Lambing 2018

[hendrebc]

I hate the bloody things as well with the damage they can do. We also have ravens here as well horrible barsteward things they are too.

.22 now pretty much lives in the truck with me and I nail every crow that stands still long enough to get the crosshairs onto it. Unfortunately it’s a drop in the ocean but it makes me feel better knowing there’s just a few less about to cause damage.

Those ravens are evil birds we have quite a few here and the barstewards are protected WHY!!!!!

 

[Al R]

I hate the bloody things as well with the damage they can do. We also have ravens here as well horrible barsteward things they are too.

.22 now pretty much lives in the truck with me and I nail every crow that stands still long enough to get the crosshairs onto it. Unfortunately it’s a drop in the ocean but it makes me feel better knowing there’s just a few less about to cause damage.

Ravens and Great Black Backed Gulls are our biggest problem. The last 3-4 days I’ve seen a lot of ravens going over us my dogs are all ridiculously gun shy

 

[Kiwi Pete]

sh!t I'm grateful we only have magpies, gulls and hawks here.
Best of luck people, hope the big yellow thing pays you all some attention soon, looks all too familiar.

- you do know it's only being a p.rick of a year because the lamb price is up?

 

[Al R]

sh!t I'm grateful we only have magpies, gulls and hawks here.
Best of luck people, hope the big yellow thing pays you all some attention soon, looks all too familiar.

- you do know it's only being a p.rick of a year because the lamb price is up?

The weather has been like this since autumn 2016 mind....... As long as it’s dry enough for 4-5 hours for the lambs to not get chilled when they first go out then they’ll be ok
Outdoor born lambs are so much healthier and stick the weather far better too mind!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The weather has been like this since autumn 2016 mind....... As long as it’s dry enough for 4-5 hours for the lambs to not get chilled when they first go out then they’ll be ok
Outdoor born lambs are so much healthier and stick the weather far better too mind!

Still working out whether to wean the lambs out of my hoggets yet!!
( )
I just hope the fluttery stuff keeps away for you guys to get the job done, will aim to lamb here in late August and hopefully avoid it.
Feel free to send any spare rain, til May...
But I hear what you say, they are amazing little buggers, once they're dry!

 

[Barn]

Those ravens are evil birds we have quite a few here and the barstewards are protected WHY!!!!!

We’ve got a serious Red Kite problem here as well as dam Ravens and crows etc. Have witnessed a few times the Kites sitting on cast ewes and pecking eyes. Also protected and there are 100s of them around us once counted well over 100 in the sky when silaging a few years back. Wish the general public would stop feeding them

 

[hendrebc]

We’ve got a serious Red Kite problem here as well as dam Ravens and crows etc. Have witnessed a few times the Kites sitting on cast ewes and pecking eyes. Also protected and there are 100s of them around us once counted well over 100 in the sky when silaging a few years back. Wish the general public would stop feeding them

Ivr never personally seen red kites or buzzards do any damage but seen them carry planty of aftebirths away. No doubt the next step is taking lambs once they get used to seeing sheep as a source of food i can well believe they do attack lambs. The most red kites ive ever seen here is about 9 in one field so nowere near the numbers your talking about. Yet

 

[Barn]

Ivr never personally seen red kites or buzzards do any damage but seen them carry planty of aftebirths away. No doubt the next step is taking lambs once they get used to seeing sheep as a source of food i can well believe they do attack lambs. The most red kites ive ever seen here is about 9 in one field so nowere near the numbers your talking about. Yet

We farm a few miles away from where they were released in the Chilterns. They are hungry so are making those next steps round here. Have personally witnessed two ewes lose eyes from Kites when cast. Thankfully we lamb indoors ...

 

[hendrebc]

We farm a few miles away from where they were released in the Chilterns. They are hungry so are making those next steps round here. Have personally witnessed two ewes lose eyes from Kites when cast. Thankfully we lamb indoors ...

Not sure why i liked that post. Not much to like about it really
We lambed outside but had to start bringing them inside again thanks to those bloody birds

 

[lizzieS]

We're off to such a slow start this year!!! Earlies are always a bit slower for us but this is ridiculous. Due to start on 3rd Feb and just had the 7th ewe lamb this morning

 

[exmoor dave]

We're off to such a slow start this year!!! Earlies are always a bit slower for us but this is ridiculous. Due to start on 3rd Feb and just had the 7th ewe lamb this morning

That's what it used to be like here.
Very few from 1st Feb to 15th, then mental 15th Feb - 5th March.

Started using teasers 2 yrs ago.......over 80% have lambed already

 

[lizzieS]

That's what it used to be like here.
Very few from 1st Feb to 15th, then mental 15th Feb - 5th March.

Started using teasers 2 yrs ago.......over 80% have lambed already

Think that's what we need to do!

 

[jemski]

Due tomorrow but started yesterday. Ticking over steadily. I think it will get busy at the weekend.

 

[exmoor dave]

Think that's what we need to do!

Leave a handful of lambs as ram's, pick the fittest later in the year and get them snipped by the vet

 

[Tim G]

Leave a handful of lambs as ram's, pick the fittest later in the year and get them snipped by the vet

Is it not better to do one that has 'seen some action'?

 

[Al R]

Is it not better to do one that has 'seen some action'?

We pretty much only use ram lambs and yearlings (which were used as ram lambs by us) the ram lambs know what their doing from the off!

@exmoor dave can you run a gang of teasers continuously for say 8 weeks on different lots of ewes every 14 days? Or would they melt to absolute FA? How many teasers per ewes? Producing my own gingemongs the rams are run at 1-30 maximum and some flocks are 1-15 so having to have more rams won’t matter as they can be in with 1 lot of ewes for 14 days, have 14 days off and then back in for 14 days again? Would this work well? PM me if it’s easier?

 

[exmoor dave]

Is it not better to do one that has 'seen some action'?

You mean a bought in ram that's been used already?
Gonna be expensive doing that plus you'll get one less year out of a already used one.

Keeping ram lambs costs the foregone slaughter price + snip costs (about £150 here)

 

[exmoor dave]

We pretty much only use ram lambs and yearlings (which were used as ram lambs by us) the ram lambs know what their doing from the off!

@exmoor dave can you run a gang of teasers continuously for say 8 weeks on different lots of ewes every 14 days? Or would they melt to absolute FA? How many teasers per ewes? Producing my own gingemongs the rams are run at 1-30 maximum and some flocks are 1-15 so having to have more rams won’t matter as they can be in with 1 lot of ewes for 14 days, have 14 days off and then back in for 14 days again? Would this work well? PM me if it’s easier?

I guess you could in theory, think you'd want a good gang of them.

Ran mine at 1 to 200 ewes....... that was maybe abit too many ewes

Have had a few more ram lambs snipped this year ready for next.

Always use exlana's, don't want the teasers to be any extra work

 

[Tim G]

You mean a bought in ram that's been used already?
Gonna be expensive doing that plus you'll get one less year out of a already used one.

Keeping ram lambs costs the foregone slaughter price + snip costs (about £150 here)

Well if it works then we will try it next year, just I'd always been told it needed to be a used ram. Certainly better from a disease point of view. Plus our lad's pet lamb had a ram lamb today so it might save his fate!

 

[Tim G]

We pretty much only use ram lambs and yearlings (which were used as ram lambs by us) the ram lambs know what their doing from the off!

@exmoor dave can you run a gang of teasers continuously for say 8 weeks on different lots of ewes every 14 days? Or would they melt to absolute FA? How many teasers per ewes? Producing my own gingemongs the rams are run at 1-30 maximum and some flocks are 1-15 so having to have more rams won’t matter as they can be in with 1 lot of ewes for 14 days, have 14 days off and then back in for 14 days again? Would this work well? PM me if it’s easier?

I spoke to a guy a few years back who lambed 2000 over 20 days purely by using teasers and managed them to get 100 lambing everyday.