Sheep Farming: How We Feed Sheep
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Today at Ewetopia Farms, we answer the many requests from viewers as to how we feed hay and why we choose to do it the way we do. We focus on our various feeders used with the different sheep groups on our farm from lambs to rams. We also talk about the feed we use and how we feed it.
Sheep and sheep farming is our passion and we hope that the love we have for what we do is obvious to you the viewers. Our operation is a large scale, registered Suffolk and Poll Dorset sheep farm combining the best of pasture and confinement to manage the flock for maximum comfort, minimal stress, and producing a consistent, very high quality product. Our focus is on providing breeding stock for sale to other sheep producers. All our sheep are treated with the utmost compassion which I think will become evident as you join us on our daily rounds on our working sheep farm in eastern Ontario, Canada.
I hope you enjoy this video. If you would like to follow along with us and experience life on a real live sheep farm on a daily basis, please subscribe so that you don't miss a single episode!
Thank you for taking the time to watch! We love to hear from you so be sure to leave a comment as well.
Thank you!
Lynn & Arnie
Contact Information:
Website: Https://www.ewetopia.ca/
Lynn McKay and Arnie Droogh
3606 6th Concession Road
Kingston, Ontario
Canada
K0H 1Y0
ewetopiafarms@gmail.com
Follow us on:
Instagram: / ewetopiafarms
Facebook: / ewetopiafarms
UA-cam: / @ewetopiafarms
Great review! Congratulations upon reaching 14K subscribers!!
Thanks!
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Wow!!! That is quite a milestone!!! Congratulations!!!🏆
Love your farm’s strategies. Thanks Lynn… and Arnie.
Thanks Justina! :)
Good educational feed video, Lynn!!! I love the Ram Feeder, I remember a vid you made When the boys pushed it over once in one of your other videos when the feeder was on it's side when they were playing ram games and being naughty 💚🍀🐑🤣 Sheep, Are so funny
Yes, I remember that too! Never a dull moment!😁
Good morning Arnie and Lynn. Beautiful day. I always enjoy the explanations of why you guys choose to go about caring for your sheep. Food is so important for the sheep’s well being. Makes sense that if food is available that they would not be afraid that they won’t get more. Animals aren’t dumb they adapt so well to a routine. It is so nice to see how beautiful your flock is. And a bonus for the day is the beautiful ram that came for a little attention. Those big boys just melt your heart. Have a great day. Big hugs to you both. 🥰🥰🥰
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Happy sheep. Hope you have a lovely weekend. Oh! And I’m working on sheep mugs. I’ll email you when I get something fired.
Awesome! Can't wait to see them!😃
I really enjoy learning more about your sheep, plus your farming practices and skills.
Thank you so much for sharing your life and story with us.
Makes my heart melt every time a lamb or a sheep comes up to see you.
May today be a good day for you and Arnie.
Thank you!🥰
Hi ya Lynn, I enjoyed what you presented today. All these years I wasn't sure what hay really was. Humm, yeah that's strange me not knowing the difference between hay & grass!! Lol I now know they are one and the same. I simply thought you plant seed to grow hay, how dumb could I have been. That design of the feeders would be great if you built them yourselves. Having the compartment at the bottom of the feed trough does make a safe zone for the lambs. If I was a lamb and big woolly moms came rushing over I would definitely duck under there. Thanks for the video!!! 🐑❣🌴
You are not dumb because you do plant hay - it is not just wild grasses or at least it shouldn't be. Wild grasses would consist of a lot of weeds and plants unpalatable to sheep. So, although hay is a mixture of grasses, we do plant it so that it consists of a grass mixture optimal for sheep health. Usually a mixture of Orchard, Broome, Rye, Fescue , Timothy grasses plus some legumes such as White Clover, birdsfoot trefoil and alfalfa.
Yay we just reached14K viewers 💥💥💥💥💥
Was that a slow climb?! LOL!
Slow and steady. All earned by merit.
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This was really informative thank you!
You are welcome 🙂
Thanks for all the great information you share with us. I hope you and Arnie have a great day Thank you Lynn. ❤🎉😊
You're welcome and thank you!
Wow that was amazing and thanks for sharing this video. I am learning so much from your channel for when I start. Thank you Lynn and Arnie 😊❤❤
You are so welcome! Thanks Gary!🥰
very educational, thanks!
You're welcome!
Thanks, really excellent tutorial video.
Thanks Bob :)
Thank you for very good information . Your sheep look great
@@Private2024. Thanks. I hope it was helpful 🙂
Hey Lynn... that was a nice refresher course in what you do. Still lovely to watch. Definitely not boring or anything.
I was wondering if you ever get lambs cast? I was woken at 2 am and didn't know what I was hearing, but sounded like a ruckus down at my barn. I looked in my barn cam, and saw my little ram-lamb, legs kicking in the air. I quickly went down to the barn, and sure enough my boy had himself in a predicament. In his case, we have a sheet of siding that my dad gave me for when the shearing happens, and rather than just keep it wherever it was, he brought it down, put it inside the barn, and chained it to a couple of the vertical support columns. This created a little lamb-sized dead-end cave. I noted that my little Ram liked to go into it, and he would back out. But last night, he tried to do a turn-around and a moment later he had gone turtle. I looked in my barn cam and found that he'd been like that for 5 hours! Poor baby. Seems to me that, even if it's a strange space, lambs are limber enough, normally, to contort themselves out of that kind of situation. Unfortunately for me, my super gorgeous, extra-cute baby boy might have OCD (terminal neurological condition). It's potentially heritable and linked to the polycerate (multiple horn) gene. Poor little guy. Can't quite run and jump like the other lamb.
You are lucky that you got to him in time. It is terrible to lose a sheep that way. And yes, we have had lambs cast too. In fact, last year, our keeper ram out of Gladiator #3 Kodiak was caste and I put it on a UA-cam video at the time. Luckily, he, too, was okay.
@@EwetopiaFarms Yes, I was quite lucky. I don't know if he has OCD, but after some discussion with the head of the breed association, he's got three strikes against him being a good herd sire, so I'm going to wether him, befriend him, and if possible keep him. He might not survive because of his issues, but he might do just fine. I just realized what his name will be.... Rocky! You'd think with the way I name your lambs I'd have names for every animal.... but I was waiting for him to tell me his name. So this evening I'll officially tell him his name, and band him, and give him a shot of BoSe, and hopefully all that attention will let him know how special he is. I'll also eliminate the hazard (I couldn't do anything about it in the wee hours)
Thanks so much for always listening to my troubles. I appreciate you so much!
Here's another question .... will your lambs all be M lambs even if they're born before January 1, or will you have some L lambs prior to that date? Just curious.
@@EwetopiaFarms I'm at work, and unable to do anything for him, but when I checked in on my barn cam at noon, and he was flat out on his side. I turned on the speaker, and baaa'd quite loud, hoping he'd react.... and he did! But he is stumbling around on his knees and falling down a lot. When I get home I'm going to check his temp (if he's still with us) and give him some BoSe (Se stands for Selenium, not sure about the Bo) and I'll see if any of this helps him. I could fix him a bottle too, but I think he's getting plenty of milk. '
Poor baby.
@Sasheena Rocky sounds like a great name. It is easy to come up with names but usually waiting until they tell you their name is best! 2023 is L year and 2024 is M year
I learned something! Thank you so much for your videos! 🥰
Thanks! I hope it was helpful!
Arn ie can cut/weld out alternating rungs out of the blue lamb hay feeders. Easier pulling of hay.
Very interesting information today Lynn, even though I'm a regular viewer, I still seem to learn something new! I know when Arnie operated his dairy there were fewer structures for animals, but did his cows graze outside year round? A combination of indoor/outdoor or all indoor? I don't think I remember you guys ever mentioning the housing of the cows.
Thanks for a great video and stay safe!!🐑
In the olden days of the cows, they went outside. But in the end, they were mainly indoors. Only the heifers got to go out occasionally. It was a tie-stall barn. Not friendly at all. The newer barns are much more cow friendly but you have to basically be a millionaire to have one.
Definitely can tell when an animal or a human has had food insecurity…behavior more aggressive. I think that’s a contributing factor why your sheep are happy and friendly.
That could play a part in it too!
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Hi Lynn great info - really enjoyed this topic today. Thanks for being so thorough.
7:42 is that Ferdinand standing above everyone on the right??? He's a beast LOVE him..
Or is that Gimley?
I'm not sure from that distance but I think it was Gimli. The two of them are monsters 😁 Gimli has the wrinkles and Ferdinand is smooth 😎
I was asking about the Dorset front legs. They look knock-knee compared to Suffolk but that is probably an illusion. They seemed to be a heftier front leg bone than the Suffolk but that could be wool. You are there and familiar, it's sometimes hard to tell on video. Just curious.
Yes, I know you were asking about front legs but it is the same thing. The woolly legs make them look both thicker and closer together or knock-kneed due to the wool. Suffolks in general have thicker bones. A weakness on the white sheep Dorset/Rideau is knock knees - something we work heavily on and greatly improved I think. Still too few people pay attention to it.
@@EwetopiaFarms Thanks, I appreciate you answering my questions.
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Not bingeing, but streaming, like a river. Down hill. B
LOL! I guess streaming does sound better than bingeing! LOL!
Cut evry second pin in the blue feeders and the problem is gone 🙂👍🏻
Yes, or every two out of three!
Lynne, is there a reason you never did that?
Hi there with those creep feeders can't you just cut out every other bar then the could get at the hay properly
Yes, we probably could but it is a shame to cut such an expensive feeder.
What is in your grain ration ?
For adults, 50/50 corn/barley. Creep feed is cracked corn, barley and roasted soybeans and decox for coccidiosis
Hi.
Can i ask you.
How many do you engaged with the Farm. Madam.
Thanks.
We work by ourselves and have about 400 ewes plus rams and lambs
O! Thats great.
May you both be healthy, I wish.
What is TMR “traditional medicated rumen”LOL???????
TMR is total mixed ration which is a mixture of hay, grain, minerals, etc. all mushed together basically