How's lambing going for ye?

Connemara Farmer · 24-03-2015 08:55AM

ihatewinter wrote: »

I have a feeling this will be a disaster of a lambing season. Only 7 lambed and already suffered one ewe with no milk, 1 ewe with one big and one small (fecking tiny) lamb and one lamb with no anus opening.

Plus 2 prolapses. Going to be a long time till it's over :mad::(:confused::(

The bad stuff usually comes at the start, things will improve.

AntrimGlens · 24-03-2015 10:31AM

Just a typical lambing here, nothing spectacular and nothing untoward. (fingers crossed) Some quite small lambs, one of a twin in particular would have been considered small if it was a quad.
Singles are lambing down quickly but only one triplet lambed so far, so not getting a chance to foster anything off.
I've learnt my final lesson regarding sentimentality in farming. I've an old ewe who I've always had a soft spot for and she was always the first lambed and reared a set of great twins, but she had a bit of a prolapse last year but I said I'd keep her and let her live her days on the farm. She prolapsed last week and despite a harness she ended up at the vets for a caesarean and took two good char lambs out of her that lived for about five minutes

but she's away to the field with a set of two from ewe lambs with twins.
Ewe lambs are lambing well, plenty of milk and very maternal so thats a bonus.

Green farmer · 24-03-2015 11:20AM

There are two things here i won't give a second chance to . Prolapse and bad or lack of mothering instincts. Have a ewe here who doesn't even want to know anything about her lambs. She won't be around to do the same next year.

arctictree · 24-03-2015 11:30AM

Have a hogget here that would break your heart. She's definitely being culled this year:

1) She's about 3/4 the size she should be
2) She doesn't have much milk
3) She was feeding at the trough while in labour with a lamb hanging out of her.
4) She wouldn't follow her lambs when being turned out
5) One of her lambs broke his leg, I'm convinced she lay on him

The list just goes on.....

The only positive is that she has two lambs with her out in the field.

arctictree · 24-03-2015 11:36AM

Green farmer wrote: »

There are two things here i won't give a second chance to . Prolapse and bad or lack of mothering instincts. Have a ewe here who doesn't even want to know anything about her lambs. She won't be around to do the same next year.

Would you keep the ewe lambs from a ewe that has prolapsed? I always wonder what other farmers do with these. ie could a good proportion of fine looking hoggets in the Mart in September be from prolapsed mothers?

MayoAreMagic · 24-03-2015 11:57AM

arctictree wrote: »

Have a hogget here that would break your heart. She's definitely being culled this year:

1) She's about 3/4 the size she should be
2) She doesn't have much milk
3) She was feeding at the trough while in labour with a lamb hanging out of her.
4) She wouldn't follow her lambs when being turned out
5) One of her lambs broke his leg, I'm convinced she lay on him

The list just goes on.....

The only positive is that she has two lambs with her out in the field.

Id say point 1 is the explanation for the rest of the points. She shouldn't be in lamb in the first place... If it was me Id foster them onto another sheep and give her another chance next year.

farawaygrass · 24-03-2015 12:08PM

Ewes and ewe hoggets with ring womb, would ye give these another chance for next year?

Username John · 24-03-2015 12:10PM

arctictree wrote: »

Have a hogget here that would break your heart. She's definitely being culled this year:

1) She's about 3/4 the size she should be
2) She doesn't have much milk
3) She was feeding at the trough while in labour with a lamb hanging out of her.
4) She wouldn't follow her lambs when being turned out
5) One of her lambs broke his leg, I'm convinced she lay on him

The list just goes on.....

The only positive is that she has two lambs with her out in the field.

Send her off when she has her lambs reared, if she is no good to mind em now, I wouldn't bother chancing her again.

On the prolapsed - I wouldn't breed from that ewe / keep her lambs. Again - why bring unnecessary trouble on yourself...

arctictree · 24-03-2015 12:33PM

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

Id say point 1 is the explanation for the rest of the points. She shouldn't be in lamb in the first place... If it was me Id foster them onto another sheep and give her another chance next year.

Sorry, she's a 2 year old ie born in March 2013. First time lambing this year. I doubt if she will grow any more.

razor8 · 24-03-2015 12:47PM

Very happy with lambing this year, over half ways and have over 1.8 in the field including ewe lambs
Only 2 slight prolapses that required a harness and no dead ewes, abortions, TLD or slipped lambs this year

definitely the easiest I had in a good few years after a few years of abortion storms and the like, putting it down to ewes been in good order going in and silage quality is good 70dmd and it's stemmy which I think helps them digest it better
Lying in a bale a straw writing this about to nod off!

Cran · 24-03-2015 02:45PM

razor8 wrote: »

Very happy with lambing this year, over half ways and have over 1.8 in the field including ewe lambs
Only 2 slight prolapses that required a harness and no dead ewes, abortions, TLD or slipped lambs this year

definitely the easiest I had in a good few years after a few years of abortion storms and the like, putting it down to ewes been in good order going in and silage quality is good 70dmd and it's stemmy which I think helps them digest it better
Lying in a bale a straw writing this about to nod off!

Fair play, I always think no ewe losses is a great indicator. Lost 2 here in last month, one was an accident :rolleyes: and the other just went down and died turned out to be dead lambs

Not complaining though one loss up to lambing is not bad.

AnFeirmeoir · 24-03-2015 03:44PM

going good . only 16 left in the shed. At least 3 of them are empty i think. these could drag out a couple of weeks.
Throwing them outside the day after they lamb / maybe 2 days
Practically no losses except for 2 older lambs dead in the field (clostridia of some sort)

Hand one ewe lambed hard 2 days ago that started forcing everything out last night. put the harness on and gave her some alymycin and she seems to have calmed down.

4 out of the 9 ewe lambs have alredy lambed no bother to the beltex. which is good cause they were on the small side this year.

Have one lamb on the bottle.

Keeping grass ahead of them is my biggest concern..

davidk1394 · 24-03-2015 04:03PM

Is there any1 here interested in a few pet lambs ?

razor8 · 24-03-2015 05:46PM

Cran wrote: »

Fair play, I always think no ewe losses is a great indicator. Lost 2 here in last month, one was an accident :rolleyes: and the other just went down and died turned out to be dead lambs Not complaining though one loss up to lambing is not bad.

Had a ewe at scanning that scanner said had 2 lambs and a dead one, ended up all were dead and she was sick for 2 days after but went out with two triplets on her, so ended ok

Also been fierce lucky with fostering, have no lambs on feeder yet, have nearly 25 wet fostering done and all worked bar 2 which are in adoption crate, singles lambed at right time and and that lost one ended up going out with 2

I've reduced numbers on last year so probably got rid of any problem ewes and it's a younger flock

Green farmer · 24-03-2015 06:01PM

arctictree wrote: »

Would you keep the ewe lambs from a ewe that has prolapsed? I always wonder what other farmers do with these. ie could a good proportion of fine looking hoggets in the Mart in September be from prolapsed mothers?

No way. Had a young 2 year old sheep completely prolapse on first time lambing, and died a few weeks ago. Reckon she's from a ewe that died following prolapse a few years back. Want to rid it from the flock completely. The longer I'm in sheep farming , the more I see bad traits from their parents coming through, especially ewes like prolapse , poor milkers, laziness towards lambs etc.

Separately , I used a charley and texel ram for most of the ewes this year. It pains me to saw, noticeably way fewer assisted births this year, with charley being used. They are firing them out. I say this because I still prefer the look of a texel better. Cannt wait for my llyen lambs to start arriving, hope I can spot the difference between the llyen and texel

Dickie10 · 24-03-2015 06:28PM

just lambing the first lleynn x ewe lambs. excellent milk and very easy to lamb, all lambed on their own HD ram. However i have lost 3 to scour. one single and a double, this scour is golden coloured and thick, the lambs looked in pain with it.one was dead when i came out to shed yesterday morning and another dead this morning, the other twin had trace of scour on his backside and literally died before my eyes, he went from standing albeit a bit shook looking to dead in 20 mins. its as if they get it and thats it.

now i dont ever vaccinate the ewes here, my father never did , and im only starting out so i didnt bother either but im wondering is this down to poor antibodies in the colostrum. they all got plenty of milk when they were born. never got a doing like this before. the shed was completly washed out with disenfectant after a bout of ecoli that i manged to stop in batch of ewes. this is a very different looking scour though as the ecoli was wet, clear backsides.

Green farmer · 24-03-2015 06:37PM

Dickie10 wrote: »

just lambing the first lleynn x ewe lambs. excellent milk and very easy to lamb, all lambed on their own HD ram. However i have lost 3 to scour. one single and a double, this scour is golden coloured and thick, the lambs looked in pain with it.one was dead when i came out to shed yesterday morning and another dead this morning, the other twin had trace of scour on his backside and literally died before my eyes, he went from standing albeit a bit shook looking to dead in 20 mins. its as if they get it and thats it.

now i dont ever vaccinate the ewes here, my father never did , and im only starting out so i didnt bother either but im wondering is this down to poor antibodies in the colostrum. they all got plenty of milk when they were born. never got a doing like this before. the shed was completly washed out with disenfectant after a bout of ecoli that i manged to stop in batch of ewes. this is a very different looking scour though as the ecoli was wet, clear backsides.

I've a bottle of antibiotics with anti inflammatories here. I've given it to any weak lambs or ones that you'd find cold the following morning. Seems to be doing the trick. Find that when I was leaving it to when the lamb was flaked out, it was too late.think the anti inflammatory bit is making the difference. Maybe something to think about.

Connemara Farmer · 24-03-2015 07:37PM

Unsatisfactorily so far, 34 went to the ram, 2 empty, 2 lost their lambs, 3 twins lambed so far, one dead lamb but in fairness that was from the ewe that was down twice so one living lamb for her is a win IMO, 4 ram lambs, 1 ewe lambs, need lots more ewe lambs this year please!

All the same it could be worse, all the twin ewes are back in the tunnel and no problems so far. Dads lamb the fox bit a few days ago is now able to suck the ewe by herself, and the weather is fairly nice if not a little too cold.

Could be worse, bigger problems out there in the world

rangler1 · 24-03-2015 09:22PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Unsatisfactorily so far, 34 went to the ram, 2 empty, 2 lost their lambs, 3 twins lambed so far, one dead lamb but in fairness that was from the ewe that was down twice so one living lamb for her is a win IMO, 4 ram lambs, 1 ewe lambs, need lots more ewe lambs this year please!

All the same it could be worse, all the twin ewes are back in the tunnel and no problems so far. Dads lamb the fox bit a few days ago is now able to suck the ewe by herself, and the weather is fairly nice if not a little too cold.

Could be worse, bigger problems out there in the world

Presume you're feeding hay in the tunnel now.
Lambing the bunch that scanned 1.6 here at the moment, a lot to be said for the singles.....out in the field as soon as they are dry, no pressure, a bit of joint ill rearing its head in the first bunch, but nothing serious.
Grass ain't exactly jumping the ditches yet either:(

ganmo · 24-03-2015 09:32PM

one twin in beside the fire

Connemara Farmer · 24-03-2015 09:42PM

rangler1 wrote: »

Presume you're feeding hay in the tunnel now.
Lambing the bunch that scanned 1.6 here at the moment, a lot to be said for the singles.....out in the field as soon as they are dry, no pressure, a bit of joint ill rearing its head in the first bunch, but nothing serious.
Grass ain't exactly jumping the ditches yet either:(

Yes, I got 25 small bales of hay on Saturday, given the trouble I had I didn't want to risk another occurrence this close to lambing. I don't think I'd get away as light a second time. Not to say that it would happen but I didn't want to take the chance. I'm not finished with the straw diet idea just yet, sheep don't seem to look at the straw when there's hay around. It was mentioned to me to wean them off the hay slowly indoors now, I'm reluctant to do it. SFA grass here either, too cold, but could be worse, could be pissing down day & night with gales.

fanadman1 · 24-03-2015 09:55PM

davidk1394 wrote: »

Is there any1 here interested in a few pet lambs ?

What part of the country are u in ?

Green farmer · 25-03-2015 12:58AM

rangler1 wrote: »

, a lot to be said for the singles.....out in the field as soon as they are dry, no pressure,
Grass ain't exactly jumping the ditches yet either:(

Getting very crowded here in the shed now. Is the weather ok to put them out ?. Good idea with the singles. Had to bring a triplet and a lamb with a swollen head home. So night time bottle feeds tonight. Unlikely they'll make it , but still have to try.

Dickie10 · 25-03-2015 01:12AM

deceided to drop that lamb off at backweston lab in celbridge . in fairness only 8 euro, but i kind of researched it myself. everything is pointing to Lamb Dysentry which came from not vaccinating the ewes, every sign i read about was present in these lambs, this really has woken me up to vaccinating the ewes and hoggets, the colostrum is basically not good enough to fight this disease. growing up here we never vaccinated but mostly outdoor lambing was done so i suppose with a tighter lambing spread inside this clostridial vaccination was crucial.

do many of you not vaccinate on here? ! i guess like i said before im learning everyday!

now another problem i have emerging is what to do with these llynn x ewe lambs that have lost lambs i have two with full elders of milk and none wanting lambs to put on them. should i buy a few pets and put them on them? i fostered 3 already this year this way. it might help to curb mastitis?
really dont want to lose these ewe lambs to mastitis after the time i spent sourcing the ram and breeding them

rangler1 · 25-03-2015 07:33AM

Green farmer wrote: »

Getting very crowded here in the shed now. Is the weather ok to put them out ?. Good idea with the singles. Had to bring a triplet and a lamb with a swollen head home. So night time bottle feeds tonight. Unlikely they'll make it , but still have to try.

We're letting everything out at 48hrs old, but not if it's going to be a wet day.
We'd let 5- 10 out in the morning, check them in the evening, unbelievable the way they strengthen up in the day, it's vital to feed the ewes well to keep the milk flowing.
If they're in too long, mismothering can be a problem

arctictree · 27-03-2015 12:23PM

arctictree wrote: »

None of my second batch (of 15) have lambed yet. Ram went in on the 1st November so should be due any day now?? They are looking big though.

Replying to myself...! Still no lambs yet!!

Green farmer · 27-03-2015 02:34PM

arctictree wrote: »

Replying to myself...! Still no lambs yet!!

I Looked at lambing calendar that I use which seems accurate enough. It calculates They were only due yesterday , so at 1 day late I won't start to panic yet

Connemara Farmer · 27-03-2015 04:13PM

8 lambs at the moment, 6 of those ram lambs! That trend would want to change as I'm looking to build numbers from this year on.

fanadman1 · 27-03-2015 07:36PM

Last ewe lambed today

26 lambs with 14 ewes delighted with that average:) also i have 13 ewe lambs so great choice to pic my replacements from

paddysdream · 27-03-2015 10:28PM

Pressure off here as only 26 left to lamb between ewe lambs and ewes as of tonight.No more late nights for a while I hope.

Like I said before had a nice handy year to date with the only major problem being 2nd crop ewes rejecting or neglecting their lamb.Had to bring back in about 10 and a couple of those needed the fostering gate for a few days.The remainder were ok once they were penned up tight with the lamb.
All the problem ones were singles and none were mismothered as far as I know.
Lost one ewe choking on nuts in the shed and another put out bed before lambing and died next day.
Lambs seem to be thriving pretty well at the moment but grass aint growing so that might change.
Not feeding ewes once they go to grass.

Last batch(old ewes and ewe lambs) started off bad with 3 dead singles in the lambs,2 of which were as difficult to take as I have ever seen.Had 2 old ewes lamb down with not a drop of milk and no udder at all.
After that they seemed to go ok.One thing to be said for ewe lambs is the way they take to their lambs and the ease of fostering lambs onto them.

Some major interest in pet lambs this year.Had an add on done deal and the amount of calls was unreal compared to previous years.Vast majority were looking for lambs to rear on the bottle with very few farmers looking for foster lambs.Only wanted to get shut of 4 or 5 lambs who were gone too big to keep as foster lambs for the last batch but could have sold 50 if I had them.

How's lambing going for ye?

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