Flushing ewes

[GorFarm]

Can anyone shed light on the best ways to flush ewes? How long should they be on better grazing before introducing tups? Lick buckets?

 

[neilo]

Can anyone shed light on the best ways to flush ewes? How long should they be on better grazing before introducing tups? Lick buckets?

What condition score are they in now? If they are fit already (CS3.5-4) then there is no real benefit from ‘flushing’.

If leaner then up their energy intake for a few weeks before tupping, until embryos are safely implanted (a couple of weeks after the last are tupped).
How you up that energy intake is irrelevant really, and will depend on what you have available.
There’s no point at all giving energy licks if you have some good quality grass to go at (unless you are trying to address a trace element deficiency, but that would have been better done in advance). If your grass is poor quality stuff then energy can come from licks, or a bit of cereal/concs, or many other ways.

I tup most of mine on old parkland grass that’s been allowed to green up, which isn’t particularly high in energy (I’ve had the fresh grass tested at 10ME in the Autumn ), so put Chrystalix/Rumenco Maxx type buckets out for them. It would be cheaper to give a bit of concs every day, but convenience has a value if you’re busy on other things.

 

[spin cycle]

rattling a feed bucket usually flushes mine out