Update February - March 2019

Philip Creighton, Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry, Co Galway.

Lambing is due to commence on March 5^th. Ewes were scanned in early January. Preliminary analysis shows an overall scan rate of 1.97. When broken down into medium (Suffolk x) and high (Belclare x) prolificacy potential ewes the scan rates are approximately 1.8 and 2.1 respectively. This is back to where we would normally be following last year’s reduction. We had a barren rate of 4% after a 5 week mating period. Ewes are in good body condition averaging 3.4 BCS 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 being offered concentrates as shown in Table 1. Ewes received their clostridial booster in Mid-February. Over winter grass growth rate has been very strong, averaging 9kg DM/ha/day. The first paddocks closed now have covers of ~1200Kg/DM/ha (~7.5cm).  Nitrogen in the form of Urea (23 units/ac) was applied in mid-February in ideal conditions. Average farm cover is 800kg DM/ha (6.5cm) so we are where we need to be for our average stocking rate of 12 ewes/ha with approximately 26 days ahead at present. A ewe in early lactation will eat approximately 2.5 kg DM/day. If we multiply 2.5 kg DM by 12 ewes/ha our daily demand will be 30kg DM/ha. Dividing this into the average farm cover of 800kg gives us our 26 days ahead. Daily grass growth rates in March can be expected to be around 15kg DM/ha so this will add another 10-15 days grass allowing us complete our first grazing rotation of around 40 days in mid-April.

Table 1. Concentrates per ewe per day prior to lambing (kg/ewe/day)