wouldn't have enough individual pens available

We're lambing 70 this year and only 50% have lambed in the first 16 days now. we'd have a high barren rate now if we puled the rams after 17 days or one heat

Jimbo789

Lambing started yesterday here. Usually aim for St Patrick’s day start. This year with Easter being early makes it handier for taking time off work with the 3 bank holidays. Hopefully should be mostly finished in the 18 days up to the Tuesday after Easter apart from a few second cycle ones.

The weather looks like it’s starting to improve at the right time.