The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: firemansam on October 15, 2012, 07:43:32 pm
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I am fortunate that or paddocks are opposite my front door. But the farmer who has 100 sheep up the rd from me lives 12 miles away and has a full time job. Therefore there is no way he can check on 100 ewes every day.
How often do you walk through your sheep and check up on them? Daily? Weekly?
Just curious.
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I have 350 odd and I look after a child most of he time. It can be done.
However, I couldn't get round them all in a day and leave time to do anything constructive, depends on the time of year how often I get to them, fly/lamb season usually once every 48hrs. At lambing considerably more often, but I am lucky in that all my "in bye" is within 5 miles, and so I can lamb them all in blocks round here before I put them back up on the downs.
Bear in mind that hill flocks are often looked with binos and gathered 5 or so times a year...
I've even had my animal heath officer admit to me on the quiet that the notion of anyone with a decent sized flock looking them once a day is in the realms of fantasy.
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Twice a day every day for me. If I had too many to check at least once per day (legal minimum) I would have less sheep personally. HOWEVER I understand if you are farming on the hills chances are you can't get all round and some of your sheep you won't be able to find every day ;)
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the sheep on the hills opposite where we live must be impossible to check daily, they roam over many square miles.
it would take a lot of time to check them all daily and even then i think some luck would be involved!!!
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Just to add to my previous post, I only have a small number of sheep and a LARGE case of OCD. If I couldn't check mine I would literally have a panic attack that something was wrong :-[
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Im lucky, mine are in paddocks behind the house which slope gently upwards so every time I am upstairs I can look and see them all.
But then Ive only got 18 to look after!
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At least once a day, but I only have a little flock and our land adjoins our property. Twice a day during fly season and I bet my OCD is worse than yours CW during lambing time. :o ::) I'm not telling anyone how often I was out there in the Spring .... poor things were sick of the sight of me.
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Every 2 hours for me, and I had the goats popping at the same time :D :D fortunately all done and dusted in a week :thumbsup:
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Every day at the very least with a head count at least every other day. The more you observe the easier it is to spot if anything is awry. Also I need my sheepy cuddles :hug:
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......Walk round the Marsh's first thing in the morning and "head count" sheep :sheep: and cattle :cow: , at the moment sheep spread out, so it can take about an hour, - but what better way to start the day?
Also check livestock and have a count up in afternoon - if short on time I have got a little off road motor bike which can add to the excitement :excited:
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Generally we do see all our sheep and all our cattle - in fact, all our livestock - every day; all 800+ of them, spread over an area 2 miles long by a mile or so wide. But it's our job, we're full-time farmers.
When I was on the moorland farm - 1000 acres of mainly moorland, carrying 530 ewes and all their 800-ish lambs - we also saw all the sheep every day. It sounds impossible but you soon get to know where they hang out, and the collie dogs run about and alert you to any sheep skulking trying not to be seen. Of course, unless you are feeding them every day, so can count them as they eat in a line, you can't get an exact count of many hundred spread over 500 acres, and collie dogs notwithstanding, there will be the odd casualty you never find, or don't find for several days - or even longer.
I see my neighbours zipping about on quad bikes and buggies, and have no reason think that they all do anything other than check all their stock every day, too.
If we were in a more fly-prone area, I couldn't cope with not seeing everything every day. In fact when we do have a spell of those sort of conditions, we generally check the most vulnerable groups twice a day.
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ive got afull time job and about 80 breeding ewes and 60ish fat lambs and i look them every day but my land is only 1 mile away from home and a mate who has chickens there so he looks them as well.
Its so much easier now i have a quad! :excited:
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Generally we do see all our sheep and all our cattle - in fact, all our livestock - every day; all 800+ of them, spread over an area 2 miles long by a mile or so wide. But it's our job, we're full-time farmers.
When I was on the moorland farm - 1000 acres of mainly moorland, carrying 530 ewes and all their 800-ish lambs - we also saw all the sheep every day. It sounds impossible but you soon get to know where they hang out, and the collie dogs run about and alert you to any sheep skulking trying not to be seen. Of course, unless you are feeding them every day, so can count them as they eat in a line, you can't get an exact count of many hundred spread over 500 acres, and collie dogs notwithstanding, there will be the odd casualty you never find, or don't find for several days - or even longer.
I see my neighbours zipping about on quad bikes and buggies, and have no reason think that they all do anything other than check all their stock every day, too.
If we were in a more fly-prone area, I couldn't cope with not seeing everything every day. In fact when we do have a spell of those sort of conditions, we generally check the most vulnerable groups twice a day.
Its part of the reason I have woolshedders and I operate the system I do. some of my ground is 10 miles away.
The sheep on the downs are 200 head on 140ac, I'm never sure if I've seen them all, unless I get them in. Binoculars are handy.
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It depends on reality, yeh you are supposed to check them once a day and currently my ground is in front of my house it is limited, i move them about and i drive past everything every day but i have also worked on highland estates of 100,000 plus acres with 2,000-3,000 sheep its just not possible, some times you would do a gathering and get a few with double fleeces which means they hadn't been in for two years ish, they are still fit and well and bring lambs back, so in reality things are actually capable of living without human intervention given enough space and clean land
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Good point about the woolshedding, Steve. Apart from lambing and pre-lambing, the times we are most anxious about them and check them more than once a day are flystrike time, and waiting-to-be-sheared time.
Yes, my bins were essential farming equipment on the moorland farm. Not least because you see their natural behaviour from a distance; when you go up close they will hide lameness or other weakness. That's if they let you get close at all! :D (Swales on a moorland don't always!)
And we do give them cake for more days of the year than perhaps is essential. But if they're caked, they come up to the quad and you can count them while they mill about, and / or while they eat. We only give them a handful each (1/2lb per head per day, or even less) for a lot of the time, as it's at least partly about making sure we see them all and spot any problems early. The ewes don't get cake from when they're speaned until the winter hits, or around Christmas time, whichever is sooner.
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If I caked mine, I'd get a load of fatties - its partly cos I'm breeding for fitness off grass and partly cos you have harder ground.
I do know I took a load of lleyns of some stemmy, awful pasture that was supposed to be hay but had never got cut and was a free grazing 'tidy up' job last week and put them on some decent stuff and now they are looking almost too fat.
Generous for me is a beetlic. I do occasionally bucket a ram so I can get them to come close if I'm worried, but aside from that its bins.
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Once per day 3miles wide 6 miles long do 7,ooo miles a year on the quad . On the hill finding sick or dead is a matter of chance . :farmer:
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I see my shetlands twice a day every day of the year or some one does it on my behalf holidays etc I have to open up and shut away my Wyandotte bantams, only have 20 breeding ewes so can be done quite quickly
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oh is obsessed morning, dinner, tea and lock up time same with the 5 goats and 11pigs only got 4 sheep, live on an isolated road, other night car came down 2 in the morning, next thing hubby and son going round with torches doing a head count, :innocent:
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Luckily for us, our sheep are on land next to our house. I stick 2 fingers in my mouth, whistle loud and all 5 run to me (I do it the lazy way!) Then at afternoon milking time, they are all stood by the gate waiting for a handful of food.
just prior to shearing I was out there several times a day studying bums and tums and panicking everytime I saw a fly!
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Once a day normally, at the moment they get fed a bit, so head (or more accurately bum) counts while at the trough. When with young lambs at least twice a day, but they are next to our house/drive, so it is just a case of popping out and slowly wandering round the fields. In the early summer evenins I actally love to stand in the field, leaning on my stick (and pretend to be a proper shepherd ;D ) for a good few minutes.... until the midges have had their fill, but I do enjoy watching them with the lambs.
When lambing I just live in the field (and the shed).
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2 x daily here too - but combined with dog walk and generally to get me out and about too - mostly it's enjoyable but not sometimes with our Aberdeenshire weather.
Come lambing I get a bit "Colliewoman" and am out more than in - determined not to miss anything!!
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Once a day generally cause we both work, but twice if flies been bad, tend to walk the dogs round in summer and we practically live in the field during lambing season ::) ::)
We have rented ground too so hubby goes one way and me the other to get them all checked.
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we check twice a day but our guys are with the horses so I would always check them at least twice a day anyway
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Twice a day for my tiny flock of 5 - I also like sheepy cuddles Pedwardine! :love:
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:wave:twice a day for ones that are with the chickens - but the ones out in the village once a day - but they do have good neighbours who can spot a sheep with a limp 300 yds away :relief:
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I get my entire flock in every night to protect them from coyotes. They come into a big yard with a loose housing shed on offer. This is a big chore as it curtails our social life, but it has many advantages. Actually, like most farm animals, the flock likes the routine of it, and comes in very willingly as the sun goes down.
I let them out at about 7am in the morning, any earlier and the predators are still out there predating!
I have LGDs and a llama, they like it too, it makes the sheep easier to protect.
Also, this means that we see every sheep and lamb twice a day walking around. This makes problems far easier to spot. If we need to get anyone out for treatment it easy to divert them into the handling area. If it is a sort day, or shearing, or dosing, the sheep are right there in the yard ready to go each morning.
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Luckily for us, our sheep are on land next to our house. I stick 2 fingers in my mouth, whistle loud and all 5 run to me (I do it the lazy way!) Then at afternoon milking time, they are all stood by the gate waiting for a handful of food.
just prior to shearing I was out there several times a day studying bums and tums and panicking everytime I saw a fly!
Same here we only have 5 and the second I let the wolfie pup through the gate they come running to see her.
She is going to miss them when they go as they have been a big part of her life since the day we got her
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I'm afraid I suffer with OCD also! Tend to check once a day at least while walking dogs, feeding pigs, checking ponies and at least twice during fly season. Lambing I can be out every half hour! OH started to rig up CCTV to stop my going but never got the camera up. Might get there in time for next spring.
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I am spoilt, mine are in a paddock at the front of my house... and are handreared so very tame. I feed and check before I go to work and at night. I do feet etc once a week. In hot weather I am literally out there every few hours if I'm at home to avoid flystrike or dehydration..... OCD alert!
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Oh dear .... I'm not the only one then.
Up here, the local farmers would be :roflanim: .
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It depends on the time of year.
At the times when the sheep need to be more closely shepherded ie pre lambing, tupping etc they are on the lower ground and are looked at at least once a day, sometimes twice.
At other times when there are fewer things to go wrong, they are away on the mountain and one or other of us will walk round every other day. Having said that, we might walk round and only see a small percentage of the sheep that are up there.