Recent content by Aspiring Peasant

Lambed last of 33 Beltexes yesterday. All bought as shearlings last year so first time lambers. Produced 47 lambs but we lost 8 of them. Some bad luck, one was stamped on and smashed its knee so had to be put down, one rotten malformed lamb, one ruptured, couple born with bag over their heads...

I would say Conan is ideal for heifers, easy calving but good calves

Done

This was the "conventional wisdom" I was told when we started keeping cows 7 years ago. We calved about 20 heifers, some AI'd to Limousin and some to AA and later some served by my own Limi bull. I had to help more of the AA's than the Limis. We therefore stick to Limis now, get a more valuable...

Google Braithwaites Garage at Penrith they had some in recently

You've got to be very careful how you use them. They are not a substitute for bad training. I think they are only to be used sparingly for specific problems like sheep chasing. They are NOT to be used for general training to recall, sit etc that is a recipe for disaster. In the example I...

I got a 14 month old labrador once which chased sheep. Got an e collar. Couple of shocks when he was chasing them and that was it. I could walk him through a field with sheep off his lead and he wouldn't look at them. Turned into a brilliant rough shooting dog and died last year at 14. If I...

AI'd one yesterday that calved on 5th Jan. It's quite possible to gain a month if the cows are in good condition

Also had a couple calved to Galileo unassisted.

Had 2 blue heifers calve to Hamlet last autumn. Both calved on their own

You've confirmed exactly what my experience tells me. We've wormed all ewes at lambing for 3 years now and had much less need to worm lambs over summer and not had a problem with the ewes either.

These figures agree almost exactly with what we worked out this year. We reckoned excluding labour they cost £47 to return around £80. Couldn't be done here though without a competent wife!

We always have a bottle of cheap perfume in the lambing shed!

+1 for Lincospectin footbath. If they're breeding sheep and you're worried about it being on the farm consider footvax. I know it is not proven to protect against CODD but anecdotally and from our own experience it does

If you cost in the value of the land or it's rental value then I don't see grass as a cheap feed.