Ewe lamb management

[will6910]

I usually tup ewe lambs each year and in past had a wee system for timings of feeding and all that but been while since did it and all in my head Iv forgot my system. Just wondering what others do with ewe lambs been to ram? They Suffolk and Texel cross been with Charolais ram. Size of my farm and grazing means I bring all ewes and ewe lambs inside about Christmas new year time roughly. Any advice appreciated

 

[Woolless]

Having made a very moderate job of the ewe lambs the previous year, I changed things this time. Brought them all into the shed mid January when ewes went on to sacrifice field. Fed hay/haulage and 300g of 16% cake. Second half of March the untupped and scanned empties went out to grass. Singles on to 200g/day of 18% ewe rolls. Twins in with triplet ewes and fed 400g ewe rolls twice daily. I don't think you can feed them enough. The first couple of singles to lamb (very late March) were a little bit slow with their milk but the rest lambed a treat.

Another system that worked well was some that I wintered on some very rough grass on a farm where I had taken some other decent keep. I kept a feed block in front of them (I was only there once weekly) and they came through the winter in great form.

 

[will6910]

Having made a very moderate job of the ewe lambs the previous year, I changed things this time. Brought them all into the shed mid January when ewes went on to sacrifice field. Fed hay/haulage and 300g of 16% cake. Second half of March the untupped and scanned empties went out to grass. Singles on to 200g/day of 18% ewe rolls. Twins in with triplet ewes and fed 400g ewe rolls twice daily. I don't think you can feed them enough. The first couple of singles to lamb (very late March) were a little bit slow with their milk but the rest lambed a treat.

Another system that worked well was some that I wintered on some very rough grass on a farm where I had taken some other decent keep. I kept a feed block in front of them (I was only there once weekly) and they came through the winter in great form.

Thanks, Iv been giving mine a fattening nut since September reallt as they were super crazy and wanted to quiet down and kept it up during tupping to make catching ram easier. Rams been taken out now and the 20 lambs are to go to a dairy farm next week for a while and isn’t a huge amount of grass. Was debating with myself what should I do about food for them. The man doesn’t want big Suffolk crosses ewes tramping about in this weather so has to be the ewe lambs

 

[HarryB97]

Grass for mine outside or roots/covercrop in the winter and if they ever have to come inside adlib silage. Give them a mineral bolus to. If they get in lamb as a ewe lamb then that's great but if they don't it doesn't matter

 

[will6910]

Grass for mine outside or roots/covercrop in the winter and if they ever have to come inside adlib silage. Give them a mineral bolus to. If they get in lamb as a ewe lamb then that's great but if they don't it doesn't matter

20 were with ram but mightn have many inlamb as ram went off a foot but he’s marked 18 of them. Managed to keep ewe lambs in a good system to a few years ago when they had to stay outside later as havent a shed finished for them as had wait for builders and they failed back and caused all sorts issues. Just wary of the same happening again

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Do nothing 'special' for them, and then you won't breed lambs that "need" cake to finish.
If the results are poor, then you simply need better stock, not more inputs

 

[will6910]

Do nothing 'special' for them, and then you won't breed lambs that "need" cake to finish.
If the results are poor, then you simply need better stock, not more inputs

Stock was terrible for few years for few reasons that I hope got to bottom off now. For years lambs wouldn’t have seen meal untill they were near lambing. Unless was heavy snow or no grass. But the years they grew crap if they weren’t fed to help Them there have been rubbish

 

[Woolless]

Do nothing 'special' for them, and then you won't breed lambs that "need" cake to finish.
If the results are poor, then you simply need better stock, not more inputs

I would prefer to run them round on decent winter grass (which I don't have) or forage crops(which I haven't grown). I don't like feeding cake but this is a classic example of where a small input can bring about a big benefit.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I would prefer to run them round on decent winter grass (which I don't have) or forage crops(which I haven't grown). I don't like feeding cake but this is a classic example of where a small input can bring about a big benefit.

This can be the case.
It could also mean that I missed a chance to cull some stock, ie I'm not matching carrying capacity with my stocking rate - that isn't always apparent hence my above comment!
It depends whether the priority is numbers or shaping the future, to an extent - sometimes less is more

 

[Bury the Trash]

This can be the case.
It could also mean that I missed a chance to cull some stock, ie I'm not matching carrying capacity with my stocking rate - that isn't always apparent hence my above comment!
It depends whether the priority is numbers or shaping the future, to an extent - sometimes less is more

Yes but The thread is about inlamb
ewe lambs.

 

[Woolless]

This can be the case.
It could also mean that I missed a chance to cull some stock, ie I'm not matching carrying capacity with my stocking rate - that isn't always apparent hence my above comment!
It depends whether the priority is numbers or shaping the future, to an extent - sometimes less is more

The problem with that is that summer and winter grass growth here are so different. Stock for winter carrying capacity and you're woefully understocked in the summer. That is usually and setting aside poor grass growth last summer and exceptional grass growth this year. The answer to which currently is conserving the surplus as silage with the benefit that the aftermath is rocket fuel for the Hampshire X lambs in particular. Deferred grass suits cows (next project hopefully), not so good for growing ewe lambs.

Having outlined the problems, I am all ears for different solutions?. Feel free to point me in the right direction!

 

[@dlm]

Ouch. Bringing in mid January to feed makes my eyes water but appreciate types of land and weather in this country so variable. Buy a strongoing tupping lamb that in my wisdom only just putting to tup. Normally lamb touch earlier but just a hunch. Reeed regularly and have chucked out feed blocks. Last winter was kind and fed nothing. Would have had 6 or 8 lambs go stiff legged lambed outside presumably twins and lack of colostrum. Not ideal but 1.2 lambs sold from 500 ewe lambs and mothers sold 40 % over purchase price it was a great year. On the other hand I bring cattle in earlier to allow sheep the grazing so I'm adding expense there to be fair. And reseeding is far from nothing so a form of feeding but once done requires no labour which I lack

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yes but The thread is about inlamb
ewe lambs.

Yes, English is my first language

 

[will6910]

Ouch. Bringing in mid January to feed makes my eyes water but appreciate types of land and weather in this country so variable. Buy a strongoing tupping lamb that in my wisdom only just putting to tup. Normally lamb touch earlier but just a hunch. Reeed regularly and have chucked out feed blocks. Last winter was kind and fed nothing. Would have had 6 or 8 lambs go stiff legged lambed outside presumably twins and lack of colostrum. Not ideal but 1.2 lambs sold from 500 ewe lambs and mothers sold 40 % over purchase price it was a great year. On the other hand I bring cattle in earlier to allow sheep the grazing so I'm adding expense there to be fair. And reseeding is far from nothing so a form of feeding but once done requires no labour which I lack

With only 40 acres and winter grazing stopping at 1st January not much options other that bring them all inside

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The problem with that is that summer and winter grass growth here are so different. Stock for winter carrying capacity and you're woefully understocked in the summer. That is usually and setting aside poor grass growth last summer and exceptional grass growth this year. The answer to which currently is conserving the surplus as silage with the benefit that the aftermath is rocket fuel for the Hampshire X lambs in particular. Deferred grass suits cows (next project hopefully), not so good for growing ewe lambs.

Having outlined the problems, I am all ears for different solutions?. Feel free to point me in the right direction!

Taking on grazing that represents a low-to-nonexistent biosecurity risk is what we do, eg. grazing trusted neighbours ewe lambs to maintain pasture quality?
Our CC varies hugely depending on season, and seasonal conditions, but matching SR to CC helps maintain good pasture quality without sacrificing quantity (which in a low/no input system equates to resilience), at the moment we're running around 26lsu/ha as it is still raining.
It's very easy to match pasture demand to supply, however it can also be expensive to look solely to "conventional ways" of matching these, which usually involve burning lots of fuel and removing (rather than cycling) nutrients from the landscape.

Dairy calves are also useful but also their growthrate needs to be maintained to keep them on target, hence the ewe lambs are a better tool for us as our priority is our land and business, then our cattle, then our sheep.

 

[Woolless]

Taking on grazing that represents a low-to-nonexistent biosecurity risk is what we do, eg. grazing trusted neighbours ewe lambs to maintain pasture quality?
Our CC varies hugely depending on season, and seasonal conditions, but matching SR to CC helps maintain good pasture quality without sacrificing quantity (which in a low/no input system equates to resilience), at the moment we're running around 26lsu/ha as it is still raining.
It's very easy to match pasture demand to supply, however it can also be expensive to look solely to "conventional ways" of matching these, which usually involve burning lots of fuel and removing (rather than cycling) nutrients from the landscape.

Dairy calves are also useful but also their growthrate needs to be maintained to keep them on target, hence the ewe lambs are a better tool for us as our priority is our land and business, then our cattle, then our sheep.

How do you use the dairy calves, just as extra livestock units when required? I'm in a big way with them, reared three last winter and thinking about buying six this time?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

How do you use the dairy calves, just as extra livestock units when required? I'm in a big way with them, reared three last winter and thinking about buying six this time?

Yes, we aren't in a full-on dairy area but social media is pretty useful, especially once you get a rep for doing a good job; we could stock 1000 acres with dairy calves/carryover cows/hoggets or whatever we want.
Timing can be a factor here as spring-calved herds all have their calves weaned just before Xmas, so you need to have a plan in place in spring as to what you'll need.
We try to mix it up with some hogs, some fattening cattle, some hoggets etc etc so if it goes dry we can still lose a mob and keep on trucking, that diversity is very handy as usually mobs can be all mixed and run as one big flerd, or in a leader/follower system.

This saves having to screw younger stock into "cleanup duty", eg at the moment the cattle get a couple of hours of peaceful grazing and in come the hoggets/ewes+lambs, and we have our handful of heifers/calves/rams grazing all the fragile areas that don't suit a lot of animal impact.
It's just a PITA having a lot of one type/age of stock that "must be fed" as you can easily cease being a regenerative farmer and become destructive; the world is full of the moaning buggers without copying them

 

[will6910]

this is the lambs this morning. Didn’t give them meal this morning to get weaned off befofe they go to diary farm this week. This last field at home of grass that isn’t being saved for spring so if they stayed home they only have that field then be onto silage

 

[unlacedgecko]

Yes, English is my first language

You sure about that?

 

[MRT]

"Speak English to me Tony, I thought this country spawned the ****in' language and so far nobody seems to speak it."