The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: FiB on April 13, 2013, 09:30:41 am
-
First lamb yesterday eve :excited: :excited: - when do I spray mark it? Whilst I can still catch it ;D yes, but can it be too early and the ewe tries to lick off??
-
Oooh - congratulations FiB ;D :thumbsup: :bouquet:
Don;t know about spray marking. We don't mark ours any more but that's because we haven't got many, we know the mums by sight and we tag them fairly young.
-
Ah thanks - how young do you tag? I have all the tags (button tags), so could do that. We only have 14 ewes but I am a bit worried about mixing the the lambs up once the'yre all popped especially if we get some twins....
-
FiB, sorry I can't help with spray marking either but just wanted to say what a lovely pic that is :thumbsup:
-
We don't spray mark - not much shows up on black lambs and what there is would get licked off. We use tiny temporary ear tags (turkey/pheasant wing tags - Roxan) which go in at the same time as their cords are dipped in iodine, then we put in the heavier official tags at about 4 months.
-
Don't spray mark ours as they are coloured so we know who belongs to who.
Our neighbour went through "lambing jobs" with us before we got our sheep and I remember that he castrated and spray marked at the same time. That was as he put them out to grass after their initial time in the bonding pens. This would be at a couple of days of age ..... they were commercials and Jacobs.
I presume that by then they didn't lick at the lambs sides too much.
HTH ;D
-
I wait till they are up and sucking and being mothered.
If they are born in the am (as they often are outside) I might wait till later that aft/evening to mark em up. I do it in one fell swoop - spray, tag etc and then dont touch them again for at least a month.
If the lamb looks weak, I wait longer (no point tagging a dead un) and might give it thermovite. If is pissing down and everyone is cuddled up with mum, I leave em be.
Once you get to about day2/3 you have no chance of catching them. If that happens, you'll have to mark them up at first gather - hopefully the ewes number will still be showing and you can pressure them to find mum. Live lambs are better than dead, correctly labelled ones, IMO.
If you aren't performance recording, you can just leave them be entireley and just tag the lot when you heptavac.
-
If outside lambing then spray as soon as they are dry or they can be hard to catch , you can spray while still wet and no the mother doesn't lick it off but the number is not quite as clear .
-
We spray at the same time we do the pre-turnout stock tasks like worming and dagging. Ewe lambs are alphabetic and ram lambs numeric. Ewe has her own ear tag number on one side and her lambs' i.d. on the other. That way the fleece doesn't have too much marker and we can quickly match them up if necessary. I only register the Southdowns good enough for breeding so I can easily note those giving any cause for concern. Mastitis may be a problem this year as the ewes were on muddy ground for some of their pregnancy and it can kick in after turnout, so I can quickly find the dam of any lamb that looks a bit tucked up and check her out.
-
I wait till they are up and sucking and being mothered.
If they are born in the am (as they often are outside) I might wait till later that aft/evening to mark em up. I do it in one fell swoop - spray, tag etc and then dont touch them again for at least a month.
If the lamb looks weak, I wait longer (no point tagging a dead un) and might give it thermovite. If is pissing down and everyone is cuddled up with mum, I leave em be.
Once you get to about day2/3 you have no chance of catching them. If that happens, you'll have to mark them up at first gather - hopefully the ewes number will still be showing and you can pressure them to find mum. Live lambs are better than dead, correctly labelled ones, IMO.
If you aren't performance recording, you can just leave them be entireley and just tag the lot when you heptavac.
Perfect thanks, and as for heptovacing..... B****** hell - I hadnt thought about that implecation of my potential 3 month spread in lambing :-[ (The borrowed Ram had a rather longer than intended stay...). Lets just hope he was busy in the first week and then I can Hepto within a few weeks of the ideal 4-6 weeks...... oops. I have tags, but read that the ears might be a bit small and soft for them to stay in if done straight away? But If it works for you I'll try it. Thanks again all :bouquet:
-
Yes, the reason we use the tiny tags initially is because the heavier ones can tear the ears - then apart from the problems of the fresh tear (use superglue to fix it) if the ear is torn then there's not much room to replace the tag. Hebs have quite small ears too so not much room for giant tags. The tiny ones have a wire pin, like human pierced ear earings, so don't leave a hole and tend not to come out.
-
I wouldn't worry too much about the spread of your lambing - aim to jag them a month after the last one has been born.
For commercial sized lambs, I dont think you can fault shearwell tags.
-
I wouldn't worry too much about the spread of your lambing - aim to jag them a month after the last one has been born.
For commercial sized lambs, I dont think you can fault shearwell tags.
Thanks again :bouquet: :bouquet: :bouquet: Practical advice always. I have got button tags from fearings will look into others when I re order.