What do people usually scan at and what your final percentage?

Dickie10 wrote: »

scanned 1.85 last year, weaned 1.7

That's a great result. What type of ewes do you keep?

Remember reading a teagasc report somewhere that the average farm can have up to 20% losses. Best farms can keep it Down to 10%. Id be somewhere in between. Know lads that would be doing well, but all it takes is for a rogue fox to take 20 lambs unnoticed and all of a sudden your %'s go to pot.

Green farmer wrote: »

Remember reading a teagasc report somewhere that the average farm can have up to 20% losses. Best farms can keep it Down to 10%. Id be somewhere in between. Know lads that would be doing well, but all it takes is for a rogue fox to take 20 lambs unnoticed and all of a sudden your %'s go to pot.

To lose 20 lambs that would be ~12% mortality already for us. Ad you get bigger your going to lose more lambs as your attention gets divided.

charolais0153 wrote: »

To lose 20 lambs that would be ~12% mortality already for us. Ad you get bigger your going to lose more lambs as your attention gets divided.

Exactly what happened to a mate of mine that lambs about 400 a year. Put a batch out into a field and was flat out lambing the next lot. Only spotted it a week later when lambs began to look scare in field, of course took him another few nights to catch the culprit, who had profected the art of lamb pinching. Think he lost north of 20 in the end.

Dickie10 wrote: »

keep lleyn cross ewes so half lleyn and quater maybe texel/cheviot/suffolk/horny.
trying to keep away from half texel ewes, there like belgian blue cows very tight and put too much into a lamb. got rid of suffolk ram too. now have hampshire down and texel rams. i found every hard lambing i had came from a texel type ewe.

Found the same with Texels got rid of them a few years ago very tight to lamb. Have just introduced LLeyn breeding looking forward to seeing the results. How do you find the Hampshire Downs?

Farm365 wrote: »

Found the same with Texels got rid of them a few years ago very tight to lamb. Have just introduced LLeyn breeding looking forward to seeing the results. How do you find the Hampshire Downs?

Hampshire downs are great, they are very easy lambed and very vigours when born. they pile on weight, you will be killing them at 20kg deadweight around 12 weeks. i lamb 1st feb to 28th feb and i always have at least 40 lambs gone by june 1st to factory out of around 75 ewes, weather dependent on dryish spring with growth coming at the average time of year. 80% of the lambs gone in this timeframe are usually HD. i sell to factory on flat grade so im not worried about U and R but it would be 50-50 anyway.

The beauty of these HDs is also from October onwards, they come fat without meal in Autumn and very little meal will fatten after xmas. they naturally fatten much like Angus cattle. another plus is a wet cold night outside at a week old they will be grand, have a little bob of wool on their head acts like a hat

Main Ewes scannned around 1.95 and last year horned ewes scanned 1.7, ewe lambs scanned 1.8

I sold/weaned 1.7 average across all sheep from when the ram went out including ewe lambs so hoping can do the same next year

razor8 wrote: »

Main Ewes scannned around 1.95 and last year horned ewes scanned 1.7, ewe lambs scanned 1.8

I sold/weaned 1.7 average across all sheep from when the ram went out including ewe lambs so hoping can do the same next year

Would you cull ewes that have singles 2 years in a row?

Farm365 wrote: »

Are they a purely terminal breed? They sound very impressive great growth rates etc What are they like off worm resistance? Is it hard to source rams?

yes purely terminal for meat aalthough i think i have a cross or two as ewe lambs this year, il tell u how they go. very hard to get hold of rams a few years ago but they are getting a bit more popular. i bought 2 in nobber in the last 3 years

Dickie10 wrote: »

Hampshire downs are great, they are very easy lambed and very vigours when born. they pile on weight, you will be killing them at 20kg deadweight around 12 weeks. i lamb 1st feb to 28th feb and i always have at least 40 lambs gone by june 1st to factory out of around 75 ewes, weather dependent on dryish spring with growth coming at the average time of year. 80% of the lambs gone in this timeframe are usually HD. i sell to factory on flat grade so im not worried about U and R but it would be 50-50 anyway.

The beauty of these HDs is also from October onwards, they come fat without meal in Autumn and very little meal will fatten after xmas. they naturally fatten much like Angus cattle. another plus is a wet cold night outside at a week old they will be grand, have a little bob of wool on their head acts like a hat

Using HD for last 6 years here, have no intention of changing.

Kevin McCarthy from the Ballycreely flock in Comber Co Down , one of the best flocks in IRL or the UK and also Ian Mgarry in Nass Co Kildare, I have bought from both and they are Gentlemen to deal with , what you see is what you get, i can send on some numbers if anybody wants me to. Also i agree with the above comments on the HD ,if factory lambs is what you want you would have to give serious consideration to a HD ram, dont really understand why they are not more popular in ireland.

nagshead wrote: »

Kevin McCarthy from the Ballycreely flock in Comber Co Down , one of the best flocks in IRL or the UK and also Ian Mgarry in Nass Co Kildare, I have bought from both and they are Gentlemen to deal with , what you see is what you get, i can send on some numbers if anybody wants me to. Also i agree with the above comments on the HD ,if factory lambs is what you want you would have to give serious consideration to a HD ram, dont really understand why they are not more popular in ireland.

my scanner is from New Zealand, and was wondering where i got the rams last year. he says he never sees them in ireland but thier very popular in New Zealand. his neighbour in New Zealand swears by them. i got into them because i heard they had high growth rates. i aim for the window between may 1st and june 10th approx, prices are always great at that time of the year. but i foound i was waiting for texels to come heavy too long, lovely looking lambs but it wasnt a beauty contest, so the lamb thats quickest from birth to 44kg wins the day for me. that happens to be Hampshires 80% of the time.

Saw some December lambs at the weekend (not ours - just passing a random field), was so surprised when I walked past the field, they were lovely looking Dorset ones. They aren't too dissimilar from the Hampshire Downs - looks-wise anyways, not sure about growth rate. Been showing my fella photos of the HDs trying to convince him we should get some  I agree Texels are lovely looking lambs.. They were ridiculously slow this year gaining weight, few rookie mistakes on our part, but it kind of seemed to be the norm across the board also.. Hopefully next year will be better