The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: thenovice on November 06, 2011, 09:01:17 pm
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Hello again people, im after some more of your hard earned wisdom. A few mole hills have started appearing in one of the fields i rent. I know they can be bad news for hay, but will they be detrimental to the ewes that are grazing it and about to be tupped? Look forward to hearing your views
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only if there legs drop into the tunnels :D :farmer:
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Thanks for that, i knew there were a few comedians on here, tho i have yet to meet one! :D
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As robert says, no problem to ewes unless they fall in.
Come lambing time, the lambs seem to love lying on the piles of soft soil instead of nice springy grass ( ::)) and this can result in soil getting in their eyes, which then get gummy and sore. I always worry about germs in the soil getting into docking and castrating wounds, too, although I can't say I've ever seen a problem caused this way.
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I seem to remember that sheep can pick up listeriosis from eating soil.
The problem we have with molehills is that, because we have a lot of iron in our soil, the sheep ingest this and it prevents the uptake of copper in the gut, which in turn leads to a copper deficiency. Copper deficiency, or more rightly the inability to absorb copper from the gut because of the iron, leads to greying in a band in the fleece in dark coloured sheep, with a more brittle fleece. It can also lead to some birth defects of the spine. It was very noticeable that when we got our friendly local gamekeeper to come and catch all the moles, our greying sheep turned black again :D :sheep:
Our neighbour did complain about all our molehills (we did have rather a lot at one point ;)) and said that he had known of sheep breaking their legs in the holes so was worried about his flock. We were able to point out that all the moles appeared to be migrating off his land onto ours, not the other way round, probably because we use organic methods so have billions of earthworms for the moles to eat, whereas he uses chemical weedkillers and fertilisers etc and so has very few earthworms. So our sanctuary ( :o) for moles was helping him to get rid of them from his land.
Another problem can be if a ewe is lambing when the ground is frozen hard and a wet lamb lands on a molehill it is more likely to stick/freeze to it than to grass or snow - I haven't seen this but was told it is so by a different neighbour who has both moles and the Baltic weather we get.
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I seem to remember that sheep can pick up listeriosis from eating soil.
You're right that listeria bacteria are found in the soil. Sheep and cattle can get the disease from eating silage that had soil in it (usually from molehills in the hayfield.)
From your experience, FW, the sheep do actually eat the soil in the molehills? I've seen my collies do it but never the sheep - perhaps it's a primitive breed thing?
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not such a daft or comic answer after all eh :farmer:
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not such a daft or comic answer after all eh :farmer:
You're comical and knowledgeable Robert ;D 8)
Sally, I don't know if the sheep eat the soil deliberately or pick at the new shoots coming through and get soil with them, but they do seem to ingest the soil somehow. That's one reason it's not a good idea to dump feed on the ground - best to use bakies/troughs.
We had our moles trapped earlier this year but there are already signs they are coming back. I'm sure he leaves one or two so he will be able to do the job every year :D They are quite cute when there's only one or two.... hopefully the terriers will dig them out, but that leaves a man trap, not just a sheep leg trap :o
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My moles stay out of my field and are omnly in the vege patch!!!They dont seem to enjoy the ex-race horse charging round his field >I know vibration disturbs them.
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vibration can kill them jasper carrot used to do a sketch about his moles (he used to lay in wait for them and shoot them with the shotgun) :farmer:
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wearing a miners helmet and sat on a swivel chair, if i remember correctly....
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It was always said that lambs laid on the mole tumps rather than the cold wet grass and so did a lot better.
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Ok Robert, i will give you that one! ;D Thanks one and all for the replies, if the little buggers become a pain i will have to shift them