The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Clay on June 11, 2019, 10:27:13 pm
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Currently I have my ewe hoggs in a separate paddock from this year’s lambs and ewes. This is the normal practice around this area.
Would I be silly putting them all in together? What do other people do?
Putting all the sheep in together would make managing my grazing easier.
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What would the problem be in having them all together? I suppose you would have to separate them again if you were selling the hoggs, which would be significant with large numbers.
We no longer keep large numbers of sheep, just a small flock. We have always run our ewe hoggs together with the other females and lambs, including during lambing. This gives the last years lambs experience of what happens at lambing, and what mothering a lamb is about, before they have to do it for real. It does make a difference I believe.
We keep all our males, including tup lambs from 4 1/2 months, together in a field across the road, which keeps them well separated.
Sheep have a natural need to live in family groups, so keeping last year's lambs plus this year's lambs together with their dams keeps them settled.
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I can’t see it would cause an issue unless you’re still feeding ewes (hoggs shouldn’t need much feed really) and the lambs are a bit older. My plan next year is to run as 1 group once lambs are 6-8 weeks old.
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I tend to do this if i can
From a parasite point of view it would be good practice
Mature sheep (hoggs) tend to be worm resistant to some degree and hence will hoover up worm eggs
Ewes with lambs at foot are under more stress and are less resistant hence leaving many worm eggs on the pasture which of course infest the naive lambs (periparturient rise)
So grazing hoggs with ewes & lambs should help the worm burden :)
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The only time I would keep them separate would be if the 'good grazing' was in short supply and I wanted to save it for the ewes with lambs. Otherwise they all go in together, it makes life a lot easier for me and I can rotate and rest the fields better.
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On a commercial basis ewe hoggs are kept separate , because they need far fewer treatments than ewes and lambs , can be sheared earlier and kept on distant grazing and are normally in large enough numbers to be kept separately . Mixing causes no problem
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Thanks everyone for your replies. I will put the hoggs in with ewes and lambs.