Keeping Ewe costings

[Ribble]

What's the absolute minimum it costs for the vet on say 100 ewes if you hypothetically had very healthy flock needing virtually no attention. Presumably there are some minimums, maybe compulsory vaccines, yearly vet visit for compliance?

 

[Strangelybrown]

Because most shepherds / sheep farmers are crap at the job and without subs, un costed labour etc they don’t make a penny. Hopefully it will change and farming may become a meritocracy but I somehow doubt it.

So, do the better shepherds/sheep farmers make more money by cutting costs or generating a higher income? Or is it a combination of the two?

 

[gatepost]

Why would anyone want to spoil a good Romney?

There is something wrong with that statement, just can't put my finger on it?

 

[Highland Mule]

What's the absolute minimum it costs for the vet on say 100 ewes if you hypothetically had very healthy flock needing virtually no attention. Presumably there are some minimums, maybe compulsory vaccines, yearly vet visit for compliance?

Zero minimum vet bill for the sheep. Drugs and medicines bought from Harbro, MVF or wherever would be a couple of quid a head a year as a bare minimum (Wormer, flukicide). I wouldn't go without clostridial vaccine (~£1/hd), but it's not compulsory. Vet visits aren't compulsory either, although we usually have a catchup at some point getting a bottle of antibiotic for the inevitable.

 

[CopperBeech]

So, do the better shepherds/sheep farmers make more money by cutting costs or generating a higher income? Or is it a combination of the two?

Generally it’s by being businesslike and efficient and either having economy of scale or adding value - both of which tend to come with time served. Don’t confuse income with profit as many do,

 

[Ribble]

I can’t comment on the system the OP has asked about as never had any involvement in it, but I just wanted to say my thoughts on other things mentioned on thread. It’s all well and good for people to be able to keep hundreds and hundreds off sheep and not have to bring them inside and the related costs, but for me on my farm and many farms I know around here you have no choice but to bring them inside for 8 or 12 weeks if you want to have grass to put ewes and lambs onto. If I lambed start or middle April and kept ewes outside I’d destroy the fields in winter as haven’t enough land to spread them out. Not all farms are the same and to farm here with sheep it’s what has to be done

Couldn't you tighten them up and move them daily instead?

Internet experts from hotter countries tell me that's the way to do it but I'm not sure how it would work in the rain (and mud?) of a British winter.

 

[CopperBeech]

Couldn't you tighten them up and move them daily instead?

Internet experts from hotter countries tell me that's the way to do it but I'm not sure how it would work in the rain (and mud?) of a British winter.

That’s the biggest problem with internet experts isn’t it ...... they know f**k all about the real world you go try mob stocking all winter on a small wet Irish farm

 

[DanM]

Couldn't you tighten them up and move them daily instead?

Internet experts from hotter countries tell me that's the way to do it but I'm not sure how it would work in the rain (and mud?) of a British winter.

you can do it in the Uk and it does work well.... but it’s a miserable winter doing it and by spring you’ll be sick of sight of electric fencing!!!

 

[Ribble]

That’s the biggest problem with internet experts isn’t it ...... they know fudge all about the real world you go try mob stocking all winter on a small wet Irish farm

Yeah, I'm just trying to make my plans to have a go, and most of the advice I find is about winter grazing stockpiled grass.

Seems all well and good in South Africa or New Mexico where it stands dry 4 ft tall but I can't help but think it would just lie down and rot in the field in Britain.

 

[CopperBeech]

Yeah, I'm just trying to make my plans to have a go, and most of the advice I find is about winter grazing stockpiled grass.

Seems all well and good in South Africa or New Mexico where it stands dry 4 ft tall but I can't help but think it would just lie down and rot in the field in Britain.

Be very careful listening to experts unless they’ve actually walked the walk

 

[gatepost]

So, do the better shepherds/sheep farmers make more money by cutting costs or generating a higher income? Or is it a combination of the two?

Well I can't speak for others, and I don't claim to be successful, but I am a tenant, I started with 3 inlamb ewes I was given for my 15th birthday, over the years, I have discovered that to a certain extent ''less is more'' a lot of folks, especially at the moment have listened to the consultants etc, and are chasing nos as the route to salvation, as one salvationist ruefully told me '' you don't don't know you have too many, until you have too many''. What suits me in my situation, medium size ewes, able to hold some flesh/condition, closed flock, longevity, low flock depreciation,(BFL blood a virtual no no ) average lamb crop, some summer/10 months grazing ground, will not support a ewe with twins, but producing top selling p/kg lambs dead or live, less feet, less feed, less work, less pressure, very low rents. and I am still here, just! there are of course endless other routes just as effective.

 

[DanM]

Yeah, I'm just trying to make my plans to have a go, and most of the advice I find is about winter grazing stockpiled grass.

Seems all well and good in South Africa or New Mexico where it stands dry 4 ft tall but I can't help but think it would just lie down and rot in the field in Britain.

I am certainly no expert... but I’d say your Bob on that stockpiling 4ft high grass for winter ain’t going to happen!!!

 

[CopperBeech]

you can do it in the Uk and it does work well.... but it’s a miserable winter doing it and by spring you’ll be sick of sight of electric fencing!!!

Not on every farm you can’t. Where will is farming in Ireland on his acerage You would have no grass and just a mud Pitt. As much as the experts might disagree if you’ve sheds already and slats in I’d say shutting in pre lambing and turning out to lamb would be quite efficient

 

[PhilipB]

What's the absolute minimum it costs for the vet on say 100 ewes if you hypothetically had very healthy flock needing virtually no attention. Presumably there are some minimums, maybe compulsory vaccines, yearly vet visit for compliance?

It depends if you have to get the vet to write you a flock health plan for little red tractor

 

[will6910]

Couldn't you tighten them up and move them daily instead?

Internet experts from hotter countries tell me that's the way to do it but I'm not sure how it would work in the rain (and mud?) of a British winter.

I try keep in smaller paddocks with electric fence. Fields about 3 to 4 acres mostly and when able to spilt them in half. Ewes go to winter graze November to Christmas then come inside

 

[Highland Mule]

It depends if you have to get the vet to write you a flock health plan for little red tractor

Minimum costs would surely preclude membership of any assurance scheme ?

 

[DanM]

Not on every farm you can’t. Where will is farming in Ireland on his acerage You would have no grass and just a mud Pitt. As much as the experts might disagree if you’ve sheds already and slats in I’d say shutting in pre lambing and turning out to lamb would be quite efficient

I accept for Will maybe not and surely that comes back to your earlier point that some people perhaps shouldn’t be running sheep - doesn’t mean system doesn’t work in uk or worth trying for @Ribble
Not as simple as saying a system will or won’t work; more often the idea needs hybridising to suit an individuals farm, land, labour resource etc

 

[Jim75]

Shetlands.....................3/4/5 times as many as a mule for your money (yr dependant) shove a texel/Suffolk/Cheviot over them. They’ll lose you very little, you won’t be fashionable but a better chance of making money.
You just have to put up with the wee sh1!s and keep them in. They’re devious little buggers who take great pleasure in scattering 1000 different directions. If your fences aren’t rabbit proof forget them.

 

[Al R]

What's the absolute minimum it costs for the vet on say 100 ewes if you hypothetically had very healthy flock needing virtually no attention. Presumably there are some minimums, maybe compulsory vaccines, yearly vet visit for compliance?

My health plan - £60 costs more than my total antibiotic bill for the year usually. I footvax at 70-80p/head (can’t remember now) but no other needles are used on sheep, no abortion vaccines, no clostridials etc.. it’s a big risk not doing anything but I wonder what it would cost to vaccinate 1500 ewes and 2100 lambs? With everything.
@Ribble its more cost effective for me to check the sheep for flystrike once a day as they need checking anyway than it is for me to treat them all with Clikzin as it’s a saving of a few thousand each time I don’t do it.

 

[Ribble]

Zero minimum vet bill for the sheep. Drugs and medicines bought from Harbro, MVF or wherever would be a couple of quid a head a year as a bare minimum (Wormer, flukicide). I wouldn't go without clostridial vaccine (~£1/hd), but it's not compulsory. Vet visits aren't compulsory either, although we usually have a catchup at some point getting a bottle of antibiotic for the inevitable.

I like the idea that with some hard culled genetics and a closed flock, intervention can be gotten down to just a vaccine and the odd one wormed before it gets sold.

If it's achievable then there must be huge difference in costs versus helping with frequent lambing and feet problems.