Ewes on swedes

cubby

Member
What would the farming forum recommend
We have grown 5 acre of swedes for after scanning time .unsure of what to put on it and what they would require in addition we have some nice first cut and second cut bales for roughage in my head I will put the mule twins on it with silage but will they require rolls too other batch’s of ewes on farm will be mule singles and triplets bf hill singles and twins and mule ewe lambs to lamb want to make best use of them and keep feed lorry out the road end
 

adda

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
mid wales
What would the farming forum recommend
We have grown 5 acre of swedes for after scanning time .unsure of what to put on it and what they would require in addition we have some nice first cut and second cut bales for roughage in my head I will put the mule twins on it with silage but will they require rolls too other batch’s of ewes on farm will be mule singles and triplets bf hill singles and twins and mule ewe lambs to lamb want to make best use of them and keep feed lorry out the road end
we put mule twin ewes on swedes after scanning just move the electric fence every day after the first week we start on ewe rolls but after feeding rolls dont put them on fresh lot of swedes for a few hours we learnt the hard way over that we bolus ewes before they go on swedes make make sure there is iodine in bolus that is what we do ? i would not put singles on swedes to early before lambing you will have a lot of lamb pulling other wise swedes are very good feed if managed right
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Not done swedes only stubble turnips but don’t feed any hard feed, all twins and triplets, ewes and ewe lambs go on turnips, 5-6 day’s for each fence move with ad lib haylage available as roughage. Never singles, go on from 8 weeks pre lambing to 2 weeks pregnant lambing then set stocked into lambing fields. I do put mineral tubs in for the triplets incase of iodine and mineral tubs for twins a few days before they finish and go to grass
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
If you dilute the feed value of the swedes by putting bales out, then you may well need to feed concentrates to multiple ewes.

If you don’t trash the ground by putting bales out, the crop obviously won’t go as far, but the strip grazed swedes will provide everything they need in terms of energy and protein ime.

I move singles off forage crops a good 3 weeks before lambing, putting them to scavenge on fields that have already been grazed, otherwise they get too fat.
 

cubby

Member
Thanks for your reply’s I will need to have a look at iodine will probably go with mule twins on silage and swedes and monitor condition looking forward to it last year we fed 10 ton of blocks and 25 ton of cobs to 700 ewes and 200 ewe lambs we took over in November term with a bound stock of ewes which were lean the farm had next no grass so we had no choice but use concentrate so less of that will certainly help home grown forage 👍
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Thanks for your reply’s I will need to have a look at iodine will probably go with mule twins on silage and swedes and monitor condition looking forward to it last year we fed 10 ton of blocks and 25 ton of cobs to 700 ewes and 200 ewe lambs we took over in November term with a bound stock of ewes which were lean the farm had next no grass so we had no choice but use concentrate so less of that will certainly help home grown forage 👍

Tbh, if you still have that number of sheep, 5ac of swedes will only help to eek out forage supplies unless you are only running a proportion on it.

Maybe you have a bumper crop, but I would hope to keep 200-250 ewe lambs growing steadily on 5ac of swedes, from Christmas to early March. I’ve given up on swedes here as seed is expensive and yields too unreliable. More reliable in places with more summer rainfall I expect.
 

cubby

Member
We definitely have rainfall in sw Scotland we managed to grow a crop this year who knows next year getting more lime on just now for future fields 500 off the ewes are bf hill ewes which I won’t put on swedes they run on 3 separate hills although put Cheviot tips to them last year and happy with the first cross the 200 mules will go on swedes to try and build grass in there fields still set stocked as no many fences and Dykes about yet grass and crops will be the future for us
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Thanks for your reply’s I will need to have a look at iodine will probably go with mule twins on silage and swedes and monitor condition looking forward to it last year we fed 10 ton of blocks and 25 ton of cobs to 700 ewes and 200 ewe lambs we took over in November term with a bound stock of ewes which were lean the farm had next no grass so we had no choice but use concentrate so less of that will certainly help home grown forage 👍
35-40 acre of turnips (half down early september) with bales fed circa 900 twins and triplets for 6 weeks, the only barley and oats I fed last year was what was in a individual pen for more than 24 hours with twins or triplets. 2t of blocks used for the period few weeks pre lambing to 7 weeks post lambing
 
Last edited:

adda

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
mid wales
35-40 acre of turnips (half down early september) with bales fed circa 900 twins and triplets for 6 weeks, the only barley and oats I fed last year was what was in a individual pen for more than 24 hours with twins or triplets. 2t of blocks used for the period few weeks pre lambing to 7 weeks post lambing
But you are in God's country 😁
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
What would the farming forum recommend
We have grown 5 acre of swedes for after scanning time .unsure of what to put on it and what they would require in addition we have some nice first cut and second cut bales for roughage in my head I will put the mule twins on it with silage but will they require rolls too other batch’s of ewes on farm will be mule singles and triplets bf hill singles and twins and mule ewe lambs to lamb want to make best use of them and keep feed lorry out the road end
Have all your lambs gone
 

Kernowkid

Member
Interesting thread. Was looking at putting in 5-10 acres next year.
Currently got 42 acres of rape/stubble turnips in. Got 700 ewes and 250 ewe lambs. Got a fair bit of dairy grass keep so will eat that then bring them home on the green crop.
last year had some bunches on upto maybe a week before indoor lambing and suffered with several going off the legs with calcium deficiency with the silage
Any tips? Also I want to cut concentrate feed out but fear not snackering twins/trips will have them low on milk/colostrum? Maybe not such an issue on green crop more coming off winter grass or silage in the shed?
 

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