Sheep winter fodder

early_riser · 22-08-2018 08:54AM

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

We'd be feeding them along a concrete passage-way with them inside on straw behind a feed barrier so they'd be sticking their heads out to eat it.

Did you feed straw or hay with the beet for fibre? I mean, is beet like concentrates and too much of it could cause acidosis?

Do you have beet ordered? Lots grown around here but most forward bought this year by dairy men and beef finishers

orm0nd · 22-08-2018 09:23AM

Green farmer wrote: »

That’s another reason why I’d prefer not to be relying on it either. Spoke to the biggest mill in my area and was told their not taking in any new bulk delivery customers atm when I enquired about getting a few tonne blown in.

they're not able to fulfil their dairy customer deliveries just now , let down a lot of people badly over the august bank holiday weekend

wrangler · 22-08-2018 10:09AM

orm0nd wrote: »

they're not able to fulfil their dairy customer deliveries just now , let down a lot of people badly over the august bank holiday weekend

Can't blame them really, demand is unprecedented

Siamsa Sessions · 22-08-2018 02:08PM

early_riser wrote: »

Do you have beet ordered? Lots grown around here but most forward bought this year by dairy men and beef finishers

I'll check with him later today. 4-5 ton would probably do us.

Siamsa Sessions · 22-08-2018 09:51PM

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I'll check with him later today. 4-5 ton would probably do us.

He said we’d be grand for that amount anyway so just need to check now whether all beet (plus some concentrate) might cause acidosis.

Anyone? Will we need to feed a little hay or straw for fibre with the beet?

grassroot1 · 22-08-2018 11:14PM

Here is my 2 cents Getting the minerals and protein in a mix you do yourself is impossible. If you can buy a ration with 18% protein (soya bean meal sourced)it will be hard to beat it. Getting the balance of minerals in a ewes diet is a fine line if you get it wrong sheep health is affected(more hardship for the shepherd)
Cut costs where you can but that might not be the place.
Scan the ewes and feed the singles less might be a better saving.

memorystick · 23-08-2018 01:45PM

Would this be a good year to buy store lambs? Thinking of buying 50 and grazing them on the silage ground and beet tops with meal. Hoping to buy December 1. Any advice. Thanks

ganmo · 23-08-2018 02:56PM

memorystick wrote: »

Would this be a good year to buy store lambs? Thinking of buying 50 and grazing them on the silage ground and beet tops with meal. Hoping to buy December 1. Any advice. Thanks

good to buy now, not sure about december though

early_riser · 24-08-2018 11:33AM

Was talking to a lad lives nearby yesterday he has sheep and tillage. He cut oats couple of weeks ago and kept some for himself was going to disc a stubble field and spread out the oats over field,then roll and let it grow for his early lambing ewes in jan feb give his grass a chance get going.
In another field he is going to sow maize in next year he has ewes grazing any volunteer grain and around the ditches at the min, going to sow a rye vetch mix middle of next month, graze early and get a cut of silage early may before he tills for maize. He says it would work well for someone that wants to grow beet or kale aswell.
Could be options for anyone with stubble fields to help stretch things a bit

memorystick · 09-09-2018 03:20PM

ganmo wrote: »

good to buy now, not sure about december though

I've no money at the minute and it should be Nov/Dec before I could buy stock. Even 1 lamb per hectare at that time of year should be ok with a pinch of meal.

Dinzee Conlee · 09-09-2018 07:08PM

Said i’d throw this in here, might be interesting for some...

http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/live/Report/1448138122MikeMillereditedreport

DJ98 · 09-09-2018 10:53PM

Have very little hay made this year, was wondering if I ordered twice the amount of beet this year and used hay just as roughage would this suffice in lamb ewes over the winter. Is there any risks associated with feeding too much beet?

Floody Boreland · 10-09-2018 08:03AM

From the link provided by Dinzee Conlee...

All Winter Grazing for Sheep ... by Michael Miller
A
Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust report
... generously sponsored by David Allen, Esq.

“To obtain this constant
supply of fresh grass, let us suppose that a farmer who has
any extent of pasture ground, should have it divided into 15 or 20 divisions, nearly
all of equal value: and that, instead of allowing his beasts to roam indiscriminately
through the whole at once
, he collects the whole number of beasts that he intends
to feed into one flock, and turns them all at once into these divisions; which, being
quite fresh, and of sufficient length of bite, would please their pallet so much as to
induce them to eat of it g
reedily, and fill their bellies before they thought of
roaming about, and thus destroying it with their feet.
And if the number of beasts were so great as to consume the best part of the grass
of one of these enclosures in one day, they might be al
lowed to
remain there no
longer;
giving them a fresh park every morning, so as that same delicious repast
might be again repeated.
And, if there were just so many parks as there required days to make the grass of
these fields advance to a proper length after being
eat bare down, the first field
would be ready to receive them by the time they had gone over all the others; so
that they might be thus carried round in a constant rotation.”

Rotational grazing from 1777.

Siamsa Sessions · 10-09-2018 01:22PM

DJ98 wrote: »

Have very little hay made this year, was wondering if I ordered twice the amount of beet this year and used hay just as roughage would this suffice in lamb ewes over the winter. Is there any risks associated with feeding too much beet?

Going to try a similar diet here too. Need to be careful of beet being bulky and ewes potentially getting too fat. I’m guessing the bigger stomach might also put pressure on the lambs chamber (can’t remember technical name!) and might lead to more prolapses.

Anyone have experience on here of using beet as the main part of in-lamb ewes’ diets?

Green farmer · 13-09-2018 08:29PM

Done another paddock of silage today but still going to be tight on fodder. Decided against chopping it this year, to reduce wastage. Anyone know the recommended ratio of bales to ewes to get over the winter ?

ganmo · 13-09-2018 09:03PM

try this
https://www.agriland.ie/fodder-budget-calculator/

tabby aspreme · 13-09-2018 10:19PM

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Going to try a similar diet here too. Need to be careful of beet being bulky and ewes potentially getting too fat. I’m guessing the bigger stomach might also put pressure on the lambs chamber (can’t remember technical name!) and might lead to more prolapses.

Anyone have experience on here of using beet as the main part of in-lamb ewes’ diets?

Fed a lot of beet to ewes for the last two winters , both in the fields and ad-lib with in the shed with straw , no problems with prolapse, used to add minerals into the chopper before chopping

Siamsa Sessions · 14-09-2018 06:34AM

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Fed a lot of beet to ewes for the last two winters , both in the fields and ad-lib with in the shed with straw , no problems with prolapse, used to add minerals into the chopper before chopping

Thanks for the info. Just need to find some straw now!

Green farmer · 16-09-2018 02:03PM

In all the calculators, they all leave it up to yourself how many days feed you think you’ll need, how many days winter feed are lads planning for this winter ? I’ve optimistically hoping to have grass up till mid nov, silage to start / mid March and plug all other gaps with meal ? How does that compare ?

charolais0153 · 16-09-2018 02:45PM

Green farmer wrote: »

In all the calculators, they all leave it up to yourself how many days feed you think you’ll need, how many days winter feed are lads planning for this winter ? I’ve optimistically hoping to have grass up till mid nov, silage to start / mid March and plug all other gaps with meal ? How does that compare ?

Its hard to know . all i know is 50 bales(30-35% DM) does us for around 120 ewes. Very hard to actually calculate it when youre supplementing with meal and if there outside with a pick of grass

Green farmer · 16-09-2018 02:55PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

Its hard to know . all i know is 50 bales(30-35% DM) does us for around 120 ewes. Very hard to actually calculate it when youre supplementing with meal and if there outside with a pick of grass

That doesn’t sound too bad. I’ve been feeding chopping silage over the last few years and it wasn’t going that far, so gave up the chopping this year. Hoping it will make a difference and silage will go further.

tabby aspreme · 16-09-2018 08:56PM

Green farmer wrote: »

In all the calculators, they all leave it up to yourself how many days feed you think you’ll need, how many days winter feed are lads planning for this winter ? I’ve optimistically hoping to have grass up till mid nov, silage to start / mid March and plug all other gaps with meal ? How does that compare ?[/quote

1 bale for 2 ewes with single lambs or a bit more over that length of time, ewes carrying twins will eat less

early_riser · 23-09-2018 12:20PM

Anyone get any prices for beet yet this year?

Siamsa Sessions · 30-09-2018 08:00PM

Do sheep gorge on beet? Or do they just eat their fill?

We might be feeding beet outside and I’m thinking of spreading lots of beet around the field to save bringing out a day’s worth at a time.

Is it likely some will “overeat”?

drive it · 02-10-2018 10:31AM

I have hay and silage got this year but it's only 2/3 of what I need 2 questions : 1) which should I buy hay or silage both are more or less the same price?
2) which should be fed first the hay or silage?

Loves_lorries · 02-10-2018 05:51PM

Keep a handful of lambs here to graze field around house, lambs weigh about 50kg,was wondering how much meal they would need per day over the winter, would 5 kg do ten each day?

Box09 · 02-10-2018 06:34PM

Are these ewe lambs that you are going to sell for breeding hoggets?

Loves_lorries · 02-10-2018 08:32PM

Box09 wrote: »

Are these ewe lambs that you are going to sell for breeding hoggets?

Fatten for xmas

early_riser · 14-11-2018 11:51PM

early_riser wrote: »

Anyone get any prices for beet yet this year?

Was talking to a local dairy farmer this evening hes paying E55 a tonne washed and delivered for beet, expensive feeding enough i taught.
How are people fixed for fodder now? With the good back end might just scrape by here with what i have but would like to get another few bales or take a bit grazing if i could get it

sheepfarmer92 · 15-11-2018 06:16PM

early_riser wrote: »

Was talking to a local dairy farmer this evening hes paying E55 a tonne washed and delivered for beet, expensive feeding enough i taught.
How are people fixed for fodder now? With the good back end might just scrape by here with what i have but would like to get another few bales or take a bit grazing if i could get it

Used to get beet for 40 a ton here washed but it's an awkward feed, never found it much good to be honest, high enough in energy but full of water

Sheep winter fodder

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