Lambs stinking of fox

[VSS]

Not wanting to play devils advocate @VSS but you’d have to be a bloody fool to get everything right with regards to watery mouth etc and not be on top of predator control. It’s a basic. Just as corvid control is.

Well I've worked my damndest to get everything right with regard to those other things, and I've never really bothered much about predator control. In the last 25 years, in my own flock, I've driven lamb mortality down to record low levels, and in all that time I've lost just two to foxes. And one of those was entirely my own fault.
So I guess I'm a just a bloody fool

 

[Foxyboy43]

Ah! $hitty time ahead mate ..

Kelpie...

Wot?

 

[Bo Diddley]

Wot?

Looks like Ben's old dog is not great... vet's appointment.. he was asking a few weeks ago for suggestions on what he should get... seeing as he works with sheep and wants an all round companion, I reckon a Kelpie would be great..

 

[BenBhoy]

Kelpie...

Lad I grew up with in Conwy has just had litter kelpie x huntaway....

I want a terrier again. Mrs want's a lab or retriever. We currently have lurcher.

 

[Acm]

Well I've worked my damndest to get everything right with regard to those other things, and I've never really bothered much about predator control. In the last 25 years, in my own flock, I've driven lamb mortality down to record low levels, and in all that time I've lost just two to foxes. And one of those was entirely my own fault.
So I guess I'm a just a bloody fool

How many are you lambing?

 

[BenBhoy]

Looks like Ben's old dog is not great... vet's appointment.. he was asking a few weeks ago for suggestions on what he should get... seeing as he works with sheep and wants an all round companion, I reckon a Kelpie would be great..

I do like kelpie a lot

 

[VSS]

Lad I grew up with in Conwy has just had litter kelpie x huntaway....

I want a terrier again. Mrs want's a lab or retriever. We currently have lurcher.

A kelpie is great, but you basically have to keep on re-training them, in my experience!

I had a dog once that was 3/4 collie, 1/4 huntaway, and that was a very good farm dog indeed.

I know of a fairly well trained young collie for sale at the moment, if you're looking for a work dog?

 

[VSS]

How many are you lambing?

These days, only a couple of hundred.
Have had to change things a bit due to my health
Hopefully increasing again soon, but with a very different management strategy.

 

[Acm]

These days, only a couple of hundred.
Have had to change things a bit due to my health

Sorry to hear that, shame your not closer, sounds like I could learn a lot, and shoot your foxes for free
I think I’ll end up packing sheep in eventually. I so prefer beef cattle!

 

[VSS]

Sorry to hear that, shame your not closer, sounds like I could learn a lot, and shoot your foxes for free
I think I’ll end up packing sheep in eventually. I so prefer beef cattle!

I've pretty much got rid of all my cattle and replaced them with deer. The winter workload was getting too much with the cattle.
Given up contract lambing.
My own flock size has dwindled over the past few years while I make adjustments to the way I do things, based on what I'm still able to realistically do.
But now I've got a plan, and some new opportunities opening up, so hopefully can build numbers again and manage them in a way that's a bit more sympathetic to my physical limitations.

 

[BenBhoy]

I so prefer beef cattle!

£££ crazy loco!!

 

[BenBhoy]

I know of a fairly well trained young collie for sale at the moment, if you're looking for a work dog?

Diolch. But whilst Lola still kicking about I'm going to wait. I don't need a "proper" work dog. More of a gator riding companion!

 

[BenBhoy]

I so prefer beef cattle!

Calving or rearing?? We genuinely can't afford to keep finishing the way we have been. Trialling buying in 2 week old beef x dairy and have them on adlib currently through heatwave. Obviously long term, but only way we can afford to keep cattle on farm with current prices at market

 

[Klenchblaize]

I know diddly-squat about lambs & ews but what is obvious, to even the most casual observer of Lowland shepherding in the 21st-century, is that sticking a couple of flashing lights in a field and visiting the flock at dawn & dusk leaves a lot to be desired.

K

 

[Acm]

Calving or rearing?? We genuinely can't afford to keep finishing the way we have been. Trialling buying in 2 week old beef x dairy and have them on adlib currently through heatwave. Obviously long term, but only way we can afford to keep cattle on farm with current prices at market

Rearing, have always done 250-300 a year and grazed them and sold them as strong stores.
That being said, I’ve just started a suckler herd, the way calf prices and milk prices have got, it’s cheaper to keep a cow to rear the calf.
Believe it or not I spent nearly £15k on milk powder last year

 

[BenBhoy]

Believe it or not I spent nearly £15k on milk powder last year

Can easily believe it, everyone has jumped on bandwagon, then housewives query why price of beef has gone through the roof??

 

[MilesW]

A kelpie is great, but you basically have to keep on re-training them, in my experience!

Probably because of the circumstances. Kelpies have to work hard and constantly. They thrive on it. They rarely need retraining in the appropriate setting, but a couple of hundred sheep on a postage stamp with not much to do every day just isn't going to cut it. It is not what they were bred for.

 

[Smellydog]

Mate of mine has a kelpie. It would drive me mad. They need a 1000 acres to work every day or forget it, and moult!! Bloody hell do they moult!

 

[BenBhoy]

Guess the breeding??

 

[Nickb]

Guess the breeding?? View attachment 416887

Lamb