Indoor lambing set up costs

[Northeastfarmer]

dont believe claims from old neighbours of going in at night for sleep and not coming out again till morning.

Nor me...must be some deaths

 

[hally]

All very well lambing outside when it’s hay making weather....lambs wouldn’t last 5 minutes with the bitter cold winds we have had of late.
you can’t beat the option of having both

I always like the guys down south telling the northern guys we should be lambing outside, seen some horrendous losses around here over the years with weather. We have had snow, hail and rain today and it’s bloody freezing but the biggest benefit to sheds imo is not the lambing but the rest it gives your land in a wet winter on a heavily stocked unit, the protection it can give at lambing is just a bonus. Aside to that we normally foster on a lot of lambs which is certainly more difficult outside.
If I was lambing in a drier/milder county certainly outside would be the better option but you have to p*ss with the c*ck you have got

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I always like the guys down south telling the northern guys we should be lambing outside, seen some horrendous losses around here over the years with weather. We have had snow, hail and rain today and it’s bloody freezing but the biggest benefit to sheds imo is not the lambing but the rest it gives your land in a wet winter on a heavily stocked unit, the protection it can give at lambing is just a bonus. Aside to that we normally foster on a lot of lambs which is certainly more difficult outside.
If I was lambing in a drier/milder county certainly outside would be the better option but you have to p*ss with the c*ck you have got

100% agree

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

All very well lambing outside when it’s hay making weather....lambs wouldn’t last 5 minutes with the bitter cold winds we have had of late.
you can’t beat the option of having both

Been tough out on the Marshes last night. It was 2'C and light drizzle early evening and we decided to leave everything alone and left by 6.30pm.
Temperature dropped during the night and was frost this morning but no more rain or sleet luckily. Lambed over 80 during the night and over 50 twins. Two halfs of pairs dead and a couple cold but survived alright. Very open and exposed on this ground with only a few dry ditches to get in.

Romney's will put up with the cold, just don't like the wet with it.

And we are down south!!

 

[hally]

Been tough out on the Marshes last night. It was 2'C and light drizzle early evening and we decided to leave everything alone and left by 6.30pm.
Temperature dropped during the night and was frost this morning but no more rain or sleet luckily. Lambed over 80 during the night and over 50 twins. Two halfs of pairs dead and a couple cold but survived alright. Very open and exposed on this ground with only a few dry ditches to get in.

Romney's will put up with the cold, just don't like the wet with it.

And we are down south!!

That’s not just Romney’s that’s all sheep, -5 here last night, lamb milk machine in a open fronted shed froze solid as the wind was hellish driving the cold into the buildings but it was dry and that’s the main thing.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Been tough out on the Marshes last night. It was 2'C and light drizzle early evening and we decided to leave everything alone and left by 6.30pm.
Temperature dropped during the night and was frost this morning but no more rain or sleet luckily. Lambed over 80 during the night and over 50 twins. Two halfs of pairs dead and a couple cold but survived alright. Very open and exposed on this ground with only a few dry ditches to get in.

Romney's will put up with the cold, just don't like the wet with it.

And we are down south!!

You may as well be farming on the equator where you are

 

[jackp]

Iv nothing too hide so I’ll post all my costs exactly...

270 ewes too lamb.. inside from the 14th of jan and lambing started 24th jan all lambed and turned out by 20th of March
Scanned 162%
18 Triplets ate £103 of corn
126 singles ate £325 of corn
126 twins ate £1086 of corn
I used 24 120x90x7ft bales of hay I’d imagine they’ll be £60 a piece but not had the bill yet so £1560
15 120x90x8ft bales of hay again not had the bill yet but probably £60 a bale so £900
A girl helped me for 3 weeks 8hours a day 4 days a week and cost £1400
The value of my hurdles is £1400
The value of my walk through feeders is £560
£70 on hydrated lime
Shed rent was £1000 for 2 months start to finish
Cost me £300 get somebody come with a bob cat muck it out at the end
I spent £600 on drugs treating bad feed and bad lambings ect...
spent £150 on water pipe fittings, and pipes and a few second hand troughs
Can’t find anything else Iv wrote down as costs so that must be it So in total it cost me too lamb inside this year (I already had hurdles and walkthrough troughs but includes there value for if I had too go out and buy them fresh)

£9450 all in [emoji15] but... it was nearly a foot of snow for the whole first week of lambing, and I doubt nc mules and suffolk crosses would lamb outside that early without plenty of pain... also my land is scattered all over the place...

Nice to see some one being so open and honest posting costs like this

 

[Mc115reed]

Nice to see some one being so open and honest posting costs like this

Missed off £140 for a C section too...
First time Iv wrote it all out this year normally I just get on with it... I fed a lot more corn than I needed too this year because last year I struggled with no milk and this year struggled with big lambs... can’t be perfect all the time the only real place I can see too save money is the corn and the medical bills.. hay and straw will always fluctuate also

 

[Anymulewilldo]

My singles all lamb out, we wander round them 4/5 times a day. Bring in the ODD issue overnight if the weather is bad otherwise they are fine outside.
Multiples lamb inside with the option too turn out if the weather allows. It’s a lot of work yes but as mentioned before, when the weather is absolutely disgusting it’s far nicer lambingbin a dry shed than out in the mud (which is never far away here)


I was thinking about a fella today who always claims too never have lost a lamb at lambing time. What about still births? As the Knackerman winched 3 ewes (one mastitis, one prolapsed her guts, one a full uterine prolapse 4 days post lambing) and a bin of lambs in tonight he told me “these folk forget I see what they lose, believe me for the number of sheep you run your dead pile is small by comparison too a lot of em!” Made me feel a little better until he gave me the bill!

 

[Estate fencing.]

It takes a proper shepherd to have a successful outside lambing, but any muppet can lamb some ewes in a shed. The skill of lambing out is knowing when to intervene, like frank said they left them at 6.30pm, that is better than keep disturbing them couple of hours.

 

[Optimus]

It takes a proper shepherd to have a successful outside lambing, but any muppet can lamb some ewes in a shed. The skill of lambing out is knowing when to intervene, like frank said they left them at 6.30pm, that is better than keep disturbing them couple of hours.

Cheers for calling me a Muppet.you gods gift to farming like??

 

[hally]

It takes a proper shepherd to have a successful outside lambing, but any muppet can lamb some ewes in a shed. The skill of lambing out is knowing when to intervene, like frank said they left them at 6.30pm, that is better than keep disturbing them couple of hours.

What total bo**ocks

 

[Estate fencing.]

Cheers for calling me a Muppet.you gods gift to farming like??

I'm certainly not gods gift to farming (pretty sh!t atm). But lambing inside is relentless carrying lambs and buckets about, if the management is wrong its easy to sort, anyone can do that (over the age of 6) but lambing outside you have to have the management right or they will have a disaster and have to be shepherd to sort the problems.

 

[Estate fencing.]

What total bo**ocks

Its not a load of rubbish, I do both so no the difference.

 

[hally]

I'm certainly not gods gift to farming (pretty sh!t atm). But lambing inside is relentless carrying lambs and buckets about, if the management is wrong its easy to sort, anyone can do that (over the age of 6) but lambing outside you have to have the management right or they will have a disaster and have to be shepherd to sort the problems.

I would guarantee 90% of the inside lambing boys have done many a lambing outside but chose the inside route. There is no wrong or right just what suits your system and farm. To say any kind a lambing can be done by a muppet is downright insulting. Lambing is as hard or as easy as you want it depends on the set up.
Riding around twice a day picking up the dead ones then bragging on here that i lambed xthousand ewes single handedly is not what everybody wants to do.

 

[Optimus]

I'm certainly not gods gift to farming (pretty sh!t atm). But lambing inside is relentless carrying lambs and buckets about, if the management is wrong its easy to sort, anyone can do that (over the age of 6) but lambing outside you have to have the management right or they will have a disaster and have to be shepherd to sort the problems.

Would you have to be on the ball lambing inside just as much as you do outside.

 

[Mc115reed]

Would you have to be on the ball lambing inside just as much as you do outside.

The way some talk on here if you lamb easy cares or Romney’s all you do is stock fields lightely, feed no corn, don’t worm them, ride round them at breakfast and shoot any problems from off the bike... then ride round again at dinner time and pick up the dead ones then go too the pub for the afternoon and ride round doing your final shooting round/checks about 6-7 o’clock and go too bed worn out

 

[Estate fencing.]

The way some talk on here if you lamb easy cares or Romney’s all you do is stock fields lightely, feed no corn, don’t worm them, ride round them at breakfast and shoot any problems from off the bike... then ride round again at dinner time and pick up the dead ones then go too the pub for the afternoon and ride round doing your final shooting round/checks about 6-7 o’clock and go too bed worn out

That not quit the job. The real advantage to lambing outside is the reduction in diseases. The problem that I’ve got in my inside flock (that I wouldn’t with on my worst enemy) has so far not spread the same outside. This is a problem that is coming to all people who buy sheep and lamb inside.

 

[Mc115reed]

That not quit the job. The real advantage to lambing outside is the reduction in diseases. The problem that I’ve got in my inside flock (that I wouldn’t with on my worst enemy) has so far not spread the same outside. This is a problem that is coming to all people who buy sheep and lamb inside.

What problem is that?

To be honest I’d lamb outside if I didn’t have too lamb early because I work full time and it fits in best with work, I did intend too lamb singles outside this year but started snowing for a week the week they started so brought them in in a panic

 

[neilo]

That not quit the job. The real advantage to lambing outside is the reduction in diseases. The problem that I’ve got in my inside flock (that I wouldn’t with on my worst enemy) has so far not spread the same outside. This is a problem that is coming to all people who buy sheep and lamb inside.

^this. I lamb the pedigree ewes inside first, then the Highlanders outside in April. I breathe a sigh of relief when we start the outside lot. Any problem ones come in to the inside pens, just to remind me what a ball ache it is.

I don’t lose any more outside than we used to inside, but the workload is different/easier, with costs and disease far lower.