Author Topic: begger (Read 3682 times)

shetlandpaul · « **on:** April 23, 2010, 10:14:01 am »

we were doing so well. 10 lambs 7 ewes lambs. we have had to be bringing in the lambs because of the weather snow/sleet/hail with a wind chill. well yester day it all went to pot. first the ponies broke down the fence and they do love there game of lamb chasing. so fencing in hail not fun. next we had two ewes lamb twins in snow. the weather improved and the wind dropped. we decided that we would leave them out. as one is very anti human and nervous. so we get up and its snowed with a nice white covering and we have a dead lamb. this is our fault and im very unimpressed. they are now both in.

dixie · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2010, 12:22:18 pm »

Sh*t happens, dont beat yourself up about it, the weather can be very cruel.

RUSTYME · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2010, 12:50:28 pm »

and there was me ...moaning about how hot it was today already at 10 am ...hoping it would cool down before I walk to the land today . It is unbelievable how different the weather can be in different parts of the UK at the same time . We have had lovely weather here now for ages , it sounds like you need some of the same there...
It is hard to accept when animals die , but it isn't your fault !! it is just circumstances . Once the better weather reaches you , life will feel much better in general ..I know it does for me .
Sometimes the weather seems to conspire against us ... but it does ease it's vengeful grip in the end , and things get better ...

cheers

Russ

morri2 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2010, 02:16:21 pm »

Don't worry yourself about it, we are all at the mercy of the weather which, at this time of year is so damned unpredictable. We had unexpected snow overnight here about three or four weeks ago and one farmer, having got used to the lovely sunny weather, left all his sheep and new lambs out (several hundred of them) and lost 120 lambs in one night!!! He didn't know it would be so bad - it took us all by surprise when we woke to howling blizzards. You just have to grit your teeth and get on with it at the end of the day 'cos we are all human and can't foresee the future. All the best.

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #4 on:** April 23, 2010, 02:22:25 pm »

yes i know but its not nice knowing something died because we messed up. oh well we still have all the ewe lambs. a number of spotty shetlands and a couple of black ones as well and some nice cross cheviots.

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2010, 07:30:23 am »

the story continues. the ewe has milk in only one teat and a very heavy worm load a very visual load. odd as she was wormed as normal we use supaverm. she is very skinny as well. so its not a surprise that she lost one. any suggestions for sup feeding. she has had a dose of antibiotics just in case and the lamb was looking very iffy has improved over night. we are feeding the lamb but keeping it with mum just to reduce the demand on her energy reserves.

Hermit · « **Reply #6 on:** April 24, 2010, 04:37:51 pm »

You say you use Supaverm,do you use this all the time, you should really change wormers so they dont build a resistance, Also grazing rotation reduces the parasitic rate on the land.As for a build up feed a good quality hay ad lib is as good as anything with a diet of hard feed,you dont want her scouring and losing hydration when also producing milk. Dean sells lifeline buckets that contain all the ewe and through to the lamb via milk goodness they both need. I would ask the vet about worm control when feeding a lamb. Hope she is well soon. We will be lambing in a few weeks so the bad weather will really start then!!!

MrsJ · « **Reply #7 on:** April 24, 2010, 07:31:35 pm »

So sorry to hear about your lamb. We lost one last year because we didn't notice she wasn't feeding. We swore then that she would not have died in vain. We have been ultra careful this year and I do think that the only reason we have 14 healthy lambs because we are more aware of what can go wrong. We live and learn and you must not beat yourself up about something provided you learn from it. We do have one on the bottle and another two that we are supplementing because the ewe has mastitis and we noticed one was looking a bit thin. We're lucky here that the weather has been quite good, although we're due rain tomorrow when we plan to be dagging our hoggets. Woopee my favourite job - not!

Freddiesfarm · « **Reply #8 on:** April 24, 2010, 09:51:20 pm »

We have been very lucky with the weather down here in the South - I keep being asked if I have been on holiday somewhere hot as I have already established a suntan!

I know it doesn't make things easier but sometimes these things happen - this year was particularly tough for us as during our main lambing as we had the torrential rain and everything was sodden. I always find it hard when I lose a lamb even though we have about 250 lambs running about this year.

Let's hope the rest of your lot lamb without incident or snow!

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #9 on:** April 24, 2010, 10:38:56 pm »

thank everyone. i will be switching to a diffrent one as soon as possible. every thing seems to be ok. the lambs are all active and with milk in them. we want to move them up to the other fields just have to replace most of the fence. just one to go. then thats our second lambing over with. i just don't know how you with big flocks cope. we hope to let them out in the next day or so. depending on the weather. good luck hermit.

Freddiesfarm · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2010, 09:38:46 am »

Whenewes lamb they have a sudden surge of hormones which causes them to shed more worms. I either worm before I bring them in for lambing or as they lamb and before I turn them out - depends on my mood the direction of the wind, etc!

As hermit said important to change wormer, and only worm when needed rather than at regular intervals.

As a good supplementary feed I use ewe nuts and/or molasses and sometimes if it is a really picky ewe I will collect some ivy for them.

I had another ewe lamb this morning - been waiting for nearly a month for these last few to lamb and getting very bored and very tired now!

hexhammeasure · « **Reply #11 on:** April 29, 2010, 12:34:03 pm »

Reading this about losing lambs outside reminded me of a disaster that a farmer had near me this year. He brought his 60 ewes with twins inside as there was torrential overnight rain forecast. When the rain came it was so heavy it flooded the gutters and the shed and he lost over 100 lambs. So he was damned if he did and damned if he didnt.

This year has been terrible for commercial farmers in the north east. No grass = no milk, gimmers are leaving their lambs and not returning for them.. most farmers are running very low on feed some are even trying to feed silage to try and raise condition... its pretty desperate