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Child Item

Mortality rates

kay 9

Hi all, up to this year couldn't complain but thank fook I've only 2 left to drop this year.
30% Mortality rate which is disgusting to be mild.
I've done everything but sleep out with them.
Mule ewes given a nc cheviot as was last year.
I'm considering getting rid of the lot and changing to an entirely different breeding regime.
You name it, I've experienced it this year. Anyone else had a bad one

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kay 9

razor8 wrote: »

When people are counting dead lambs are you counting everything?

Absorbed lambs
Still born?

Or just ones you could of saved?

I count everything

kay 9

wrangler wrote: »

When we had 500 + ewes we'd have one or two every year, I just used to put it down to texels being texels, never saw a pedigree vendeen do it and they'd be a lot fatter

Was plagued with prolapses as well

kay 9

Excuse later delayed replies.
I've it down to the ewes being in too good of condition and possibly over feeding on my behalf.
Never seen as many prolapses and lambs with both legs back.
Feels as if I pulled every second lamb.

White Clover

I had a good few where both lambs were coming together, i.e. one head, and back leg of other lamb. A few times I pushed back the head and ended up bringing the other lamb backwards first.

arctictree

kay 9 wrote: »

Was plagued with prolapses as well

One of mine prolapsed and she lambed during the night with the harness on. I know they can lamb past it but first one came breach and got it's legs stuck in the harness. Dead. Second one was just about alive. Third one dead. She was so opened up that after I took the harness off the lambs literally fell out of her.

kay 9

White Clover wrote: »

I had a good few where both lambs were coming together, i.e. one head, and back leg of other lamb. A few times I pushed back the head and ended up bringing the other lamb backwards first.

My biggest problem is I'm working full time and only see them in the mornings and evenings/ night
Going to go on the rip when I've the last lambs out.
They'd drive a person to an asylum

kay 9

arctictree wrote: »

One of mine prolapsed and she lambed during the night with the harness on. I know they can lamb past it but first one came breach and got it's legs stuck in the harness. Dead. Second one was just about alive. Third one dead. She was so opened up that after I took the harness off the lambs literally fell out of her.

Had the vet out to a couple of ewes which I never had to do before. He was a good 40 mins trying to get a half couple out, actually didn't believe he was half of a couple.
I'm really considering cleaning out this flock and starting afresh with a new breed or something. Only for the wife I'd have lost more

White Clover

kay 9 wrote: »

My biggest problem is I'm working full time and only see them in the mornings and evenings/ night
Going to go on the rip when I've the last lambs out.
They'd drive a person to an asylum

I understand. I took 3 weeks leave from work and practically lived with them and still lost 7 from a scan of 134 lambs from 70 ewes.

kk.man

White Clover wrote: »

I understand. I took 3 weeks leave from work and practically lived with them and still lost 7 from a scan of 134 lambs from 70 ewes.

I am f##@&×# after almost 3 weeks off work too. Lost a fair few lambs and no ewes this year.

Am considering selling them with lambs at foot in the next while. It's not fair on man nor beast if working full time. Like you I have lived with them, still waking at 3am every morning since I returned to work.

arctictree

I left my job in December so was looking forward to lambing. Sick of it now though! Going to try and work part time and farm for the next 10 months or so.

charolais0153

White Clover wrote: »

I understand. I took 3 weeks leave from work and practically lived with them and still lost 7 from a scan of 134 lambs from 70 ewes.

Thtas fairly unreal tbh. 5% mortality.

kay 9

kk.man wrote: »

I am f##@&×# after almost 3 weeks off work too. Lost a fair few lambs and no ewes this year.

Am considering selling them with lambs at foot in the next while. It's not fair on man nor beast if working full time. Like you I have lived with them, still waking at 3am every morning since I returned to work.

There's absolutely no appreciation from farm to fork either.
I've extra grey hairs after this year.
Short fuse from tiredness as well but I try not bring it inside the door but I can be like a bitch at times.
Only two left lol. Praise the Lord. Not going through this next year. Had no trouble during calving but they're worth next to nothing either.
The whole thing is up in a heap.
We'd never be rich but by jasus worse it's getting.
Don't even mention the 'b' word. I'll bite the next prison to mention that lol

kay 9

charolais0153 wrote: »

Thtas fairly unreal tbh. 5% mortality.

Great to see some done well. Wouldn't wish my year on anyone.
Fair play with those figures ðŸ‘

Dinzee Conlee

kay 9 wrote: »

Great to see some done well. Wouldn't wish my year on anyone.
Fair play with those figures ðŸ‘

It’s tough to take Kay9, after a year of looking after em to lose so many...
When we had ewes, we lost about 25% of the lambs one year... we only had about 70ewes, but it was sickening...

But then, I think about 2 years later, we didn’t lose any lambs... Not 1 loss, from about 50ewes I think...

Not much consolation I know, just some years are bad, some are good...

kay 9

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

It’s tough to take Kay9, after a year of looking after em to lose so many...
When we had ewes, we lost about 25% of the lambs one year... we only had about 70ewes, but it was sickening...

But then, I think about 2 years later, we didn’t lose any lambs... Not 1 loss, from about 50ewes I think...

Not much consolation I know, just some years are bad, some are good...

Yep, can have a bad year now and then. It's not all roses, brings a person back to earth though. Here's to a good summer though.

FarmerDougal

Finished lambing at 10% losses from scanning, 1.67 on the ground atm
Supervised from 6am to 11pm
5 lost overnight in 5/6 weeks
Mainly small weak lambs not properly managed and some bad luck

2 pets

Lost 3 sheep, hard lambing and 2 from Tetany
Even with a high mag buckets out
Quite disappointed with size of some lambs and milk from some ewes even though in very good condition and all fed heavily a month out, any ideas??
Happy enough overall

kay 9

FarmerDougal wrote: »

Finished lambing at 10% losses from scanning, 1.67 on the ground atm
Supervised from 6am to 11pm
5 lost overnight in 5/6 weeks
Mainly small weak lambs not properly managed and some bad luck

2 pets

Lost 3 sheep, hard lambing and 2 from Tetany
Even with a high mag buckets out
Quite disappointed with size of some lambs and milk from some ewes even though in very good condition and all fed heavily a month out, any ideas??
Happy enough overall

That's was a great return. Keep doing what you're doing

Dickie10

my ewes finished with 122 lambs from 70 ewes out of a scan of 1.95 i ended with 1.75 in field. higher mortality rate than last year and 5 very strange deaths. one ewe with tripets, they seemed to all get rattle belly or something , they got a hump on them about a week old and all died off over a fortnight one by one with all going down on the legs one by one i presume it was a mineral deficency maybe in ewes milk, she was about 7 year old ewe. another ewe lost her two lambs, one i found dead then about 5 days later i found the other with very little power in his legs and within a couple of hours he couldnt stand at all , he wouldnt drink milk from a bottle either and was dead the next morning. i wonder was it white muscle disease? its a selenium deficiency and drought condtions can bring a selenium deficiency.

Dickie10

labing ewe lambs now and i have 10 lambed with 11 lambs another 12 to go.

kay 9

Dickie10 wrote: »

my ewes finished with 122 lambs from 70 ewes out of a scan of 1.95 i ended with 1.75 in field. higher mortality rate than last year and 5 very strange deaths. one ewe with tripets, they seemed to all get rattle belly or something , they got a hump on them about a week old and all died off over a fortnight one by one with all going down on the legs one by one i presume it was a mineral deficency maybe in ewes milk, she was about 7 year old ewe. another ewe lost her two lambs, one i found dead then about 5 days later i found the other with very little power in his legs and within a couple of hours he couldnt stand at all , he wouldnt drink milk from a bottle either and was dead the next morning. i wonder was it white muscle disease? its a selenium deficiency and drought condtions can bring a selenium deficiency.

Were they in our out? Sounds like hypothermia. Had it here twice and the bulb didn't do any good. It's hard to get ahead of it

Dickie10

in and then out after a few days but were strong

charolais0153

kay 9 wrote: »

Were they in our out? Sounds like hypothermia. Had it here twice and the bulb didn't do any good. It's hard to get ahead of it

In the fpotwell of the car with the heat blasted up. Saved 2 nice lambs a few years ago doing it

charolais0153

Lost 7 lambs from abortion(all Texel 2 year olds) 3 lied on[2 by same ewe], 2 with suspected pneumonia. 4 from bad weather/not sucking,1 deformed, about 12 lambs from trebles that just died(dont have a clue what was wromg,1 or 2 from the majority of sets just came dead. Majority were perfectly formed(maybe a wee bit watery looking)
Definitely more tbat i just cant think of. First lamb i touched was just dead coming,one of a couple. Dont count the dead ones as they say.

Dickie10

so nobody has any experience of white muscle disease?

razor8

Dickie10 wrote: »

in and then out after a few days but were strong

You sure it wasn’t joint I’ll? As a vet said the common problems are common

Dickie10

no all legs gone within 24 hours

kay 9

charolais0153 wrote: »

In the fpotwell of the car with the heat blasted up. Saved 2 nice lambs a few years ago doing it

Very good idea. Must think of that when needed again

Lambman

Last crossbred ewe lambed last night giving me 1.647 lambs per ewe in the field from a 200% scan lost 2 ewes as well and give away 5 pets another ewe there with no milk that's till get the hook aswell... I thought it was worse till be honest it definitely felt that way.

sheepfarmer92

kay 9 wrote: »

Yep, can have a bad year now and then. It's not all roses, brings a person back to earth though. Here's to a good summer though.

Don't be too hard on yourself you'll have good years and bad years, we had about a hundred ewes aborted they're lambs one year after a toxo outbreak, remember there's more to life, I wouldn't be too hooked on the type of ewe to be honest we have 2 flocks here the biggest flock lambs indoors they are mostly bred from a base of mule/greyface ewes and are belclare and texel crosses with some NC Cheviot and Suffolk crosses which are nearly gone at this stage, these 700 lamb indoors and scanned 1.8, iv 1.7 turned out never had such a good year with them, still have 24 of them left to lamb, lost 8 ewes from them and have 10 in a paddock with no lambs they will be going for the chop next week
The other flock is made up of easycare crosses and Cheviot cross horned ewes lambing out side, due to having very little help we ended up selling half of them after scanning, kept 350 carrying twins the Cheviot horny crosses are going pretty well, the easycares are a mixed bag not sure if we'll bother continuing with them, definitely more losses with this flock and wouldn't know the numbers til they're weaned

Bleating Lamb

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Doing ok as regards lamb losses but have had two in lamb ewes put out their insides,found dead in morning in each case,so not after they were fed nuts.Ewes are in v good condition so should I put it down to that?

Got another ewe carrying twins and a week from lambing dead this morning with innards pushed out.Fed up with it....so dropped this one up to the Lab to see if they can come up with a cause of death.