Sheep men!

[Gulli]

yes all alive, none escaped (after the first day or so when they learnt what a fence was) and all look healthy

we have some in lamb but which is an issue but not a big problem

I need to find a way to make sheep abort for next year - I'm told mustard in my cover crop might do that ?

It would depend on why the mustard makes them abort in my opinion.
You could jab but you would have to jab everything which would be costly.
I would sell the ones with good bags as in lamb ewes-less risk
The sh!t ones with nackered bags I don't really know what to do with, you could sell them in lamb but they will most likely go as culls for less than cull price, lambing them down is tricky as it won't go well and you will have to hang onto them past march to make them worth anything, unless you rear all the Lambs as orphans and ship the ewes on a couple of days after lambing.

 

[yellowbelly]

Think drugs will have to be the way forward

Not sure about Estrumate for sheep - need @bovine for that, but I once bought 8 cull cows off a chap whose vet had injected with it and PD'd empty....5 of them calved down

 

[slaney]

What I would do in your position @Clive is sell anything that was in lamb that had a good bag

Lamb the rest selling the lambs at a few days old as Cade lambs and then finish the ewes

Only real extra cost would be a bit of milk powder for lambs till their sold and this would be offset by sale of lamb

Estrumating a few hundred ewes will soon add up

 

[bovine]

Not sure about Estrumate for sheep - need @bovine for that, but I once bought 8 cull cows off a chap whose vet had injected with it and PD'd empty....5 of them calved down

There are some crap vets out there, just like some crap farmers!

Also it will depend how far in lamb they are as you can't abort them in the latter parts of pregnancy. The only time I have injected big batches is when someone else was paying for their cock up......

 

[GTB]

We might lamb them and sell them with lambs - I'm told they often sell well like that

not keen on the idea of sending them to slaughter heavy in Lamb even though I'm told people do this

there are only a few so not a big issue but something that could be a big problem if we scale this next year

How would more experienced sheep farmers deal with this ? interested to hear ideas ? keep in mind keeping them behind late march is not an option, i have no land for them then

Your best bet may be to scan them around Christmas time next year Clive and make sure you send the in lamb ones away before the lambs get too big, especially the ones with bad udders. Cull ewes are culled for a reason and therefore I wouldn't want to be breeding from them if I could help it. Bad udders is not the only reason for culling, some of them may have prolapsed in the past, others may simply be poor mothers or have a lack of milk but not necessarily having anything visual wrong with their udders.

 

[S J H]

Its how it is, seems the livestock industry is hard

my solution this time will be to let them lamb and then sell with lambs at foot however Im nots sure thats practical at scale

If cover crops had something like mustard which apparently can cause abortion then this problem wouldn't exist

I'm certainly not going to do what Im told some farmers do and send heavily pregnant animals to slaughter

I'm in the livestock industry, and I wouldn't do it. So please don't associate me with this kind on of practise.

 

[S J H]

@Clive doesn't want lambs from the ewes as they are slaughter culls. So if he can find a way to naturally ensure that these ewes don't have lambs then what's the problem?

There has been plenty of talk on here of pedigree flock masters getting vets to inject abortion drugs into ewes following tips escaping etc

Publicity.

 

[Clive]

Your best bet may be to scan them around Christmas time next year Clive and make sure you send the in lamb ones away before the lambs get too big, especially the ones with bad udders. Cull ewes are culled for a reason and therefore I wouldn't want to be breeding from them if I could help it. Bad udders is not the only reason for culling, some of them may have prolapsed in the past, others may simply be poor mothers or have a lack of milk but not necessarily having anything visual wrong with their udders.

Why do they let a tup in with problem ewes though ?

 

[Clive]

I'm in the livestock industry, and I wouldn't do it. So please don't associate me with this kind on of practise.

I was a bit shocked it happens, not something I would want to be accociated with either but in told it happens so no point pretending if it's never mentioned that it doesn't !

 

[unlacedgecko]

Why do they let a tup in with problem ewes though ?

I'm sure it's not intentional. More a case of cull ewes grazed with killing lambs, some of whom will be entire ram lambs.

It appears the attitude is 'who cares, they're only cull ewes'. See Bovines post re bad vets and bad farmers...

 

[GTB]

Why do they let a tup in with problem ewes though ?

Because theres usually a cull ram or two to sell and the most convenient place to keep them is with the cull ewes.

 

[Spartacus]

Why do they let a tup in with problem ewes though ?

They might not be problem ewes, they could be from a very early lambing flock scanned in Oct/nov and they were scanned as empty so sent as culls but the tup was left running with them till scanning so still had a chance of being in lamb later than most of their flock.

 

[S J H]

I was a bit shocked it happens, not something I would want to be accociated with either but in told it happens so no point pretending if it's never mentioned that it doesn't !

I don't think it happens intentionally, if it's does then it should be illegal.

 

[Ysgythan]

these are cull ewes - they are here from november - march waiting for the slaughter house basically. I'm not running a 365 day sheep enterprise just buying low and selling high using cover crops as a over winter storage facility

lambs take away yield and prevent me from selling them when I need to, I don't want them in the first place but buying cull ewes it seems some come pregnant if you like it or not

Wouldn't cost much to scan them on arrival would it? Option to sell on as breeders in lamb or lamb and sell as couples.

 

[cotswoldcs]

Surprised to hear about your problem @Clive. I'm sure if you could buy from a reputable source, whom you can deal with every year this would eliminate the problem. All of my cull ewes have never seen a ram and I would imagine most other farmers would not consider risking getting cull ewes pregnant. It's a waste of money as energy will be put into growing a lamb which is not required.

Can't imaging you want to rear pet lambs on your farm!

 

[Clive]

Surprised to hear about your problem @Clive. I'm sure if you could buy from a reputable source, whom you can deal with every year this would eliminate the problem. All of my cull ewes have never seen a ram and I would imagine most other farmers would not consider risking getting cull ewes pregnant. It's a waste of money as energy will be put into growing a lamb which is not required.

Can't imaging you want to rear pet lambs on your farm!

I would love to find that reputable source and build a relationship direct - when I posted similar a few weeks back I was shot down a bit being told how we all needed the markets and middlemen

A "pet" lamb or 2 is not in anyway a business decision, I have 2 young boys and think it will do them good to see how it all works etc birth to sunday lunch !

 

[unlacedgecko]

I would love to find that reputable source and build a relationship direct - when I posted similar a few weeks back I was shot down a bit being told how we all needed the markets and middlemen

A "pet" lamb or 2 is not in anyway a business decision, I have 2 young boys and think it will do them good to see how it all works etc birth to sunday lunch !

Sounds like you need a cull sheep buyer . I'd only charge a very reasonable £2/head lol