With any major sheep job, I can save from three hours to half a day because I'm now using a handling unit. It takes me 10 minutes to set up and it's light and balanced on the road. I would recommend anyone with a number of sheep to consider buying a handling unit to reduce their workload.
All the features are very easily changed over. They only take seconds to change over. In my game every second counts. Shepherdsmate is a very versatile Sheep Handling Unit. Easy to set up and has some great features & very efficient.
William has been breeding pedigree Île De France, Texel and Suffolk sheep for over 30 years on his farm in County Kilkenny in the southeast of Ireland. The pedigree flock is run along with a 600 ewe Lambplus recorded flock of Easycare ewes, with all ewes lambing in March. The easycare ewes scanned with twin lambs are lambed outdoors. Ewes are fed a grass-based diet, the only concentrates used are fed to triplet rearing ewes and the lambs of ewe lambs.
William aims to produce top quality, hardy pedigree rams that will work well in commercial flocks, producing high quality fast growing lambs. This is achieved by selecting sires with good growth rates and muscle depth as well as following a strict culling policy.
The Texel and Suffolk flock was consistently ranked one or two for growth rate under the Department of Agriculture's LMI scheme and continues to produce Rams with 5 stars for Maternal and Terminal production in the Sheep Ireland lamb plus program. New Zeland genetics have been introduced to breed hardier more vigorous Texels and Suffolks.
Single Sire mating is practiced and lambs are Tagged at birth and recorded using an Agrident AWR 300. Lambs are scanned and weighed at weaning with only the very best retained to sell as Shearlings the following year. It is therefore vital for me to have as much information as possible and the software has given me the level of analysis that I need. William says “I've been using Select Sheepware since 2013 and have found it to be a very valuable addition to the management of our sheep enterprise. All of the information for the Sheep Ireland LambPlus scheme is recorded in the Program and data exports to and imports from Sheep Ireland are straightforward. Replacements are Identified using a combination of both the Select Sheepware reports and the Sheep Ireland Stars ”
When you have a good handling unit, this will encourage more regular drafting leading to maximum number of animals being brought to the factory, minimize deductions and minimize the kilos given to the factory where lambs have been allowed to grow and come in overweight.
Thank you very much for organizing the Shepherdsmate sheep handling unit so swiftly for me! It's a credit to you and your business in the professional manner in which you carry out your work. You have been by far the most helpful and deal with. I look forward to hearing from you.
Very happy with my Shepherdsmate! Easy to set up and take down
