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I'm trying to make an excel tool to help me calculate the feed requirements for ewes pre-lambing (last 6-8 wks) Can anyone link me to papers, factsheets or articles that deal with: rates of grain supplementation when feeding silage,hay and straw of different nutritional quality. (%dmd) Rates...

What are the majority of people on here doing, Putting the lambs straight onto grains with a bit of roughage and into a shed a la feed-lotting Or are many of you grazing stubbles / catch crops etc. with perhaps supplemented grain? Or a bit of both depending on how close they are to the...

What do you feed? ad lib concentrate?

@TALDLONKTUP2 Good on you if you can save 'every lamb'. Even if I was supervising 24/7 I dont think I could. To be fair I think we are mostly in agreement on this. Where I perhaps differ is the amount of time I think I should be spending going through the flock searching for those bad traits...

For clarity, when we say 'checking the stock' do we mean popping our head over the hedge and looking on from afar? Or do we mean gathering them into a huddle and walking through them for a closer inspection? Or do we mean both depending on the outcome of the former? I tend to prefer to keep...

Makes me feel a bit better knowing the last one we lost was probably the same one doing it over and over. Mostly happens here when the grass is lush and say a month before shearing. Checked them twice, morning and evening and she still managed it! :scratchhead:

Firstly, thanks for all the replies. Some good points being made. Using my own experiences with lowland flocks who tend to lamb intensively indoors, it seems to me that we have perhaps domesticised this animal too much if it now relies solely on us for birth/shelter/feed. By interfering with...

Keeping once again with the theme of how often we check stock. See below for an extract of an article that always fascinated me and really set my way of thinking on this issue. It specifically deals with lambing but its not hard to apply the discussion to the entire sheep calendar. I have...

Anyone any tips on how to deal with what I would call cast ewes (ewes on their back) ? Shearing, Culling? Just reading the topic about how often we check stock, and realised for me this is one of the main reasons we inspect the sheep daily. Interested on how to prevent from occurring in the...

Interested to here what your mortality rates are like for the sheep?

I disagree slightly as I think we do have 'some' control over price. If I bring 10 lambs to the factory, i'll be able to negotiate one price compared to if I bring 100 lambs to the factory. Similarly I know of a farmer who negotiated with a restaurant to purchase a portion of his organic lamb...

Some great points being raised so far. To throw my two cents into the barrel, I would warn to not overlook your cash flow situation (as your contractors will want to be paid!) and whether you can afford spending £100,000 in the first year. If its a 3-5 year plan, try and model it a bit on...

Farming in a partnership with equal say. Would prefer to go down the same path together. However we're parked at the crossroads for the moment.

Wanted to highlight this post below to see if I can get more responses. Once again thanks for all the replies so far, some really good nuggets of information.

Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate it. For the avoidance of doubt, it would seem from all your replies that most of what I am saying is possible. High quality silage is achievable, it is not the preserve of dairy farmers and high soil index farmers. Stockproof fencing is...

On reflection the 50% figure is most probably an exaggeration. Though you might say it feels like 50% at times. ;) Its probably more in the order of 20% requiring assistance with another 10-15% being assisted, but not being really required. But for me, that is just too high. and by putting...

Thanks for your response BaaBaa Suffolk & Belclare maternal sires with Charrolais terminal sires. For the last couple of years we have been selecting 4-5 star sheep Ireland recorded Rams. So in terms of genetics we are on an upward curve which, coupled with the breeds we have leads me to think...

Thanks for the reply Willie. Care to elaborate on this?

Hi all, My first post here. I'm hoping you might be able to assist me in dispelling a few myths that have crept up in conversations with some of my peers. I’m quite happy to be wrong in my assumptions and opinions. I also welcome any constructive suggestions, however please don’t overly...