Weather

arctictree

Space is getting tight in the lambing shed. Weather forecast is really bad for the next few days, cold, wet and windy. Lleyns. Would it be stupid to put them out? 3 days old.

Username John

arctictree wrote: »

Space is getting tight in the lambing shed. Weather forecast is really bad for the next few days, cold, wet and windy. Lleyns. Would it be stupid to put them out? 3 days old.

Could you put them out by day and bring them in by night?

At 3 days old, they should be ok. But putting them out straight into bad weather I wouldn't like, even if they had one or two good day before it turned bad to acclimatise twould be better...

If twas me, I'd try to keep them in if I could at all.

If the weather came very bad, you'd be worried something would happen em. And if something did happen, you'd be annoyed at yourself...

But having said all that, if you have no space, then you have no space... and so you'll have to take the chance. If this is the case, put em into the most sheltered field you have. Even if there was poor grass there, you could feed the ewes meal for a few days to keep em ticking over... til the weather improves to move to more open fields maybe...

Best of luck anyways... hope lambing is going well Artic...

keysersoze1

If no space put jackets on.ive done it on occasion when needs must

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Could you put them out by day and bring them in by night?

At 3 days old, they should be ok. But putting them out straight into bad weather I wouldn't like, even if they had one or two good day before it turned bad to acclimatise twould be better...

If twas me, I'd try to keep them in if I could at all.

If the weather came very bad, you'd be worried something would happen em. And if something did happen, you'd be annoyed at yourself...

But having said all that, if you have no space, then you have no space... and so you'll have to take the chance. If this is the case, put em into the most sheltered field you have. Even if there was poor grass there, you could feed the ewes meal for a few days to keep em ticking over... til the weather improves to move to more open fields maybe...

Best of luck anyways... hope lambing is going well Artic...

+1 on plenty of meal, ewes need more meal to handle the weather themselves and give more milk as the lambs'll need more milk to deal with the weather too

joe35

Leave a trailor or 2 in the field to shelter them

arctictree

I put 4 sets of one week old twins out into a field yesterday with lots of bushes that they can shelter under. Weather was a bit wild yesterday but calmed down a bit during the night. I checked them this morning and they were all fine out grazing. Forecast is bad for the coming few days but at over a week old, they should be OK?

AntrimGlens

arctictree wrote: »

Space is getting tight in the lambing shed. Weather forecast is really bad for the next few days, cold, wet and windy. Lleyns. Would it be stupid to put them out? 3 days old.

Now this is not a go at anyone but just a general observation from my own experiences and from talking to other farmers.

Are we breeding too much for the consumer (read processor/supermarket) rather than for what actually suits our farming system.
I know i tried early lambing for a % of the flock for a few years and ended up going back to mid season lambing (paddys day) due to having to keep lambs in for a fortnight, running the risk of scour, disease and having to creep feed early lambs and trying to chase the higher market prices, when in effect all i was doing was subsidising early lamb by throwing more meal at ewes and lambs in a substitution for grass.
Similarly with weather, are we now so dependent on keeping lambs in for up to a week or more that we are breeding sheep with less vigour and able to withstand a fair bit of rain/sleet etc. Are these sheep then suited to our system at all (char/rouge bare skinned lambs). Obviously years ago ewes were lambed outside and whatever lived lived and they had to take their chance, obviously now we realise that they are worth a bit more to us and we have built housing etc to ensure welfare is high and mortality is as low as possible.

Are we in effect running ourselves into a corner, where we use rams to breed a certain type of carcass for the supermarket and it doesn't suit our climatic conditions and the additional cost of housing for longer periods, the additional labour required to support this infrastructure actually doesn't pay us any more than if we lambed herdwicks (extreme example) in May when the weather was less inclement and grass was available?

Are we in too much of a rush to produce lamb for the supermarket for April/May/June when they don't really care about using imports/hoggets to make up the shortfall and don't recompense us for the additional costs in reality?

I suppose i don't really have an answer but an aspiration that processors/supermarkets would pay that bit more for the extra labour/inputs that go into earlier season lamb.

Green farmer

you got a point. Know a lad that keeps mountainy sheep on the lowlands. They lamb themselves away outside. Not as much money in it, but he ain't out living in a shed for the month of March.

Lambman

Your correct and I'm unfortunately your prime example with some early lambers and 2 charrlois rams.... having said that for the best money you have till supply what they want costing you more time and money but always hoping till hit the market right with exactly what there looking for hoping for a good pay day.... I kept some off my paddy's day twin ewe lambs that were a bit light with the view till sell as hoggets but the way things are looking I'd a been far better off selling at the back end.. my plans this year is till have all lambs off farm by 1st August even if I have till creep some (1st time ever).... and keep an extra few ewes instead.

ganmo

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Now this is not a go at anyone but just a general observation from my own experiences and from talking to other farmers.

Are we breeding too much for the consumer (read processor/supermarket) rather than for what actually suits our farming system.
I know i tried early lambing for a % of the flock for a few years and ended up going back to mid season lambing (paddys day) due to having to keep lambs in for a fortnight, running the risk of scour, disease and having to creep feed early lambs and trying to chase the higher market prices, when in effect all i was doing was subsidising early lamb by throwing more meal at ewes and lambs in a substitution for grass.
Similarly with weather, are we now so dependent on keeping lambs in for up to a week or more that we are breeding sheep with less vigour and able to withstand a fair bit of rain/sleet etc. Are these sheep then suited to our system at all (char/rouge bare skinned lambs). Obviously years ago ewes were lambed outside and whatever lived lived and they had to take their chance, obviously now we realise that they are worth a bit more to us and we have built housing etc to ensure welfare is high and mortality is as low as possible.

Are we in effect running ourselves into a corner, where we use rams to breed a certain type of carcass for the supermarket and it doesn't suit our climatic conditions and the additional cost of housing for longer periods, the additional labour required to support this infrastructure actually doesn't pay us any more than if we lambed herdwicks (extreme example) in May when the weather was less inclement and grass was available?

Are we in too much of a rush to produce lamb for the supermarket for April/May/June when they don't really care about using imports/hoggets to make up the shortfall and don't recompense us for the additional costs in reality?

I suppose i don't really have an answer but an aspiration that processors/supermarkets would pay that bit more for the extra labour/inputs that go into earlier season lamb.

Breeding wise I'd say it'd be possible to have hardy lambs that grow well(prob need a new breed). But you'd still fall into having spoon meal into them till the grass came.

MayoAreMagic

ganmo wrote: »

Breeding wise I'd say it'd be possible to have hardy lambs that grow well(prob need a new breed). But you'd still fall into having spoon meal into them till the grass came.

Not in Ireland it isn't. Because we would do the exact same thing with them, i.e. start feeding them meal to the point of dependency, housing for longer and longer, prioritising show style animals, and they would end up losing their hardy traits.

The example of our Suffolks compared to the NZ Suffolks is very telling.