[Hillview Farm]

I plan to flush my ewes this year and give them all a good M.O.T before going on there holidays!

Few questions;

1. When to start flushing, at 4 or 6 weeks pre tupping?
2.Does anyone give there ewes concentrates to flush or is it just fresh grass? If so how much concentrate feed?
3. I understand a lot of you do FEC's but that's a different topic. Should I use a combined wormer and fluke or just worm them?

Thanks all 

[SteveHants]

I plan to flush my ewes this year and give them all a good M.O.T before going on there holidays!

Few questions;

1. When to start flushing, at 4 or 6 weeks pre tupping?
2.Does anyone give there ewes concentrates to flush or is it just fresh grass? If so how much concentrate feed?
3. I understand a lot of you do FEC's but that's a different topic. Should I use a combined wormer and fluke or just worm them?

Thanks all 

1) Up to you, really - depending on the condition of your ewes.
2) I don't flush, but if I did, I'd do it on grass - it all depends on the type of ewes you have. Flushing things like lleyns is a bad idea unless you can cope with a lot of triplets.
3)Only worm if there is a worm problem - don't bother if there isn't. This is where your FEC comes in.

[SallyintNorth]

If you are in a fluke area, then you must fluke.  You can't rely on a FEC.  Ask your vet's advice on this one.

[Hillview Farm]

Thank you both! Sally I have no idea if there is fluke in the area so I'll talk to my vet.

Steve, I would say all of my ewes apart from 2 are up to condition now. I've got them on fairly tight grazing but the grass is good so it may have to be concentrates to push them?

[SteveHants]

It all depends - flushing is more about a rising plane of nutrition causing more eggs to be released. I tend to put mine to the tup at cs 2.5-3 (and certainly no more) and I get good lambing percentages, usually. Lots put theirs to the tup at 3-4. It all depends what condition they started in. I don't like my sheep to get anywhere near CS4, because I believe sheep over 3 are too fat and won't lamb themselves etc, but I'm probably in the minority...