[firemansam]

I am fortunate that or paddocks are opposite my front door. But the farmer who has 100 sheep up the rd from me lives 12 miles away and has a full time job. Therefore there is no way he can check on 100 ewes every day.

How often do you walk through your sheep and check up on them? Daily? Weekly?

Just curious.

[SteveHants]

I have 350 odd and I look after a child most of he time. It can be done.


However, I couldn't get round them all in a day and leave time to do anything constructive, depends on the time of year how often I get to them, fly/lamb season usually once every 48hrs. At lambing considerably more often, but I am lucky in that all my "in bye" is within 5 miles, and so I can lamb them all in blocks round here before I put them back up on the downs.


Bear in mind that hill flocks are often looked with binos and gathered 5 or so times a year...


I've even had my animal heath officer admit to me on the quiet that the notion of anyone with a decent sized flock looking them once a day is in the realms of fantasy.

[colliewoman]

Twice a day every day for me. If I had too many to check at least once per day (legal minimum) I would have less sheep personally. HOWEVER I understand if you are farming on the hills chances are you can't get all round and some of your sheep you won't be able to find every day

[bloomer]

the sheep on the hills opposite where we live must be impossible to check daily, they roam over many square miles.


it would take a lot of time to check them all daily and even then i think some luck would be involved!!!

[colliewoman]

Just to add to my previous post, I only have a small number of sheep and a LARGE case of OCD. If I couldn't check mine I would literally have a panic attack that something was wrong

[lachlanandmarcus]

Im lucky, mine are in paddocks behind the house which slope gently upwards so every time I am upstairs I can look and see them all.
But then Ive only got 18 to look after!

[in the hills]

At least once a day, but I only have a little flock and our land adjoins our property. Twice a day during fly season and I bet my OCD is worse than yours CW during lambing time.    I'm not telling anyone how often I was out there in the Spring .... poor things were sick of the sight of me.

[colliewoman]

Every 2 hours for me, and I had the goats popping at the same time   fortunately all done and dusted in a week

[Pedwardine]

Every day at the very least with a head count at least every other day. The more you observe the easier it is to spot if anything is awry. Also I need my sheepy cuddles 

[Tilly]

 
......Walk round the Marsh's first thing in the morning and "head count"  sheep  and cattle , at the moment sheep spread out, so it can take about an hour, - but what better way to start the day?
 
Also check livestock and have a count up in afternoon - if short on time I have got a little off road motor bike which can add to the excitement 

[SallyintNorth]

Generally we do see all our sheep and all our cattle - in fact, all our livestock - every day; all 800+ of them, spread over an area 2 miles long by a mile or so wide.  But it's our job, we're full-time farmers.

When I was on the moorland farm - 1000 acres of mainly moorland, carrying 530 ewes and all their 800-ish lambs - we also saw all the sheep every day.  It sounds impossible but you soon get to know where they hang out, and the collie dogs run about and alert you to any sheep skulking trying not to be seen.  Of course, unless you are feeding them every day, so can count them as they eat in a line, you can't get an exact count of many hundred spread over 500 acres, and collie dogs notwithstanding, there will be the odd casualty you never find, or don't find for several days - or even longer. 

I see my neighbours zipping about on quad bikes and buggies, and have no reason think that they all do anything other than check all their stock every day, too.

If we were in a more fly-prone area, I couldn't cope with not seeing everything every day.  In fact when we do have a spell of those sort of conditions, we generally check the most vulnerable groups twice a day.

[Big Benny Shep]

ive got afull time job and about 80 breeding ewes and 60ish fat lambs and i look them every day but my land is only 1 mile away from home and a mate who has chickens there so he looks them as well.
Its so much easier now i have a quad! 

[SteveHants]

Generally we do see all our sheep and all our cattle - in fact, all our livestock - every day; all 800+ of them, spread over an area 2 miles long by a mile or so wide.  But it's our job, we're full-time farmers.

When I was on the moorland farm - 1000 acres of mainly moorland, carrying 530 ewes and all their 800-ish lambs - we also saw all the sheep every day.  It sounds impossible but you soon get to know where they hang out, and the collie dogs run about and alert you to any sheep skulking trying not to be seen.  Of course, unless you are feeding them every day, so can count them as they eat in a line, you can't get an exact count of many hundred spread over 500 acres, and collie dogs notwithstanding, there will be the odd casualty you never find, or don't find for several days - or even longer. 

I see my neighbours zipping about on quad bikes and buggies, and have no reason think that they all do anything other than check all their stock every day, too.

If we were in a more fly-prone area, I couldn't cope with not seeing everything every day.  In fact when we do have a spell of those sort of conditions, we generally check the most vulnerable groups twice a day.

Its part of the reason I have woolshedders and I operate the system I do. some of my ground is 10 miles away.


The sheep on the downs are 200 head on 140ac, I'm never sure if I've seen them all, unless I get them in. Binoculars are handy.

[Big Light]

It depends on reality, yeh you are supposed to check them once a day and currently my ground is in front of my house it is limited, i move them about and i drive past everything every day but i have also worked on highland estates of 100,000 plus acres with 2,000-3,000 sheep its just not possible, some times you would do a gathering and get a few with double fleeces which means they hadn't been in for two years ish, they are still fit and well and bring lambs back, so in reality things are actually capable of living without human intervention given enough space and clean land

[SallyintNorth]

Good point about the woolshedding, Steve.  Apart from lambing and pre-lambing, the times we are most anxious about them and check them more than once a day are flystrike time, and waiting-to-be-sheared time. 

Yes, my bins were essential farming equipment on the moorland farm.  Not least because you see their natural behaviour from a distance; when you go up close they will hide lameness or other weakness.  That's if they let you get close at all!    (Swales on a moorland don't always!)

And we do give them cake for more days of the year than perhaps is essential.  But if they're caked, they come up to the quad and you can count them while they mill about, and / or while they eat.  We only give them a handful each (1/2lb per head per day, or even less) for a lot of the time, as it's at least partly about making sure we see them all and spot any problems early.  The ewes don't get cake from when they're speaned until the winter hits, or around Christmas time, whichever is sooner.