February-March 2017
Ewes were scanned in early January. Preliminary analysis shows a scan rate of 1.71 in the medium prolific flocks with the high prolific groups averaging 1.92. This is approximately 0.1 lower than our long term average and is mainly due to about 50% less triplets recorded this year. Ewes are in good body condition averaging 3.3 at scanning. Ewes are now being offered grass silage (73 DMD) and have been grouped according to scanned litter size and lambing date as predicted by raddle colour which was changed weekly during mating and are be offered concentrates as shown in Table 1. Over winter grass growth rates were in the region of 5kg DM/ha/day. Nitrogen in the form of Urea (23 units/ac) was applied to all farmlets in late January as soil temperatures had been consistently above 5 degrees. This has worked well and we have recorded an average grass growth rate of 10 kg DM/ha/day for the early weeks of February. Average soil temperature during this same period was 5.4 degrees. The first paddocks closed now have covers of 1000-1200 Kg/DM/ha (~7-8cm). The pre lambing clostridia booster was administered in mid-February ahead of lambing start date of March 5th.
Table 1. Concentrates per ewe per day prior to lambing (kg/ewe/day)
|
Weeks pre lambing |
|
|||
|
7 |
6-5 |
4-3 |
2-1 |
Total (kg) |
|
Concentrates (kg/ewe/day) |
|
|||
Singles |
- |
0.1 |
0.3 |
0.6 |
15 |
Twins |
- |
0.35 |
0.55 |
0.8 |
24 |
Triplets |
0.2 |
0.35 |
0.65 |
1.0 |
30 |