With local grazing ground in short supply, every acre counts for Ben Holmes. Thanks to a high performance sheep bucket, he is keeping his ewes in top condition on minimal ground, even in challenging weather conditions.
“My family has always farmed so I’ve always had interest in sheep. I left school at 18 after doing my A-levels and started with 15 Herdwicks. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to give it a good shot. So, I went on to buy 100 mule ewes which I ran onto as shearlings to sell for 2 consecutive years. Once I’d learnt how to manage sheep better, I bought 100 Swaledale shearlings to lamb to the Bluefaced Leicester”, says Ben.
In his eagerness to push numbers, Ben quickly came to realise he has a stocking rate ‘sweet spot’. “I got up to 170 ewes at one point, but it was knocking them back so wasn’t worth it. We’re now running 140, including some Blueface Leicester and odd ones, on around 50 acres in a 3 mile radius. It’s just right for the acreage. I would like to get more, but it’s difficult to find ground in the local area. So, every acre counts, and we definitely need to utilise every blade of grass we’ve got”.
Alongside his sheep, Ben runs a game and clay shoot. “We lamb all of them outdoors in March to April. We always have quite tight lambing; we’re finished and done within two weeks. I am also a gamekeeper, so busy with the shoot until February time. We then clay shoot in the summer. It works really well”.
“I was bolusing for two or three years; primarily because my ground is deficient in copper, and I wanted to stop any swayback. Our climate can be pretty bleak, and I was finding my ewes needed a bit more energy to keep condition in the cold and wet weather”, explains Ben.
The All-Year-Round Sheep Bucket
Ben went on to start supplementing with Crystalyx pre-tupping to support fertility and promote twin lambs at scanning. He continues to feed it all the way through to 6 weeks pre-lambing, at which points he switches to a meal. “In the last year or so, I moved to Crystalyx for the energy as well as the minerals and trace elements. Because they get the extra sugars from molasses, they seem to do better. I also found a big increase in scanning percentages”.
“All they get is Crystalyx and hay, and that’s enough to keep condition on them. They do really well on it”, explains Ben. “I’d say when I feed the hay, they eat more than they used to”. This is down to the fact that the sugar in the lick bucket feeds the bugs in the rumen, increasing the rate of digestive turnover, and therefore the rate of intakes.
“The last two lambing’s, the weather has been horrendous and wet, but the lambs seem to get on and suck better than they did before. With that sort of weather, they could easily get knocked down, but they really get up and go”.
Ben explains his logic for investing in Crystalyx. “My aunty uses Crystalyx on her pedigree sheep. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for mine. I think they are better value than other feed licks I’ve used. The ewes can have as much as they want, but because it’s hard, they can’t just eat it in chunks; they have to work for it. I find it goes a lot further and stands up really well in the wet weather. Crystalyx lasts a lot longer”.
Ben gets the Crystalyx feed lick sheep bucket from his local supplier – StowAg.
