Sheep Chat Thread

[droidlizard]

 

[kuntrygirl]

Scary. I see the odd one in the pic.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

How old is your oldest Ewe everyone? I'm trying to decide what to do with my older girls. I have some that are up in age (7 years old).

Our oldest ewes are of questionable age, but "ancient" is probably a pretty good guess. We have a friend who has a set of Rambouillet/Dorp-Croix cross ewes that are supposed to be 9 year olds that are still pumping out lambs like crazy, and they are having really good lambs too. Many producers we have talked to who raise whitefaced finewool crosses consider 6 or 7 years old to be a ewe's most productive year. If you don't cull on age then you will end up breeding more longevity in to your flock, and longevity is always a good thing. Every year when we wean lambs we check our ewes' teeth, and any that are missing teeth (due to old age or other issues) get put on the truck. We also cull ewes that are hard keepers, anything and everything that either didn't breed or didn't bring in a lamb at spring working, and any dogie lambs are paired up and their mothers get shipped. We pretty much do it all based on the ewe's performance, and the longer a well-performing ewe can stay in the flock the better.

If that ewe was on our place she would get to stay until she missed one of the criteria above. But, if you are short on pasture or need to cut back on the feed bill or head count then the most logical choice is to send the oldest ewes to town first to make room for the younger ewes.

 

[theuglyduckling]

ah i hate those little bugs they we have them here in PR and they drive me crazy.

 

[kuntrygirl]

How old is your oldest Ewe everyone? I'm trying to decide what to do with my older girls. I have some that are up in age (7 years old).

Our oldest ewes are of questionable age, but "ancient" is probably a pretty good guess.  We have a friend who has a set of Rambouillet/Dorp-Croix cross ewes that are supposed to be 9 year olds that are still pumping out lambs like crazy, and they are having really good lambs too.  Many producers we have talked to who raise whitefaced finewool crosses consider 6 or 7 years old to be a ewe's most productive year.  If you don't cull on age then you will end up breeding more longevity in to your flock, and longevity is always a good thing.  Every year when we wean lambs we check our ewes' teeth, and any that are missing teeth (due to old age or other issues) get put on the truck.  We also cull ewes that are hard keepers, anything and everything that either didn't breed or didn't bring in a lamb at spring working, and any dogie lambs are paired up and their mothers get shipped.  We pretty much do it all based on the ewe's performance, and the longer a well-performing ewe can stay in the flock the better.   

If that ewe was on our place she would get to stay until she missed one of the criteria above.  But, if you are short on pasture or need to cut back on the feed bill or head count then the most logical choice is to send the oldest ewes to town first to make room for the younger ewes.

Thanks for your input. I wasn't sure if as they got older, they would have health problems.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have a question..... Has anyone ever noticed their new born lambs drinking water? Do they need water or does the mom's milk supply everything that they need?

 

[RoyalT]

I have a question..... Has anyone ever noticed their new born lambs drinking water? Do they need water or does the mom's milk supply everything that they need?

Not the new-borns... but at about a week old, mine were all drinking water and eating grass a little Not sure if they need it or if they're just curious and trying to fit in with the flock.

 

[Penny Hen]

Not the new-borns... but at about a week old, mine were all drinking water and eating grass a little Not sure if they need it or if they're just curious and trying to fit in with the flock.

They need it! I made this mistake one year. I had just had a mastectomy for cancer and I wasn't thinking too clear. The water tub had water that the ewes could reach. Problem was their was an brown algae bloom in the bottom of the black tub and I didn't notice it. It was making the water taste bad and the ewes were only drinking enough to keep themselves alive and had none left to produce milk. I started having lambs die. Finally, I put it together and scrubbed the tub and put out a smaller pan of water that the lambs could reach. I sent the last dead one to the Ag Department to be examined and sure enough it was dehydration. Keep clean tubs and water where lambs can reach! This way if the ewe is drying up and you don't notice at first at least the lamb won't dehydrate while he adjusts to eating more grass.

 

[Penny Hen]

Thanks for your input. I wasn't sure if as they got older, they would have health problems.

I had a wool wether that lived to be 11 years. His mother (at my friend's farm lived to be 14) I used his full brother as my senior ram for 5 years. I only culled him when he killed the new junior ram I had bought just before breeding season. I think it is very important to breed for health/longevity. I was reading a sheep book written in England where some of these families have been raising the same breed of sheep 200 to 300 years! They have ewes that can lamb twins at 23 years of age and not die from it! I believe it is really been an under appreciated feature in American breeding. With or disposable attitude that everything can always be replaced/ that there is always more, we have not focused on improving this which I believe also selects for better immune systems and better teeth by default.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Not the new-borns... but at about a week old, mine were all drinking water and eating grass a little Not sure if they need it or if they're just curious and trying to fit in with the flock.

They need it! I made this mistake one year. I had just had a mastectomy for cancer and I wasn't thinking too clear. The water tub had water that the ewes could reach. Problem was their was an brown algae bloom in the bottom of the black tub and I didn't notice it. It was making the water taste bad and the ewes were only drinking enough to keep themselves alive and had none left to produce milk. I started having lambs die. Finally, I put it together and scrubbed the tub and put out a smaller pan of water that the lambs could reach. I sent the last dead one to the Ag Department to be examined and sure enough it was dehydration.  Keep clean tubs and water where lambs can reach! This way if the ewe is drying up and you don't notice at first at least the lamb won't dehydrate while he adjusts to eating more grass.

OMG !!!!!! So sorry to hear about the lambs. Good for you for sending the last one to the Ag Department to find out what was wrong. So sorry again.

My water troughs are high for the lambs to reach, so I took a feeder and use it as a waterer for the lambs. It's the kind that you hook over the fence. I took it off the fence and set it on the ground and filled it with water. It's the perfect size for them to get to.