How's lambing going for ye?

ganmo · 11-04-2015 11:16AM

Looks like we've our first pet lamb. Ewe has no milk and in poor order too
Unexpected triplet too

Cran · 12-04-2015 07:04PM

ganmo wrote: »

Looks like we've our first pet lamb. Ewe has no milk and in poor order too
Unexpected triplet too

20 pets here at the moment, most I ever had was 24 two years ago. Looking like will be beaten this year.
Ewe side 90% there lambing with ewes, about 50% ewe lambs lambed. Back to day job tomorrow unfort

Connemara Farmer · 14-04-2015 08:40PM

Best of the Cheviot x ewes I have here had two ewe lambs, 5.8kg and 5.1kg. If I had a hundred like her

sea12 · 14-04-2015 10:11PM

I am down to 4 thank god. Lots of issues with ewes with no milk for the last few days. All these pets take up so much time ,

arctictree · 16-04-2015 09:58AM

Last one lambed last night. A ewe lamb with a nice ewe lamb. Finally over! Lost a few this year but not too bad overall. No pet lambs this year which is a bit strange as I had the bottles and lamlac ready!

westman1 · 16-04-2015 10:38AM

arctictree wrote: »

Last one lambed last night. A ewe lamb with a nice ewe lamb. Finally over! Lost a few this year but not too bad overall. No pet lambs this year which is a bit strange as I had the bottles and lamlac ready!

typical ... if you hadnt got any youd have 10

sea12 · 16-04-2015 09:59PM

arctictree wrote: »

Last one lambed last night. A ewe lamb with a nice ewe lamb. Finally over! Lost a few this year but not too bad overall. No pet lambs this year which is a bit strange as I had the bottles and lamlac ready!

I've plenty this year and not enough bottles or time!! Be thankful

Bleating Lamb · 17-04-2015 08:32PM

There's a saying 'when you have livestock you will have dead stock......having that kinda year this year.On avg each year would wean around 145 lambs from 100 ewes put to the ram which is a decent return given land quality.Took advantage of the weather and orfed,tailed and inj with Covexin all lambs today.One ewe carrying a single left to lamb...in around two wks I'd say.
Final score 140 lambs running with 98 ewes.Bit below our avg,frustrating thing being in the last week alone I have come across 3 fortnight old lambs dead in the field and another pining lad died this am,lost a nice few lambs during the lambing too.....ah well once it's outside the door.
PS- not a pet around either...gave away a few lambs to decent neighbours that lost lambs.

Connemara Farmer · 17-04-2015 08:37PM

4 holdouts left here, all singles.

Green farmer · 19-04-2015 07:34PM

Closed up lambing shed today. I've 3 left to lamb but their now in my back garden. Took 1 month from when first lambed till today. Started off fast, 80% lambed in first two weeks ,then slowed down to one a day type of thing. Lamb crop numbers well up on last year. A few losses, mostly down to ewes not doing their jobs right. No toxo ,no watery mouths, no diseases. I've 4 pet lambs. Overall I'm happy.

rangler1 · 24-04-2015 07:53AM

Green farmer wrote: »

Closed up lambing shed today. I've 3 left to lamb but their now in my back garden. Took 1 month from when first lambed till today. Started off fast, 80% lambed in first two weeks ,then slowed down to one a day type of thing. Lamb crop numbers well up on last year. A few losses, mostly down to ewes not doing their jobs right. No toxo ,no watery mouths, no diseases. I've 4 pet lambs. Overall I'm happy.

You're probably doing everything better now, the profit is the number of lambs going out the gate.
Improvement is never just one thing but a combination of things
Had a sickener this morning....hogget with just a head coming, no legs. lamb was dead, it was some job to get him out, we've had more than usual putting only the head out....usually due to being a big lamb, but that's the first we lost, she was checked at 2.30 and I got her at 5.30 so she wasn't left all night....them's the joys.
Just referring to another problem, we've just 100 hoggets lambed now and every one of them turned round and licked their lamb

razor8 · 24-04-2015 08:24AM

rangler1 wrote: »

You're probably doing everything better now, the profit is the number of lambs going out the gate.
Improvement is never just one thing but a combination of things
Had a sickener this morning....hogget with just a head coming, no legs. lamb was dead, it was some job to get him out, we've had more than usual putting only the head out....usually due to being a big lamb, but that's the first we lost, she was checked at 2.30 and I got her at 5.30 so she wasn't left all night....them's the joys.
Just referring to another problem, we've just 100 hoggets lambed now and every one of them turned round and licked their lamb

Jeez that's some pain, are they taking long to form a bond? Do you think it's breeding or something else?

orm0nd · 24-04-2015 09:46AM

rangler1 wrote: »

You're probably doing everything better now, the profit is the number of lambs going out the gate.
Improvement is never just one thing but a combination of things
Had a sickener this morning....hogget with just a head coming, no legs. lamb was dead, it was some job to get him out, we've had more than usual putting only the head out....usually due to being a big lamb, but that's the first we lost, she was checked at 2.30 and I got her at 5.30 so she wasn't left all night....them's the joys.
Just referring to another problem, we've just 100 hoggets lambed now and every one of them turned round and licked their lamb

once you know the lamb is dead, good sharp blade take off the head & shove back the body to get up the legs,

Green farmer · 24-04-2015 09:57AM

[QUOTE=orm0nd;95206639, good sharp blade take off the head ,[/QUOTE]

Sounds not too pleasant, and hope I wouldn't have to do it , but if it saves the life of the ewe.... Had a suffock cross hogget here last year, found the dead lamb head swollen up like a football. Took a lot of manipulation to get the lamb out. Took over a day before hogget could stand after it. I thought the hogget was fine, she dropped dead a month later in the field.

rangler1 · 24-04-2015 10:47AM

razor8 wrote: »

Jeez that's some pain, are they taking long to form a bond? Do you think it's breeding or something else?

As I said everyone of them got up ( even after a hard lambing) looking for their lambs, so no, they were bonded in 5 mins.
A lot of the singles this year are over 6kgs, but the ewe lambs grew well over the winter and I thought they fly it, but just some of them are tight

rangler1 · 24-04-2015 10:54AM

Despite all the heat and fine weather, does anyone else think that grass is growing very poorly for nearly the first week of May

Username John · 24-04-2015 11:16AM

rangler1 wrote: »

Despite all the heat and fine weather, does anyone else think that grass is growing very poorly for nearly the first week of May

Yes, very much so...

I have about a week or 10 days of grass, and after that, the fields they grazed already don't have much at all in them...

I don't know why grass growth is bad... as you say, we have had fairly good weather...

Green farmer · 24-04-2015 11:18AM

rangler1 wrote: »

Despite all the heat and fine weather, does anyone else think that grass is growing very poorly for nearly the first week of May

I'm still fairly tight on grass here. Just looking out window here, and it's a there's a lovely soft rain falling. Coupled with the heat that's still there, I think the grass is about take off.

Username John · 24-04-2015 11:23AM

Green farmer wrote: »

I'm still fairly tight on grass here. Just looking out window here, and it's a there's a lovely soft rain falling. Coupled with the heat that's still there, I think the grass is about take off.

Cool enough here today then.

The rain was welcome all right, but we could do with a bit more heat I reckon....

rangler1 · 24-04-2015 11:23AM

Username John wrote: »

Yes, very much so...

I have about a week or 10 days of grass, and after that, the fields they grazed already don't have much at all in them...

I don't know why grass growth is bad... as you say, we have had fairly good weather...

That's what I notice too, paddocks aren't coming back......I see Green being the optimist as usual

no rain here....yet

Green farmer · 24-04-2015 11:35AM

rangler1 wrote: »

That's what I notice too, paddocks aren't coming back......I see Green being the optimist as usual

no rain here....yet

We'll do our best to encourage the wind to blow some clouds in your direction.:)

MayoAreMagic · 24-04-2015 12:04PM

It is the cool temperatures at night that are slowing the grass down. There is still frost in some places I am told. Bit of cloud cover mightn't be a bad thing.

Username John · 24-04-2015 03:31PM

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

It is the cool temperatures at night that are slowing the grass down. There is still frost in some places I am told. Bit of cloud cover mightn't be a bad thing.

Yeah, I think you're right Mayo...

And I see the forecast is that the next few nights are to only be 1 - 2 degrees or so... So that wont help the situation...

Connemara Farmer · 24-04-2015 06:03PM

Two ewes left to go and that'll be it. Didn't make rain worth talking about really.

Green farmer · 26-04-2015 06:28PM

orm0nd wrote: »

once you know the lamb is dead, good sharp blade take off the head & shove back the body to get up the legs,

I was talking to a right cute cattle farmer today. By coincidence he told me he did the exact same with a dead calf recently. Saved the cows life. You weren't too far out at all ormond.

sea12 · 26-04-2015 11:29PM

And then there was 3. Took a big single this evening. Thankfully she was lambing this evening and not tomorrow when I'm at work. Will be glad to get finished at them now.

rangler1 · 29-04-2015 08:35PM

sea12 wrote: »

And then there was 3. Took a big single this evening. Thankfully she was lambing this evening and not tomorrow when I'm at work. Will be glad to get finished at them now.

Just two left to lamb here, I took a dead lamb from a hogget on Tuesday morning and went out the fields to find a ewe dead tangled up in the electrified sheep netting, so trying to put her lambs on the hogget now...never have much luck with adoptions on first time lambers, the orphans are 3wks old and I've creep in with the lambs and they're flying it so if she rears them for another 3 wks, she'll do.
Fierce weather now, very cold, tetany weather

Connemara Farmer · 29-04-2015 09:40PM

Just the one left, hoping the poor weather will hasten juniors arrival they usually like lambing on a crap night.

sea12 · 29-04-2015 09:48PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Just the one left, hoping the poor weather will hasten juniors arrival they usually like lambing on a crap night.

Had a double today so down to 2. Lost a ewe when she strangled her self in the stocks. Don't know how so have 2 extra lambs . This weather makes it hard. Even the grass is getting very tight now. Been a tough spring hasn't it.

Connemara Farmer · 29-04-2015 10:00PM

sea12 wrote: »

Had a double today so down to 2. Lost a ewe when she strangled her self in the stocks. Don't know how so have 2 extra lambs . This weather makes it hard. Even the grass is getting very tight now. Been a tough spring hasn't it.

It's been a rubbish Spring for grass growth. I know farmers here that have already let ewes and lambs back out to the hill and nothing is growing on the fenced land - these would be lads using lime and fert every year not lads growing "white grass".

I'm relatively satisfied with how things have gone for me, only lost one lamb to the dose of twin lamb disease the flock got, lost twins to coming awkward, but have fostered on two with two more to go so will actually come out ahead of my scanning rate :pac:

A bit of fair play weather wise would mean a lot at this stage.

How's lambing going for ye?

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