ganmo wrote: » Had a ewe in the garden of the house that looks like she ate holly and ended up croaking. Fecking sheep!!
farawaygrass wrote: » Very high losses here too. Man and weather problems, me being the man! It was tough work this spring
Tileman wrote: » Was travelling up around Galway last week and here was allot of cold hungry sheep. Arches back on lambs. Fields in ****e. Think allot of lads would be better if waiting until end of March to lamb.
Lambman wrote: » Does many people on here sponge ewes? Seriously thinking about it next year heard it's about €5 per ewe which is steep but you could offset alot against feed if u knew exact date of lambing.whats tough % holds 1st time? Would be crossbreds ewes. Have and can get enough good rams for a 1-8 ratio
Siamsa Sessions wrote: » We sponged them for the first time last July/August. Only did 31 and I think it cost closer to €8/ewe. Might be a little cheaper if you had large numbers. The sponges are cheap enough (maybe €1-2 each) but it's the PMSG that's expensive. Comes in small 20ml bottles that each do 10 ewes (2ml each). They're €60 each in our local vets and they have to order it in. Having said that, I saw a guy on Twitter say he sponges them but gives them oats instead around the time and that works as well as the PMSG. I don't know if that's the case though. We lambed from 4-25 January. Lambing was easy and the good weather in January meant we got them all out at that stage. It's been rough since then though in all the rain and muck. Feeding meal outside is not much craic, especially when you run out of grass. Re % holding first time: 29 out of 31 were in lamb here. They lambed roughly in two batches - half after first service (4-Jan) and half after second service (20-Jan). Overall, getting them in lamb early seems very manageable. The real work starts after they lamb and there's another 2 months of winter still to go. Maybe feeding beet outside post-lambing might help, alongside the meal. But it all depends on your set-up, how much time you have, etc. And that's before you look at the factories now quoting €6.50 for Spring lamb (€123 for 19kg carcase or 40kg live weight). It'd want to be at least €7.50 to really make it worthwhile (€142).
wrangler wrote: » Ewes lambing out of season have a smaller crop of lambs and are less fertile hence the PMSG to improve prolificacy and fertility ,You mightn't needit for march lambing
wrangler wrote: » Did the first ewes have a better crop than the repeats. Pmsg doesn't help the repeats,only effective for a few days.
Siamsa Sessions wrote: » I didn't track them that closely. First year not taking all birth weights, mothering ability, etc. as I was just too busy (poor excuse!). I did the first 10 maybe and then forgot about the notebook. There wasn't anything noticeable between the first lot and the repeats, but we were only dealing with small numbers (30). PMSG being effective for only a few days would be another reason for me not to use it again.
Buford T. Justice VI wrote: » You could bypass the whole sponging thingy by letting the ram out for early lamb and then taking him away fro a few weeks before midseason return for him. A small percentage of ewes will breed out of season regardless and if you use a maternal ram on those and keep their ewe lambs, you'll have an out of season flock built up in a few years and no more sponging.
Hard Knocks wrote: » Would sponging tighten the lambing season?
Buford T. Justice VI wrote: » Yeah, it would. The down side would be needing a lot more single pens for an intense burst of lambing. . I'm disappointed with their lambing rate since I lost my supplier of Belclare rams a number of years ago. I've tried a few different suppliers since then but that mans rams suited my management brilliantly. I've used Ile de France the last few years but I need to cross away from those for a few years again and am scratching my head over what direction to go now.
Green farmer wrote: » The Joy's of finding suitable rams. Find it hard here to find a ram that suits my setup as well. Some breeds are too soft, others don't suit unassisted lambing and when you do find a breed to tick those boxes, it turns out the rams are abit too wild. Well that's my experience anyway.
Siamsa Sessions wrote: » I think it was John B. Keane himself said, you could spend your whole life looking for the right greyhound.I guess we're the same looking for the right ram and type of ewe that suits our system
orm0nd wrote: » and them when we find them think we could do better, and go a different direction and f^*k the whole thing up.
Green farmer wrote: » You still using Hampshires ormond ?
theemigrant wrote: » With all this working from home I'm getting loads of small jobs done around the place in mornings and evenings. Commuting is some waste of my time
Siamsa Sessions wrote: » Working from home could become much more regular now with office-based jobs. Based on a half-hour commute, you’d gain 5 hours per week. And that’s before the extra cars are taken off the road and money/carbon saved too
theemigrant wrote: » It was an hour and a half each way. Had everything fed and a few lame ones caught up and sorted before my usual home time
Box09 wrote: » Likewise, I'm an hour and half to city centre and back and getting so much extra done. No getting up at 5.30am to do sheep before work. I think a lot of employers will move more to working from home and demand for office space will reduce.
Tileman wrote: » I’m the same. Don’t think I’ll be able to go back to commuting again. The quality of life is fantastic. Breakfast with the kids , work away during the day . Finished at 5. Run in evening and then do the jobs before I’m normally home. Ewes lambing next week and I’m actually looking forward to it . If I knows I was going to be home I wouldn’t have sold all the other ewes
390kid wrote: » When you apply for a flock number do you need the shed and the pen?
theemigrant wrote: » Had a ewe with triplets this week. Took 1 off and put on the bottle and now she has lost the other two over the past two days. If i brought her in would she take back her own lamb?.
theemigrant wrote: » Had a ewe with triplets this week. Took 1 off and put on the bottle and now she has lost the other two over the past two days. if i brought her in would she take back her own lamb?. She seems to be a terrible mother as i fear both lambs were attacked by a crows when shed left them alone so will be getting culled but would she get mastitis if i leave her without a lamb?.
