The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Bionic on April 25, 2013, 10:34:57 am

Title: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Bionic on April 25, 2013, 10:34:57 am
My sheep are still clamouring for the stuff. Is this usual or just because of the bad weather?
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Azzdodd on April 25, 2013, 10:38:35 am
Mine are still munching through a round bail every 2-3 weeks with the goats my lambs are gonna have to sell for £300 each to come near to covering this long winters costs
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: sokel on April 25, 2013, 10:39:01 am
Everything is still on Hay here, the grass is only just starting to grow here so it will be quite a while before we can stop the hay outside
We have snow forcast again aswell  :o
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Foobar on April 25, 2013, 10:40:26 am
Mine have hay out, and they will eat it once they have exhausted all the grass, or if it's raining.


I keep a bit of hay out all year round, as I find it helps keep their poos more solid.  They eat it mainly when it rains (and I'm in Wales so we get a lot of rain). :)
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: lachlanandmarcus on April 25, 2013, 10:57:23 am
Mine still have it and are tending to graze in the morning and eat hay in the afternoon.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: SallyintNorth on April 25, 2013, 11:28:33 am
Most of our sheep now have just about enough grass, although we are still giving them more cake than we would normally.  We are still feeding hay / silage to some outside cattle and one lot of sheep, who are on poor pickings, grass-wise.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: charlestcat on April 25, 2013, 11:36:20 am
It depends where you are in the country as to the grass situation.  I'm in the south and the grass started to properly come through about 10 days ago so the sheep have gone off hay and onto grass so poos are slightly looser.  However, they have eaten a heck of a lot this season
 
Sokel; how do you get them to eat hay when the grass is there?  my lot will only start on hay when there is literally nothing in the field and as soon as the new shoots of grass appear they leave the hay well alone.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: OhLaLa on April 25, 2013, 11:51:58 am
Any hay they did have has now just become a cosy nest for the lambs to sit on. The grass in the fields is getting a wiggle on and is enough to sustain ours as we don't have a huge flock.
 
All mums with lambs at foot are still getting hard feed.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Foobar on April 25, 2013, 11:58:03 am
Our grass (south wales) starting growing, but seems to have stopped again, so my girls are still on hard feed too, and probably will be for the next week, hopefully being able to tail it off by end of next week.  :fc:
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: shep53 on April 25, 2013, 12:23:24 pm
Silage out here to some ewes with lambs for the first time in my very long working life :sunshine:
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: in the hills on April 25, 2013, 12:39:17 pm
We have found that once there is enough grass for them our girls naturally stop taking the hay (they are primitives but assume they are all the same?) and so we are still putting it out .... as they are still eating it. They are slowing down a bit though and the grass is just starting to green up but still looks poor.


Everyone around here has run out of hay and we have had to travel further afield to source some. Local farmers have told me that they are giving twice the normal feed to their ewes and that they are still hungry and not producing enough milk for the lambs.  :(


I suppose it depends on your location but around here there is still little grass.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: SallyintNorth on April 25, 2013, 04:45:03 pm
My primitives are still mad for our nice meadow hay, even though the grass is green where they are.  But there isn't a great deal of grass, still, and they know where we keep the hay  ;) - cheeky little monkeys. ::)
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Remy on April 25, 2013, 06:28:20 pm
Mine stopped coming over for the haylage some time ago as the grass is coming through properly now (north Shropshire).  Most bums are green!  My ewe mums could do with putting on some condition though, some of them are still a bit poor despite the grass and having loads of cake while they were penned.  Think they all lost condition over winter despite having adlib haylage, and lambing also took it out of them.  Hopefully if we get a lot of grass it will make up for what they've lost.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Rosemary on April 26, 2013, 08:37:48 am
I have hay out but no-ones eating it. Doesn't look loke there's any grass to me but what do I know  ;D
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: Bionic on April 26, 2013, 10:25:54 am
Empty hay racks for me again this morning and when I put some in they ate it like it was going out of fashion.
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: ScotsGirl on April 26, 2013, 10:29:31 am
I'm in south west and mine haven't had hay for several weeks but still getting one hard feed a day. Only 2 scoops between 11 ewes and their lambs. Grass coming through well and nitrogen going down tomorrow so that will help.


A very expensive year for feed
Title: Re: Are you still feeding hay?
Post by: bazzais on April 26, 2013, 11:14:42 am
Been hoping and hoping that the next bale of haylage will be the last this year - but they are still bloody eating it and still need it.

Grass is starting to creak up through though. :)