Going out of sheep

[toquark]

100 sheep don’t need much in the way of infrastructure; until quite recently we were lambing around 90 with a few dozen hurdles, some feed troughs and a trailer. Only just upgraded to a (home built) handling system 2 years ago.

100 ewes are no tie really and the OP shouldn’t let them cloud his vision on what he wants from life. If I were him, I’d flog em and live without for a year or two and see how it goes, if he regrets it, head down the mart and buy some more.

 

[livestock 1]

I had given up the idea of going around lambing ewes "helping" by the age of 8 or 9

this guy sounds like a genius compared to the wise octogenarians who agonise about how to save with the wee lamby with the cold mouth or the wee calf that still won't sook after a month

I'm still stuffed if I know how the practice of "lambing them" is still a thing in this day and age - we have cars that wipe their own windows and turn on the headlights, but yet only keeping breeding stock that can birth their young unassisted is still "not possible" and the only alternative is to just get some help in

No wonder you lot need subsidies

 

[killie_cowboy]

Hello all,
I have around 100 breeding ewes that run along side the family flock of 500 beltex ewes. I work off farm relief milking and odd full days calf rearing way from home making a decent wage for myself. But as I’ve hit the age of 20 I no longer have the inthusiasm to lamb ewes
Meaning I have to take a month off work to lose out on a good months wages to knacker myself and at the end of it to make nill. So I was wanting to know if I am to go out of sheep would it be worth buying some calves or stirks in to sell as stores or to Finnish. We are ex dairy so have a lot of shed space that doesn’t get used. It doesn’t have to make a fortune I just want something to run around to call my own. Thanks.

If I had 500 beltex to lamb, I would have an aneurism and never want to see another sheep again...

 

[Jimfandango]

You're 20. Sell the lot. Buy an open ended plane ticket and go and see the world. Worry about making work for yourself when/if you decide to come home

 

[Rich_ard]

In nz they get contactors in to do everything, tail, crutch, shear, silage and fencing. But different to us that do that ourselves.

Farmers in nz probably have more free time though. They get a drink and watch rugby on a sunday

 

[Kiwi Pete]

In Australia I am told the target is 5000 (yes, five thousand) ewes per labour unit. NZ more like 3000.

By comparison it appears that many in UK make sheep more difficult, by having breeds that don't lamb themselves, and lambing indoors.

Tin hat on.

Yes that is describing a business, though.

In nz they get contactors in to do everything, tail, crutch, shear, silage and fencing. But different to us that do that ourselves.

Your post nailed it.
Operating a business doesn't mean doing all the jobs, if we were to ask Elon if he made all those cars and rockets himself it would be hard to keep a straight face while asking it.

I bet in his spare moments he nips into the homes of his staff and watches them mate, makes a note and is there waiting to deliver the baby with a gown on... mashing up veg for infant, and carrying sacks of groceries in from Tescos "to help"

Nope, he makes money from his business and pays people to do the work.

Not a hobby

 

[Rich_ard]

Yes that is describing a business, though.

Your post nailed it.
Operating a business doesn't mean doing all the jobs, if we were to ask Elon if he made all those cars and rockets himself it would be hard to keep a straight face while asking it.

I bet in his spare moments he nips into the homes of his staff and watches them mate, makes a note and is there waiting to deliver the baby with a gown on... mashing up veg for infant, and carrying sacks of groceries in from Tescos "to help"

Nope, he makes money from his business and pays people to do the work.

Not a hobby

UK farmers love work though. Otherwise they would hang around in marts getting overweight!

 

[Estate fencing.]

Farmers in nz probably have more free time though. They get a drink and watch rugby on a sunday

So do some of us, not very often I’m at work on a Sunday afternoon, lambing is the only time.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

UK farmers love work though. Otherwise they would hang around in marts getting overweight!

Fair play I had never noticed that!

It's where most businesspeople start out, completely attached to what all those hours means about their commitment and passion.

And that is why the average life expectancy of a small business is very very short, that attachment to "being the business" has them being the worker in a business with no leadership, and it means nothing to their dead granda looking down from heaven or even the chap saying "one day this will all be yours"

They're both pleased some other tit is doing all the work

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So I really want to say right here to @Swaley

Thanks for asking the question. It takes something to ask a question, especially on here.

If you never ever lose that ability to question, then you'll one of the wealthiest, fullest, richest and most alive people on the planet, success leaves clues.

Wish to f**k I had had more of that at 20....

 

[killie_cowboy]

So I've been through the whole thing now... another depressing read through a typical TFF thread on advice for youth. Giving out the whole "don't do it, sell the lot" patter as if a career in British agriculture is akin to doing a belly flop off the Forth bridge.

Then ofc is kiwi Pete representing the typical line of the Aus/NZ members "ahh leave all your ewes to it, I don't care, I feed the worst ones to the dogs alive and then have a beer and do nothing all weekend. No wonder you need subsidies for daring to have any sort compassion towards your stock"

I'm 21 myself and always thought "ahh nah doesn't appeal to me this going abroad" but there's that many out just now, seeing Snapchats and videos then blethering to them what theyre up to and that and well it's appealing more to me. But I'm not going out expecting to learn anything. I'm just wanting to go out for a few months with a few pals, have some craic, drive some tractors, make some money then come home and blow the lot on machinery and north country cheviots...

 

[Hill Ground]

just wanting to go out for a few months with a few pals, have some craic, drive some tractors, make some money then come home and blow the lot on machinery and north country cheviots...

I can highly recommend this, only I'd recommend, drive some tractors, have some craic, earn some money, book in to some backpackers, spend all earnt money, come home no poorer than you left but with lots of good stories!

 

[killie_cowboy]

I can highly recommend this, only I'd recommend, drive some tractors, have some craic, earn some money, book in to some backpackers, spend all earnt money, come home no poorer than you left but with lots of good stories!

Surely just a good way to get murdered is backpacking? Would need to be home for lambing and calving anyway

 

[ringi]

So I've been through the whole thing now... another depressing read through a typical TFF thread on advice for youth. Giving out the whole "don't do it, sell the lot" patter as if a career in British agriculture is akin to doing a belly flop off the Forth bridge.

The issue he have is that owning 100 ewe of his owe forces him to also lamb (unpaid) all the families ewes hence stopping his employment income for lambing season.

 

[killie_cowboy]

The issue he have is that owning 100 ewe of his owe forces him to also lamb (unpaid) all the families ewes hence stopping his employment income for lambing season.

Well I suppose this is true, he could sell his yows to the family if he just wants cattle work and there's none at home. Don't know what size of a place this is, but if he did stick it out for a year or two he would maybe get buying in stock he likes to work with. I don't find lambing in the shed a hard thing at all when it's blackies and mules. He works for dairy farms which means he is used to getting up early which would be the least pleasant part...

 

[David.]

So I've been through the whole thing now... another depressing read through a typical TFF thread on advice for youth. Giving out the whole "don't do it, sell the lot" patter as if a career in British agriculture is akin to doing a belly flop off the Forth bridge.

Then ofc is kiwi Pete representing the typical line of the Aus/NZ members "ahh leave all your ewes to it, I don't care, I feed the worst ones to the dogs alive and then have a beer and do nothing all weekend. No wonder you need subsidies for daring to have any sort compassion towards your stock"

I'm 21 myself and always thought "ahh nah doesn't appeal to me this going abroad" but there's that many out just now, seeing Snapchats and videos then blethering to them what theyre up to and that and well it's appealing more to me. But I'm not going out expecting to learn anything. I'm just wanting to go out for a few months with a few pals, have some craic, drive some tractors, make some money then come home and blow the lot on machinery and north country cheviots...

The main benefit of being old is that you can now look back honestly, and see what a pr*ck you were at 18, and can see how you would do it differently given a second go.
The tragedy is that this crop of 18yr olds already know more than us, as we knew more than the old coots of our day, and so will not listen to the guidance borne of experience, that us old coots now try to offer.

 

[Hill Ground]

Surely just a good way to get murdered is backpacking? Would need to be home for lambing and calving anyway

Are you confusing hitch hiking and backpacking?

 

[Rich_ard]

The main benefit of being old is that you can now look back honestly, and see what a pr*ck you were at 18, and can see how you would do it differently given a second go.
The tragedy is that this crop of 18yr olds already know more than us, as we knew more than the old coots of our day, and so will not listen to the guidance borne of experience, that us old coots now try to offer.

"Youth is wasted on the young"
If I had my twenty again I'd be lambing everything I could.
Depends what he is going to do with all the free time he hopes to have. Buying calves to rear on could be a hiding to nothing too. A big vet bill or knacker bill!

 

[Rich_ard]

Surely just a good way to get murdered is backpacking? Would need to be home for lambing and calving anyway

Where you going? If nz or oz doubt you will have any trouble backpacking. It's not even backpacking. You just stay in hostels with a load of other young folk looking for a good time

 

[Devil's advocate]

Well in March I shall be either doing field work, rebuilding a drystone wall (@£31.80 per metre), in the house doing paperwork but every 4 hours will go check the ewes in the lambing shed.

Don't give a monkeys what other people do, especially in New Zealand.