Selling all my ewes

[Nithsdale]

Well despite my best efforts I've had a bad year for mastitis only 86 ewes & 8 cases of mastitis, all rearing one lamb so could be worse.

So the whole lot off cull, will sell from weaning until mid April 2023 to average the price,

I know I'm a bit odd but I prefer a closed flock for many reasons so keeping all the gimmer lambs. They were sadly bred for market so not ideal breeding charollais cross. Plan is New Zealand Romney on the hoggs to start restocking with maternal types.

Any comments

Don't cull them all.

Keep the very best and get rid of absolutely everything you dislike (ok, that might be them all...)


Use the Romney (or which other maternal breed you decide you like/want to use) over everything you deem good enough. Retain the ewe lambs and build up from there.






Going forward be ruthless culling any problems which show up. If you have to touch/work with a ewe for any reason other than routine (shearing, dipping, dosing, scanning...) cull her!!

You'll be surprised how quickly your flocks standard goes up, and your workload goes down. But don't do what I did and get complacent thinking the hard work was done and take your foot off the culling gas - problems can creep back in

 

[AftonShepherd]

Don't cull them all.

Keep the very best and get rid of absolutely everything you dislike (ok, that might be them all...)


Use the Romney (or which other maternal breed you decide you like/want to use) over everything you deem good enough. Retain the ewe lambs and build up from there.






Going forward be ruthless culling any problems which show up. If you have to touch/work with a ewe for any reason other than routine (shearing, dipping, dosing, scanning...) cull her!!

You'll be surprised how quickly your flocks standard goes up, and your workload goes down. But don't do what I did and get complacent thinking the hard work was done and take your foot off the culling gas - problems can creep back in

Good advice. If I followed it to the letter I'd only have about a score of ewes to go to the tup in the autumn! Certainly feels that way sometimes.

 

[Nithsdale]

Good advice. If I followed it to the letter I'd only have about a score of ewes to go to the tup in the autumn! Certainly feels that way sometimes.

I reckon I've got 3





And I bet I'd cull them over the summer

 

[Hampton]

Well despite my best efforts I've had a bad year for mastitis only 86 ewes & 8 cases of mastitis, all rearing one lamb so could be worse.

So the whole lot off cull, will sell from weaning until mid April 2023 to average the price,

I know I'm a bit odd but I prefer a closed flock for many reasons so keeping all the gimmer lambs. They were sadly bred for market so not ideal breeding charollais cross. Plan is New Zealand Romney on the hoggs to start restocking with maternal types.

Any comments

It sounds like you are early lambing.
To do that you need a big ewe.
About 15 years ago we had mules which we put to Suffolk tups. I needed some replacements and I shepherd I know recommended I buy some of his ewes (Welsh mules x texels).
biggest mistake I ever made. Out of 120 replacements probably 1/3 got mastitis, 12 others died and I ended up with many kades and lost lambs do to cold weather and lack of milk.
It taught me a massive lesson with regards to early lambing although it was soul destroying at the time.
The chap I bought them off was also our shearer and I never used him again, so he lost on both occasions for a short term gain.
The sheep were clearly wrong for our system but I was young and inexperienced and trusting. He took advantage.
It was a real shame.

 

[ImLost]

Good advice. If I followed it to the letter I'd only have about a score of ewes to go to the tup in the autumn! Certainly feels that way sometimes.

That's where A, B and C flocks/herds come in to play.

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

Life is too short for a C flock .

 

[Alias]

Not going out.

Something will be tupped this Autumn, not the same ewes & not the same fields.

Just having a fire break reset.

Aim is to double flock in time in the short term extra wheat if we can get the fertiliser of course.

Fertiliser price seems to be dropping this week

 

[ImLost]

Life is too short for a C flock .

Depends what happens to your C flock.

A bit sad I know, but with cattle, when deciding what happens with each individual, I look at them as;

A - A* star cows that I want more of - keep for breeding replacements
B - B is for Breeding Beef - can rear a decent calf, but might have faults (3 quartered, dodgy foot etc)
C - C is for Cull or Cash in. Depending on the markets and space/feed I have available, I might keep these until they are more finished, or I might cash them in right away, but I don't want them anywhere near my breeding herds.

 

[Bokey]

I always went into the shed in autumn very serious with my note pad ready to cull anything that wasn't perfection 2 hours later I'd be looking at that list an thinking to be fair she's not been lame that long that lump on her bag is only superficial that dirty arsed one who only raised one crap lamb just needs a good worming and at the end of the day who needs all their teeth! Plus it doesn't help that I'm a very indecisive person so in the end they all went

 

[JockCroft]

I think the old ewes are the source but I've got it in 6 toothers.

Really nice ewes, I'm really disappointed, but good cull money, I can wait till next April if necessary

Just a quick question, are you running on 3's on ewes. Lot of folk in North pulling one back and putting on milk machines. Seems to greatly reduce Mastitis.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Just a quick question, are you running on 3's on ewes. Lot of folk in North pulling one back and putting on milk machines. Seems to greatly reduce Mastitis.

No only ever one per teat.

Must admit I had a similar problem 2013 after the wet summer of 2012, 2014 turned out well, so odd how years vary.

I had oaf last year for the 1st time in 40 years, that might be a factor but it came late in the season sort of week before weaning.

 

[Kingcustard]

I am going for a complete reset this year too. Just finished lambing the first 290 ewes which are mainly mules but some Texel crosses and cheviot mules.

Had no end of problems with bad feet, bad udders, blind teats, threaded teats, a ridiculous number of triplets, prolapses and ewes pushing their guts out. I've no doubt the bad feet and 40% triplets leads to a lot of the other problems.

All aged 3 crop and above.

Decided to get shot of the lot of them as I lost track of what needed culled as the problems were coming thick and fast.

Plan is to sell the ewes pre clipping as I sell the lambs from mid May onwards and hopefully the price for cull ewes is up and so the replacement costs won't be too high.

Have 280 Easycares due last week on April and another EC 100+ ewe lambs for next year.

If the easycares do well again this year may just go all easycare and up the ewes to cover the reduced lamb numbers although I like the early lambers so I can get lambs away early for more money and not have too many lambs to creep feed in the winter.

Hopefully the ground will get a break for 2 or 3 months before any new stock comes on and there will be a good wedge of grass to get them well through the winter.

I've seen problems steadily increase with udders, feet and prolapses for the past few years and so have decided a reset will get me back to square one and I can try and get a handle on things with a lot of younger ewes and get away from mules as they seem to be the main offenders.

The only plus point to the mules is that even with all the losses and problems I still have over 180% lambs on the ground at the moment, but I'd rather scan a lot less lambs and have a lot less problems and deaths. Probably won't make as much money but I will take that for less problems and less death, too old high for high management sheep on my own.

A month after lambing you forget about the rough times and just bumble on to the next year thinking everything is doing away OK.

I've had a few people saying that I should breed replacements from what I have but I am pretty sure the genetics play a part and so keeping lambs from troublesome ewes isn't the way I want to go.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Are there many ‘British’ Romneys that haven’t seen a bit of NZ blood yet?

Very few in reality. The old traditional ones are now very few and far between for good reason.
However there is a massive difference on what type of NZ blood was used and how successful it has been.

I am afraid to tell @Hilly that even some of his have had a little Waiere influence.
The old breed was at the end of the road with low prolificacy and poor growth rates. With the right NZ breeding put in this has largely been corrected.

Any romneys worth buying? Had some here this lambing, never again.

You either need to have all Romney or none. The management of them is completely different to any other breed apart from perhaps the Cheviot.
You mustn't feed them hard food.
You must just leave them alone to lamb and give them a bit of space.
Never put them inside a shed.

Never graze them with other breeds as they will always out compete on the grazing.

 

[Al R]

Very few in reality. The old traditional ones are now very few and far between for good reason.
However there is a massive difference on what type of NZ blood was used and how successful it has been.

I am afraid to tell @Hilly that even some of his have had a little Waiere influence.
The old breed was at the end of the road with low prolificacy and poor growth rates. With the right NZ breeding put in this has largely been corrected.


You either need to have all Romney or none. The management of them is completely different to any other breed apart from perhaps the Cheviot.
You mustn't feed them hard food.
You must just leave them alone to lamb and give them a bit of space.
Never put them inside a shed.

Never graze them with other breeds as they will always out compete on the grazing.

It was more they would make a mud bath in the corner of a field and lamb in it so lambs would be born into a cold pool of mud in a dry field Also didn’t help I didn’t belly them out pre lambing. I was seriously impressed with them considering how few teeth they had up until lambing but lambing and the following few days were a disaster with them unfortunately.