The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: princesslayer on April 09, 2016, 09:20:14 pm
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Thought I'd see if anyone else had experienced unexpected costs from keeping sheep.
My four ewes come back to our garden for lambing. One just shoved itself behind my husband motorbike looking for a tasty morsel and knocked it over on the patio... :rant:
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Not sheep, but our geese once chewed through ALL of the electrics on three trailers that were parked in their field!
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my ponies break into my garden to eat my window sills.
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Mine broke through a triple-strand electric fence and ate an entire 10ft x 4ft bed of strawberries.
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I had someone who was renting some of the fields and their sheep got into my veg garden and decimated everything, me and mum where devestated but the guy didnt care in the least, not even sure if he apologised, soon after my landlady gave me the farm, due to his time being up and the fact he had ruined the farm. I am still trying to put right now what he neglected. The only time I had trailer electrics ruined was when my dog, now sold yo a lovely couple, chewed them to pieces he also had a nasty habit of rooting up flower bulbs :rant:
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My sheep flooded the kitchen. Played with the drain pipe from the washing machine, left it sticking up like. A periscope. ::)
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All my bedding plants last year...
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I had to replace a car windscreen once. A ewe had strangled itself in a neighbour's field gate, of all things. I caught the lamb which was 6 or 8 weeks old, if I remember correctly, and put it in the car to take it home whereupon it decided it was going to jump through the big transparent space in front. It wasn't successful, but its horns left two star-shaped cracks on the inside of the windscreen.
It later escaped from a field to rejoin the flock on the hill.
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My lambs have twice chewed through my electric fence cables (from battery to power unit).
Boxing the unit in helped but there is always a bit of cable sticking out which clips onto the fence tape so I'm expecting more damaged wires eventually. :thinking:
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my goats chewed the rachet straps I borrowed to stop the barn roof blowing off in the gales.
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My unexpected cost of keeping sheep was my belly! :roflanim: Found myself eating Chinese takeaway at 5am on Saturday whilst sat in the shed and our teabag/cake consumption rates have doubled ;D
My body obviously thinks staying up all these extra hours means it needs extra meals!
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mmmmm :yum: :yum:
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Not sheep.... But the dog unwrapped and ate/broke all the Christmas presents while I was at work.
Also we just bought a much bigger car so she has more space when we go on car journeys.........
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I have had a few unexpected costs of in calf buffalo this winter, a few of them had to be given an epidural due t prolapsing, due to inflamation. Vet bills are astronomical this year, just wondering how am gonna be able to pay em off, still the animals are all well which is the most important thing :)
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Also we just bought a much bigger car so she has more space when we go on car journeys.........
oh yes, I bought a ford focus estate purely for my gsd puppy. ha. expensive bitch but I love her dearly.
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I have had a few unexpected costs of in calf buffalo this winter, a few of them had to be given an epidural due t prolapsing, due to inflamation. Vet bills are astronomical this year, just wondering how am gonna be able to pay em off, still the animals are all well which is the most important thing :)
I'm afraid vet bills are an essential and wholly expected part of keeping livestock, particularly breeding stock, entirely straying from the topic of "unexpected costs".
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'FSMnutter' There's no need to have to slate the same person for anything he/she does. You're constantly picking which is just a waste of time, leave them be.
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Also we just bought a much bigger car so she has more space when we go on car journeys.........
oh yes, I bought a ford focus estate purely for my gsd puppy. ha. expensive bitch but I love her dearly.
Well we traded in our old Ka for a zafira....... Tiny 3 door to a seven seater. Sometimes I wonder why we decided to get a retired greyhound rather than an Italian greyhound!
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I'm afraid vet bills are an essential and wholly expected part of keeping livestock, particularly breeding stock, entirely straying from the topic of "unexpected costs".
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You are both right in my opinion, yes Vet bills are part of keeping livestock. But most costs are predictable year on year so easier to budget for. I have kept horses for 30 years and hardly saw a vet other than for annual vaccines but with sheep & goats and the horses getting older this last year me and the Vet are getting to know each other better.
Unexpected costs? More like loss of earning from wasting spending too much time gazing and lambs and kids.
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My flippin' marraige at this rate :-(
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'FSMnutter' There's no need to have to slate the same person for anything he/she does. You're constantly picking which is just a waste of time, leave them be.
"Slating"? Vets bills are a fact of keeping animals are they not?
Maybe everyone needs to take a step back and read the posts for the comments in them not the comments that are not!
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My flippin' marraige at this rate :-(
Three likes!!!! Heck :o - some identification no doubt ;D ;D :roflanim:
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I'm afraid vet bills are an essential and wholly expected part of keeping livestock, particularly breeding stock, entirely straying from the topic of "unexpected costs".
You are both right in my opinion, yes Vet bills are part of keeping livestock. But most costs are predictable year on year so easier to budget for. I have kept horses for 30 years and hardly saw a vet other than for annual vaccines but with sheep & goats and the horses getting older this last year me and the Vet are getting to know each other better.
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Yes I agree. It is best to budget for the worst case scenario, in my case if in doubt call the vet. My pony likes our vets that much that if they come out to a sheep/goat etc he will come down with something 2 days later. we think its to get them back! Its got to the stage now where they ask him if he is feeling well :innocent: