Ewe lambs

[Cobblers]

Bought 150 smart mule lambs out of Lazonby last week , going to run them dry and sell next summer .They have all seen a trough and are in good order , does anyone recommend feed buckets or similar ? We are based in South Northamptonshire on decent ish grass but didn’t want them to melt away .I don’t normally use anything but they are not normally this fit .

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

I thought all Mules lived on grass alone!!

 

[M-J-G]

If you can keep them on fields that are at all green, they need nothing else.
Our ewe lambs have been grazing tracks and eating areas that nothing else will.

Maybe give them a plain mineral bucket, but I wouldn't be giving them a feed supplement.

If you are in any doubt about judging if they need fed or not, offer them straw, when they are prepared to eat straw then are getting bare.

 

[M-J-G]

I thought all Mules lived on grass alone!!

You'd be wrong then.
Plenty do only see grass, but people do feed them.

 

[Gedd]

I thought all Mules lived on grass alone!!

If you ride up the Dale's around here theres feeders in every field before gimmer lamb sales

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Those big lmbs aren't reared on hills and heather anymore, all on better green fields and feed aswell to get to that size, also probably lambed alot sharper than 20 years ago.

 

[puppet]

If you have grass then they will be fine. Maybe a bucket in hard weather. If sales not until August then plenty time to put on flesh next summer.

 

[tr250]

Bought 150 smart mule lambs out of Lazonby last week , going to run them dry and sell next summer .They have all seen a trough and are in good order , does anyone recommend feed buckets or similar ? We are based in South Northamptonshire on decent ish grass but didn’t want them to melt away .I don’t normally use anything but they are not normally this fit .

Get the tup in with them. I can’t see much of a margin in running round this year

 

[Ysgythan]

Sugar beet nuts

 

[Bob]

Don’t feed them bit of hay/haylage will see them through winter

 

[Skintagain]

If they have been fed to death you will watch your investment look poorer every day until Christmas then they will level off over Jan/Feb and bloom in spring with compensatory growth through next summer. If you feed them now you will need to feed them all winter to keep them looking the same.

 

[Wooly]

I thought all Mules lived on grass alone!!

I think they need to buy some Romney lambs for grass alone feeding !?! Although I think mine have lived off fresh air in this summers drought.

Just so happens Frank and I have some for sale ........

 

[Agrivator]

I think they need to buy some Romney lambs for grass alone feeding !?! Although I think mine have lived off fresh air in this summers drought.

Just so happens Frank and I have some for sale ........

Why don't you lot in the South East get into Cheviots to produce purebred and crossbred sheep that normal sheepmen want to buy?

 

[Guiggs]

Spring grass will fix any weight loss.
I'd have thought the sooner they get used to not being fed from a bag the better for all concerned!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Personally I'd just keep grass in front of them, hay/haylage mid winter if it gets rough. A bog standard mineral luck would probably be a damn good call. Sheep don't eat it if they don't need it!

 

[M-J-G]

Get the tup in with them. I can’t see much of a margin in running round this year

The margin is in what it will take to replace them next year.
Sounds daft, but it's reality.

 

[Sheepfog]

Why don't you lot in the South East get into Cheviots to produce purebred and crossbred sheep that normal sheepmen want to buy?

I have always thought the same!

Know a farmer putting a couple of Park type NCCs across his Romney gimmers. Should give them better bodies and skins.

 

[M-J-G]

Sugar beet nuts

Why buy one of the most expensive forms of energy and protein for dry hoggs?

If I was forced to feed concentrate to some thing like unemployed ewe lambs it would be the cheapest thing I could get, like whole barley.

 

[Ysgythan]

Why buy one of the most expensive forms of energy and protein for dry hoggs?

If I was forced to feed concentrate to some thing like unemployed ewe lambs it would be the cheapest thing I could get, like whole barley.

Energy and appetite driver

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Why don't you lot in the South East get into Cheviots to produce purebred and crossbred sheep that normal sheepmen want to buy?

They have been tried over the decades but for some reason they only last a short time. The hard grazing and prolonged droughts seem to destroy their metabolism. Crossed with a Romney (Perendale in NZ) worked a little better but they mostly lost there teeth by the end of 3 crops.

They also tended to get much too fat when there was plenty of grass but couldn't take grazing the dirt and went very poor and took longer to recover than the Romney.