Updates February 2014
BETTER Farm Update: Ciaran Lynch, AGRIC, Athenry
The mid-season flocks on the BETTER farms have all completed scanning. The results are summarised in Table 1. The mean litter size for the flocks was 1.9 with a pregnancy rate of 97%. Although the overall figures are quite good there are a few areas that need to be improved on individual farms. In addition to the adult flocks five of the farms have joined ewe lambs for varying durations a summary of their scan results is presented in Table 2.
Table 1. Scanning results from the mid-season flocks
| Farm & Location | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McLaughlin Donegal | O'Connell Leitrim | Kearney Louth | Curley Roscommon | O'Loughlin Kildare | Spillane Tipperary | Nicholson Kilkenny | O'Leary Kerry | Doyle Wexford | ||
| Litter size | 2.4 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 1.8 | |
| Pregnancy rate | 99 | 91 | 94 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 97 | 99 | 97 | |
| Scanning rate | 2.4 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 1.7 | |
Table 2. Scanning results from ewe lambs
| Farm & Location | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O'Connell Leitrim | Curley Roscommon | Spillane Tipperary | Nicholson Kilkenny | O'Leary Kerry | Doyle Wexford | |
| Litter size | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| Pregnancy rate | 65.0 | 70.0 | 73.4 | 63.8 | 98.4 | 76.1 |
| Scanning rate | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.2 |
The focus on the early lamb flocks by the end of January was on ewe turnout. Paddocks were rested since early September and there was sufficient grass supplies on the three farms which was helped by the growing conditions over the winter. As a result typical supplementation levels to ewes could be reduced. These lambs are being given access to creep with supplementation which consists of either purchased or home-mixed ration.