General sheep thread

orm0nd · 07-05-2017 12:14PM

sea12 wrote: »

Sold all my ewes this year as too much going on with full time job and with young family. Bought in ewe lambs instead. Had about 30 of my own ewe lambs aswell.
Noticed a few heavy ones a month ago and realised there was a few teenage pregnancies. Three lambed in the last few days. Went through them all and another 10 in lamb.

Balls when you don't know due dates or haven't been feeding them to milk well.

local butcher told me a lot of ewe hoggets presented for slaughter are heavy in lamb

charolais0153 · 07-05-2017 09:16PM

Going shearing tomorrow. Well shear again in September for September to be the annual time.

Lambman · 08-05-2017 06:10AM

Sorry lads just on my earlier post there about shearing I also shear twice a year... next will be late September less bulk when there housed saves dagging the ewes for the ram aswell and youd clip them near as quick as dagging when u go till the bother a catching them.

roosky · 09-05-2017 03:54PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

Going shearing tomorrow. Well shear again in September for September to be the annual time.

would they not need a bigger fleece if out wintered or would i get away with shearing again in September

charolais0153 · 09-05-2017 11:48PM

roosky wrote: »

would they not need a bigger fleece if out wintered or would i get away with shearing again in September

No I wouldn't say so just more chance of them getting caught in briars with more wool and more chance going on their backs.

Green farmer · 10-05-2017 10:59AM

Have a few ewes here that are shedding their wool. Don't really mind that, but the fields are covered with bits of wool everywhere and is making place look untidy. Do the crows and birds take the stuff away ? Or will I end up havin to pick it all up ? Wonder if it's an issue with easy care ewes ? The place must be covered with shedding ?

charolais0153 · 12-05-2017 08:21PM

If you were doing a small bit of sheep fencing would you use 4 or 5 strands electric or a strand of electric at the top of sheep netting

Western Pomise · 12-05-2017 09:12PM

Green farmer wrote: »

Have a few ewes here that are shedding their wool. Don't really mind that, but the fields are covered with bits of wool everywhere and is making place look untidy. Do the crows and birds take the stuff away ? Or will I end up havin to pick it all up ? Wonder if it's an issue with easy care ewes ? The place must be covered with shedding ?

It is the time of year for birds to be building nests(or near end of that time) but realistically you will end up having to pick up the wool as you will always get the odd lamb that eats it and it can then lodge in their stomachs.

razor8 · 12-05-2017 09:29PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

If you were doing a small bit of sheep fencing would you use 4 or 5 strands electric or a strand of electric at the top of sheep netting

I would imagine not much difference in cost but sheep wire a better long term job

ganmo · 12-05-2017 10:38PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

If you were doing a small bit of sheep fencing would you use 4 or 5 strands electric or a strand of electric at the top of sheep netting

any of the electric fencing here is 3 strand

Green farmer · 12-05-2017 11:18PM

Western Pomise wrote: »

It is the time of year for birds to be building nests(or near end of that time) but realistically you will end up having to pick up the wool as you will always get the odd lamb that eats it and it can then lodge in their stomachs.

Not really answer I wanted to hear but sort of guessed. A few have a shedded entire fleece and bits everywhere. I'll be busy so. Seperately read wool has fallen back to 60 cent a kilo this year. Fair useless price !!!

ganmo · 12-05-2017 11:29PM

Green farmer wrote: »

Not really answer I wanted to hear but sort of guessed. A few have a shedded entire fleece and bits everywhere. I'll be busy so. Seperately read wool has fallen back to 60 cent a kilo this year. Fair useless price !!!

arse thats some serious drop in a year

tomwaterford · 12-05-2017 11:39PM

ganmo wrote: »

arse thats some serious drop in a year

That price....your nearly better to leave it sit there for a year until price rises?

Inchilad · 12-05-2017 11:39PM

Have a hogget ram i bred myself last year.noticed today that he has one ball alot smaller than the other.was going to bring him to ram sale later in the year.i had a few lambs from him as i put him in with a few ewe lambs late in the season.anyone any opinions?should i just announce it in the ring or cull or any other ideas?

tomwaterford · 12-05-2017 11:42PM

Inchilad wrote: »

Have a hogget ram i bred myself last year.noticed today that he has one ball alot smaller than the other.was going to bring him to ram sale later in the year.i had a few lambs from him as i put him in with a few ewe lambs late in the season.anyone any opinions?should i just announce it in the ring or cull or any other ideas?

Hmm...guess you should announce it (though maybe say working perfect)...but not being a breeders sale...you'll hardly be bound by rules

But I find it unfathomable someone would bid on a ram (even breeding ewes) without checking it out in the pens before the sale

I might be just too cynical though

ganmo · 13-05-2017 09:52AM

How much smaller?
I wouldn't bother announcing it if it's only a small bit smaller

J.O. Farmer · 13-05-2017 10:08AM

tomwaterford wrote: »

But I find it unfathomable someone would bid on a ram (even breeding ewes) without checking it out in the pens before the sale

I might be just too cynical though

I've done it. Now I wasn't specifically out to buy a ram but was thinking about getting one. I was there to sell culls. It was a normal sheep sale with a small number of rams which came in sporadically with breedingewes and culls.

This lad came in the ring announced as a 4 yr old pbr ch correct for breeding. I hadn't seen him previously but he looked a good sheep.

I bid on him and bought him for not much more than half of what lads were looking for 3 yr olds on DD.

I did go and check him out better straight away after but I couldn't fault him and he did the job.

That said if I was specifically out to buy a ram I'd have checked him before I bid. There were a couple of other rams I did see and check but I wasn't too bothered about them as I thought them a bit crossbred.

Inchilad · 13-05-2017 12:47PM

ganmo wrote:

How much smaller? I wouldn't bother announcing it if it's only a small bit smaller

Prob be bout half the size.its noticeable when you check.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 23-05-2017 09:25PM

https://twitter.com/LizGenever/status/866907002706042880

I thought this was a good name

Cran · 23-05-2017 10:04PM

Inchilad wrote: »

Have a hogget ram i bred myself last year.noticed today that he has one ball alot smaller than the other.was going to bring him to ram sale later in the year.i had a few lambs from him as i put him in with a few ewe lambs late in the season.anyone any opinions?should i just announce it in the ring or cull or any other ideas?

Cull, long run do you no favors for further sales. Checked April hoggets here few weeks ago when shearing, one the same gone to factory

Inchilad · 23-05-2017 11:22PM

Cran wrote:

Cull, long run do you no favors for further sales. Checked April hoggets here few weeks ago when shearing, one the same gone to factory

Ill be honest and thats what my gut says too.have some good ram lambs this year and will be selling locally so dont want to fck it up with 1 bad one.tnx

cattle man · 05-06-2017 05:25AM

Dosed and bolused lambs yesterday lot of scalds on lambs just came all of a Sudden this week little or no lambness up to this.
I walked all through a 5% solution of formalin and stood for 20 mins on concrete do ye think this will be enough or should I repeat again today.
How long before I could expect them to be healed up ?

rangler1 · 05-06-2017 07:03AM

cattle man wrote: »

Dosed and bolused lambs yesterday lot of scalds on lambs just came all of a Sudden this week little or no lambness up to this.
I walked all through a 5% solution of formalin and stood for 20 mins on concrete do ye think this will be enough or should I repeat again today.
How long before I could expect them to be healed up ?

They'll be tender today and even look worse than yesterday but I never had to do them twice, they usually are better in a few days.....5% sounds too strong, haven't used it in years but thought that 3% was the mix

Username John · 05-06-2017 08:00AM

Have a few hoggets with what I assume is strawberry footrot...

It breaks out where the leg meets the crubeen, and then the leg half rots inside the crubeen... I imagine the crubeen will eventually fall off...

how do others treat this? I normally run em through a formalin foot bath, but I don't know if it does much for this...

Now to be fair, they were bad enough too by the time I looked at em... but they are in a very bad way now, putting no weight at all on the bad leg...

Just wondering what's the best treatment for the future really, as these few I have will be sent to the factory once they put on any bit of weight (which will be slow enough with the lame leg)

rangler1 · 05-06-2017 10:23AM

Username John wrote: »

Have a few hoggets with what I assume is strawberry footrot...

It breaks out where the leg meets the crubeen, and then the leg half rots inside the crubeen... I imagine the crubeen will eventually fall off...

how do others treat this? I normally run em through a formalin foot bath, but I don't know if it does much for this...

Now to be fair, they were bad enough too by the time I looked at em... but they are in a very bad way now, putting no weight at all on the bad leg...

Just wondering what's the best treatment for the future really, as these few I have will be sent to the factory once they put on any bit of weight (which will be slow enough with the lame leg)

Overuse of formalin will harden the crubeen and it'll eventually crack off so it mightn't be the stuff to use for that problem.
You might google CODD and see some images, it sounds like what you have....it can be very infectious.
Antibiotic injections, and zinc sulphate, or even lincosin in the footbath might be the way to go. formalin will wreck the feet if overused

Username John · 05-06-2017 10:42AM

rangler1 wrote: »

Overuse of formalin will harden the crubeen and it'll eventually crack off so it mightn't be the stuff to use for that problem.
You might google CODD and see some images, it sounds like what you have....it can be very infectious.
Antibiotic injections, and zinc sulphate, or even lincosin in the footbath might be the way to go. formalin will wreck the feet if overused

Yeah, I had a look at a few videos on that... it could be, but I don't know if it is... I'd be thinking it isn't... It's only a few hog, it hasn't spread beyond them...

I suspect i wasn't good enough at the foot bathing maybe, and it's footrot that got a good hold before I treated... and it kinda went through the hoof, before I stopped it...

Tis only now I realise how well I had it with lameness... we culled hard for lame sheep, and lameness wasn't a big issue for us... when we got the store lambs there last Aug, it brought it all back again... having to bring em in often cos some few of em were always hopping around...

rangler1 · 05-06-2017 10:47AM

Username John wrote: »

Yeah, I had a look at a few videos on that... it could be, but I don't know if it is... I'd be thinking it isn't... It's only a few hog, it hasn't spread beyond them...

I suspect i wasn't good enough at the foot bathing maybe, and it's footrot that got a good hold before I treated... and it kinda went through the hoof, before I stopped it...

Tis only now I realise how well I had it with lameness... we culled hard for lame sheep, and lameness wasn't a big issue for us... when we got the store lambs there last Aug, it brought it all back again... having to bring em in often cos some few of em were always hopping around...

Yea, and they'll have to be 110% correct if they're been sold on for breeding,
Just be aware of that problem with formalin as you're going to be more regular with foot bathing getting them ready for sale

Ard_MC · 05-06-2017 03:34PM

Username John wrote: »

Have a few hoggets with what I assume is strawberry footrot...

It breaks out where the leg meets the crubeen, and then the leg half rots inside the crubeen... I imagine the crubeen will eventually fall off...

how do others treat this? I normally run em through a formalin foot bath, but I don't know if it does much for this...

Now to be fair, they were bad enough too by the time I looked at em... but they are in a very bad way now, putting no weight at all on the bad leg...

Just wondering what's the best treatment for the future really, as these few I have will be sent to the factory once they put on any bit of weight (which will be slow enough with the lame leg)

I had that in 2 ewes i bought in and 2 shots of alamycin la sorted it. But if your sending them to the factory might not be the cure for you!

Lambman · 21-06-2017 06:16AM

Anybody any experience with blue texels? Heard there easier lambed and slightly more prolific?

stantheman1979 · 21-06-2017 11:04PM

My next door neighbour has a blue texal ram. He reckons they're not hard lambed and grow like stink. He has nearly all his march born lambs sold( blue texals and dorsets) off grass. But he said a good few of the ewes has one white and one completely black lamb with made it hard to mother them up when they're young as you can't spray mark the black lambs!

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