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MO | Bryce you have a lot more experience long term than I do, so maybe you could critique our operation a bit. we made a decision (not saying good or bad...a decision) that we would do a rapid expansion this year, so over half of these are 14 month olds that are lambing for first time, so granted that is exacerbating the issue. Good breed up and scans on ewes...97% breed up and 1.67 scan ( lighter than normal but fall was dry so flush wasn't as hard as we'd like). Ewe lamb breed up was 87% on early group and 91% on later group, 1.57 and 1.50 respective scan counts. honestly this year if we can get a 1.25 I'll be happy but its looking more like 1.1 per exposed ewe. We recycled all opens into fall lambing group so that should come up a bit. Either way, just not happy with that, and not a recipe for long term success. hoping its just the year. And agree...will have a great flock in a few years, but managing cash flow until that point is still key. Adapting sheep to the management style still key and probably most overlooked thing, especially when buying in ewes.
Our operation is not a typical pasture lambing enterprise...the one caveat to our deal is we run nearly exclusively on irrigated crop ground (wheat pasture and sudangrass or alfalfa over summer) and crop residue with hardly any grass, so our stocking density is higher, we try to either move super fast and come back fast or stock it super high and graze to the ground to get max sunlight back on ground for worm control, followed by a 35-40 day rest. This worked well in TX, its not working as well in MO. It worked well last year, but not this year, and trying to determine what of that is the year, and what is management...and thus what we need to be doing differently in our flock management.
TBH...not a lot of small ruminant people to lean on for our current environment, so sort of learning as we go for wet/humid climate while still trying to produce an animal that the market wants, and not a skinny little St Croix. \
Apologies for probably more info than anyone on here cared to see, just trying to have an honest discussion and hopefully pick up some good advice, never a dull moment or lack of learning with sheep! | |
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Lambing Wreck
