your a great sheep farmer. Im a big sheep fan. my ancestors were all farmers, My two granmothers were famers also. and my great grand father was a farmer also too. from patrick higgins mitchelstown, ps I have no farm but still love sheep and cows.
Love your channel, very fascinating and full of so much information, even though I’m not a farmer your an awesome farmer - thank you for sharing your life with us. Hello 👋 from Western Australia 😊
I’d keep them all… so sentimental. They’d all have names too. I’d be a hopeless sheep farmer. 😂 her name is Myrtle. ❤ Really enjoying your lessons on ewe health.
When you are keeping your own replacements a ewe which has lasted to six years old could breed you a better gimmer lamb than a one which lost teeth at four. If the teeth are tight and on the pad she’s definitely worth another year. The lump on the ewes jaw would be a tooth abscess i would think.
You are dead right.. I try to keep my replacements from older sheep. If they've made it to culling age they haven't fallen apart with mastitis, mouth or prolapse...
I have had the same symptoms on cattle as on your ewe with the skin condition (Not sure if sheep can get it aswell). If the same it is called Photosensitisation. Affects the white parts of the body. Can be grousesome to look at! Primarily caused by eating St. John's Wort, buckweed, spring parsley, bishops weed or dutchmans breeches. The list goes on. Clinical signs appear within 21days from ingesting plants/ weeds. My vet said that there may be other plants / reasons why some animals are infected but not others. His thought was that maybe those animals immune levels were low. Basically tough luck. Animals will live, but on a bad dose will never be just right.
My experience with photosensitization (re: horses eating clover), was the redness and crusty skin where the hair was white (blazes and pasterns), but never swollen up like the heads on David's ewes.
Thanks for sharing your cull decision making with such specific examples.You're far more experienced than I am, but that rake-toothed ewe looked fat and happy enough for another year to me. I'd say keep after treating feet going into winter, too. You can see a couple who need attention at the back of the flock in your footage of changing fields. Wishing you lots of luck going into the breeding season.
In my opinion when it comes to ewes of more than five years always judge with Feburary eyes that is to move your thoughts on how will the ewe appear in feburary with maybe two lambs on board and a month before lambing This usually ends up with a thin ewe lacking in energy and getting pushed out at Hay / Silage feeders and meal troughs The rest you know you spend the rest of the season trying to get her to catch up I enjoy your videos we have a small flock in Mid Roscommon and you are right every day you work with sheep you learn something new Good luck !
Love your videos, LOVE this channel, really look forward to each one, become a highlight of my week. Please keep posting. You may have already shared this but couldn't find reference to it. What sheep drench backpack is that and would you recommend? Thanks so much and keep up the good work. :-) David, Western Isles, Scotland
Brilliant, thanks for sharing David, really appreciate that. And very much looking forward to your shop opening, will most definitely be supporting it and will continue to support your channel in any way I can 👌
I also found that some older sheep develop problems with their molars causing them to cud spit, so if I noticed wads of cud on the field, I took a little time to see the culprit and make a note. I had a stunningly handsome Lleyn ram who began to spit so he went off for cull. I got a fantastic price, not what I wanted really as I wanted him to go for cull, not waste away on another farm. I think you could get rid of the St John’s Wort, I did,as my Poll Dorset x Lleyns were particularly susceptible. Their ears even dropped off in contravention of the tagging regime. Great fun arguing with the trading standards officer as I made the ewes pendants to hang their tags on.
I think the whiter sheep are much more prone to it. Strange that's the only field I sprayed for nettles this year but didn't wipe out the St John Wort.
Keep , shes in great shape which shows thats shes grazing well plus feet and udder is good .be good to her put her in a batch of similar ewes which require a bit more attention , house them a bit earlier before lambing and the condition will stay with them in early lactation. Swelling on jaw more likely back teeth or perhaps the result of a jaw bone injury .good video .
Could that ewe have Caseous Lymphadenitis? ( a bacterial infection.) Your videos are always educational and fun to watch too.👍👍😊 Feel better soon sweet Enya ❤️
Were the two sheep that reacted to the Saint John's Wort related? Just curous as sensitivities/allergies can be genetic, though might be they were the only 2 that ate the plant? I'd keep that older ewe on another year as she's in lovely condition. Another great school day, for sure!
Evening David The older sheep on your 1st picture with the rough hair on its head Looks similar to " RAIN SCALD" which is prevalent in Scotland Don't like using ORANGE colour paint or raddle Seems to blend into red or yellow especially with wet weather All the best B Dawson Edinburgh Scotland
You have a lot more experience than I do. I’d have been worried that the 6 year olds teeth wouldn’t last but you can’t beat running your thumb over them to check for firmness which I’m guessing they were hence why you kept her?
Plenty of them last to 8 or 9 but don't suit my system of grass right up to point of lambing so 6/7 is my limit depending on body condition. No room to get into race for dagging but I never dag and prefer to dose outside..👌
I would definitely let the older ewes go especially ones in poorer conditions always end up with problem. They simply don’t have the power left to produce two lambs especially on a grass based system
When I started out always tended to work my rams hard and run with 90-100 ewes. Found they got blisters and sores round legs and brisket. Bigger problem was the odd broken crayon and sheep not getting marked. I'll maybe mention that in the next video 👌
@@sheepschool365 any sign anything esp thin sheep anything over 5 years if has any sign of anything away they go another thing people do is all sheep sell over 5 sell for breeders in mart only have young ewes that way young ewes a bad spring easer keep up too not as much feeding wanted
