Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

[bobajob]

Is that with "warm" rain instead of cold rain ?

Probably warm rain.! Its been dry over here in the west for a few days now.! Rain coming tomorrow..

 

[Skintagain]

Farms around 650 ft, sheep on moor around 1,400 ft, obviously we are in the South West so milder than the likes of Scotland but people tend to do what they have always done. By the time ours go back onto the moor at the end of Nov after tupping they have a full fleece & in our case winter very well on the moors whatever the weather.

You are very low then. We could get away with shearing late may on some away ground but often wait until early/mid June that will be 850ft

a lot of our ewes are turned out with lambs in March April at 1200’ they wouldn’t thank me for hacking their fleeces off until late June

 

[Cornish bob]

Has anybody had any schmallenberg virus in the cows that are calving at the moment?

 

[sheepwise]

You say that but strangely it's not the case, you often get a ewe that for some reason or other sheds her fleece early & still thrives, many farmers winter shear on housing & still turn them out early, ewes suffer far more with an incomplete fleece early on in the winter & that's when they seem to lose condition, darn sight warmer in May than November.

Be a cruelty job here if you sheared hill blackies first week of May. Cruelty for sheep and shearer that is.

 

[livestock 1]

Being doing it for 25 years & never had a problem yet, I guess it's what works for you but our Scotch thrive rear lambs & never need bag food, all lambs sold fat through Exeter market without dry food. Suggest maybe try a few & see the results.

Had Scotch sheep for 30 years

 

[livestock 1]

Being doing it for 25 years & never had a problem yet, I guess it's what works for you but our Scotch thrive rear lambs & never need bag food, all lambs sold fat through Exeter market without dry food. Suggest maybe try a few & see the results.

I’ve rushed in in June and sheared ewes when they were barley ready hit cold wet whether it’s taken the milk off them and left us with a load of stunty lambs. Sheared hoggs in April and May that’s also betting on the weather too.
Late is safer than early

 

[Henarar]

Had Scotch sheep for 30 years

How many generations before they are classed as English ?

 

[livestock 1]

How many generations before they are classed as English ?

Never

 

[BrianV]

Be a cruelty job here if you sheared hill blackies first week of May. Cruelty for sheep and shearer that is.

Funny enough coming off the moors into fields from 14th March until shearing first week of May shearers always reckon they shear really well, they then go up onto the moor the following week, obviously we are milder down here than a lot of places, we started to do it in 1999 as it saves a thankless task of rounding up unsheared sheep lost in bracken on the moors if they went up unsheared.
It also means Dysect works better for ticks & no worries with maggots if it turns really warm.

 

[bobajob]

How many generations before they are classed as English ?

The saying goes 3 generations in the kirk (church) yard before you are accepted as a local around here!!

 

[hill shepherd]

An old shepherd once told me "if you want decent sheep hold back the clippers and hold back the tups"

 

[Skintagain]

An old shepherd once told me "if you want decent sheep hold back the clippers and hold back the tups"

Run em all geld and don’t clip em for market?

 

[Skintagain]

Funny enough coming off the moors into fields from 14th March until shearing first week of May shearers always reckon they shear really well, they then go up onto the moor the following week, obviously we are milder down here than a lot of places, we started to do it in 1999 as it saves a thankless task of rounding up unsheared sheep lost in bracken on the moors if they went up unsheared.
It also means Dysect works better for ticks & no worries with maggots if it turns really warm.

So you put them up to 1400’ moor in mid may a week after shearing?

Why do they get lost if the have their wool on?

 

[livestock 1]

I was always told a sheep would take no hurt being shorn if she was ready
There isn’t many ready in May up country

 

[hill shepherd]

Run em all geld and don’t clip em for market?

Ha ha, don't think that's quite what he meant

 

[Skintagain]

I was always told a sheep would take no hurt being shorn if she was ready
There isn’t many ready in May up country

May is usually when they are worst imo they have just milked hard for a month or so biggest toll on their body of the year

 

[Skintagain]

I was always told a sheep would take no hurt being shorn if she was ready
There isn’t many ready in May up country

You missed

 

[BrianV]

So you put them up to 1400’ moor in mid may a week after shearing?

Why do they get lost if the have their wool on?

Down here we have areas of bracken on parts of the moor some of it 6ft tall & you've one hell of a job to find them in that, besides it would be an extra job, where as we can get them sheared marked up Dysected & away for the summer without worries.

 

[muleman]

I wonder if they've bred too much wool off the swaledale now, not really wool now, it's more hair

 

[BrianV]

I wonder if they've bred too much wool off the swaledale now, not really wool now, it's more hair

Scotch Blackface we have bred & run have really good fleeces.