1000 Sheep: Expert Farmer Interview and Farm Tour Of Slatted Shed, Handling System and Sheep.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- This is Part 2 with Frank Fagan, a full time sheep farmer with 1000 head moving towards EasyCare shedding sheep to cut the costs of shearing.
We have a look around his sheep shed where sheep are housed for 3 months. We also have a look at his handling system and a closer look at his EasyCare sheep.
Frank also gives us a run down on how he manages his highly stocked system on 200 acres of good farm land.
I hope you enjoy the video and if you do, please gives us a like and click the subscribe button and bell for future.
Let me know if you enjoy the video and feel free to drop me a comment and also if you have any questions or suggestions....
Thanks for watching,
David.
Apologies for the sound issues in the first few minutes. A loose cable was tapping the camera. Everyday is a school day 😃
Thanks to you and Frank for the farm tour. Very informative.
Glad you enjoyed it
Enjoyed this, I'm having to go back as I've all your newer videos watched.
Enjoy!
It was a definite pleasure to hear you two gentlemen and see how Frank’s farm works with “easy care” shedding sheep. Thank you so much David. 😊👍👍
Thank you Linda. Glad you enjoyed it 👌
Great video. Really enjoyed it. Definately a good idea to visit other farms. Your a great presenter, you should be on TV.
I had Easy care sheep on trial a few years ago.
Pros; very prolific, singles are rare even with ewe lambs, easy lambing, great mothers, great milkers, rarely go in their backs and cross well with Ch & Texel rams .
Cons; their wool gets all over the fencing, grass land covered in wool all summer, gets all over your cloths when you work the sheep, PB lambs take 4-9 months to finish mostly R grades and ewes are very prone to mastitis and orf even at a young age. Hard get good quality replacements and rams to buy and to breed your own out of wooled sheep would take nearly 10 years. But I wish Frank well and im Glad to see it's working well for him as he culls hard for any problem ewes is the key. On paper easy care sheep seem to be the perfect solution but they have a few down sides like all breeds.
Thank you Mark..👌
Very interesting to hear your perspective on the EasyCare sheep and some of the cons. Couldn't agree more that every breed has their cons. I suppose it's a case of finding the breed that suits your own system best. Not always an easy task....
Iolo Owen, Anglsey, North Wales.
Iolo Owen, a Welsh sheep farmer, began to develop the Easy Care breed of sheep in the early 1960s. The breed combines some of the most useful characteristics of the self-shedding Wiltshire Horn with the robust Welsh Mountain sheep, resulting in improved welfare and profitability.
I'm loving these shedding sheep. I think it's the future.
Definitely have a bright future..
Very informative chat with Frank, he's a very practical guy and knows what works for him but might not suit everyone. You're a good oul interviewer David, comes natural to ya.
Thank you for your comment...👌
Love the idea of seeing different systems. We are in the thumb region of Michigan"looks like a mitten" in the US. We have a small flock of 100 ewes. They are mainly Katahdin/ Katahdin crosses, just added an Austrailian White ram,also a shedding bred, last year. These are hair sheep so they shed in spring, no hair left in field, birds take it for nests. These are parasite resistant. Good foragers, they will eat almost anything, poison ivy, stinging nettles etc. Good mothers,low imputs, good lamb vigor. We usually have a 200+% lambing rate, usually under 2% loss rate. They do well in all types of weather. Meat is milder than wool breeds. They fit a variety of managament systems.
Thank you so much for outlining your system. They sound like really hardy sheep! Our losses in Ireland average about 8%. How long does it take to get your lambs to the 100 lb slaughter weight? Or maybe you take them to a heavier weight?
@@sheepschool365 It usually takes about 5-6 months to get them to 100lbs, last year longer with the drought we had. We sell all our lambs on site and our customers harvest the lambs themselves, so there is as little stress on the animal as possible and most of our customers want 50-80 lb lambs.
You have an impressively high lambing rate and an impressively low loss rate😊 Well done!
Another interesting video david
Great content keep her going
Very cool series seeing how other farmers have their systems setup!
That's Eamon. Always nice to see how other people do things..👌
Smashing video can’t wait for the next one , FairPlay to frank for the tour
Glad you enjoyed it. Frank runs a great operation..👌
Cool to see other sheep systems through your videos, content Brillant and a great help to me
Great to hear you found it helpful 👌
Great video David. Love seeing different systems.
Thanks Daniel, Glad you enjoyed it..
Enjoyed this 2 parter, thanks frank!! Hopefully be a regular thing, seeing how others do it 👍
More to come!
David’s travelling sheep show,brilliant video and presenter.Remember no show without punch
I started with sheep in sept 2021. Only in a very small way in the hope that one day it would be bigger. I selected to go witht he easy care breed as I liked the idea of not having the orgainsing shearing. I lambed in 2022 and 2023. I only have 9 breeding ewes and have kept 6 from last year. Most had doubles with a couple of triplets. Only 1 had a minor issue but all good mothers and reared them up well.
Good to hear your experience with them and that they are working well for you...👌
Great video David as always Frank has some set up there a credit to him them two videos you done were brilliant 👌👌👌
Thanks Gary. Good to know you enjoyed them both..👍
Food for thought! Another great video, thank you.
Thank you Paul, glad you enjoyed it!
I know zero about sheep but this was super interesting 👌👍
Great to hear you found it interesting Adrian. Can be hard to convince the dairy men that sheep can be useful...🤣
Great content David.
I've had Whiltshire (shedders) for ten years. They live on grass year round. Some different considerations, mainly because they have no clothes on at times. Heavy culling each year, survival of the fittest approach, and now, no work, all I do is docking. Mainly for creating Whethers..
Thank you for an insight into a different operation.. Glad you enjoyed 👍
Two great videos and fair play for Frank doing it
Thank you Emmett, glad you enjoyed both videos 👍
the tur is a great thing to put on
Thank you 👍
Great video and great conversation about many aspects of farming, including the value of the lifestyle. I feel the same way, if you look at how much we make per hour you'll wonder what the point is, but it is a good life and you can't put a value on that. Thanks for taking the time to document your farm and others. I always learn something.
Thanks Peter, good to know you enjoy them. 👍
I think most people try to chase the best paying job but not convinced that's what life is all about....
Outstanding video again David. I’m part time farming around 200 and working out as well. Would love to do it full time but just don’t see how it is possible.
Thank you Neil..glad you enjoyed it..👌 it's a pity farmers are so poorly paid!
@@sheepschool365 farming here will look a lot different in another 10 years I would imagine. Could be very few left!
Nice work, I’d really enjoy a video where you talk about your llyen sheep and the how and why they work for you in your own system and would ever consider crossing a llyen ewe with a terminal ram and how you settled upon the breed
Thanks for the idea! Will do a video on that in July..
Excellent content thanks from Leitrim
Thanks Adrian...👌
Great video David
Thank you Tom..👌
Great video I would love to see more of them videos of you going on tour to other farms
I really enjoy making them but it's hard to find time. Hopefully do couple in the new year 👌
Oh I know its not easy I do know you will do your best to get them done
Really enjoyed that video
Thanks Paddy, glad you enjoyed it 👌
Thank you good luck
Thank you too
‘Especially a lad with no dog and no quad he’s in for a hard time’
Didn’t expect to be called out from an ocean away
😁 Worked sheep for 3 years with neither. Not sure I could go back...
@@sheepschool365 the health app tells me I’m walking up 63 flights of stairs a day, time for a bit of help I reckon. That said not taking them back to the shed for shearing saves a mountain farmer a few days of work
Nice cover image 😉 Great content keep it up!!!
Thank you! 😁
Another great video
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it...👍
Great stuff great to see how others do it easy care and sheep don't usually be in one sentence ran a full breed easy care ram with ewes a fews years for replacement and only half breed most still sheep wool
How did you find the lambs? Did they make good replacements?
@@sheepschool365 doing the business ran him with swaledale ewes and cross them hogget last year with blue Lester 110 lambs out of 60 hoggets wormered them this week 27kg to 33kg for lambs that was born in first 2 weeks of April and got no creep 😃
Very interested in your tour of other sheep farms. It's fascinating to see how farm differ place to place. How far away do you plan to travel. I'm very interested in seeing how farmers around Galway fare, field versus hill.
I have another farm tour coming soon in Co Offaly. It is great to see how other people do things...👌
I like it
Interesting
Can you please make a video about scouring problem with lamb and what do you think is important to do to prevent it.
I will try. What ages are the lambs you are having problems with?
3 month, just after weaning.
Thanks
1000 sheep on 200 acres. Thats pretty tight isnt it
4 to 5 sheep per acre is not uncommon in Ireland. Summer months no problem but Winter can be a challenge for feed...
Where did you get the plastic slats?
Slats are from Jetwash in Carrigallen, Co Leitrim.
What is the brand for the flooring grids?
They are supplied by a local company called Jetwash. Don't know the brand.
Easycare very prone to mastitis thats becuase so good milkers hard to get it right
I've come to a realization every breed has pros and cons. I guess it's what works in your system...