Farmer Focus Livestock: Feeding sheep is a challenge for Charlie Armstrong
Feeding sheep continues in wet, clarty conditions which is not good for man nor beast. Our first lambing man has started and I’m quite sure he is also looking at our neighbour’s sheep as well as getting lost and there seems to be a language barrier – after all he has come from Scotland.
Feed blocks are all finished and the sheep are now being fed on organic molasses from Paraguay. This is less than half the price and it’s being fed as feed licks ad-lib.
Our scanning results won’t break records like everyone else I speak too, but geld ewes are a good trade and they have been replaced with some organic in lamb polled Dorsets. I have paid for them, but I haven’t seem them yet.
Early lambers (17 March) are all inside along with our triplets. They are being fed a TMR of silage, barley and molasses. Outside are singles who are just on silage, the twins are also on a TMR. Fat lambs are still getting dearer so there’s no need to complain on that front with 2000 left to go.
Hens teeth would be easier to find and cheaper to buy than straw is at the moment, with most people running short. Two years ago we sold a lot to Holland, so it might just have to start coming back shortly.
Muck spreading started on Monday as it was a hard frost, it then stopped abruptly on Tuesday as the spreader swallowed an unlikely object.
Three days were grabbed to go away with our children to Crieff, Perthshire. Food, water and children much like home and many eastern European accents.