BETTER Farm Update: Getting feeding right

Dr. Frank Campion of the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway reports on pre-lambing nutrition on the BETTER sheep farms.

The focus for the mid-season lambing flocks in the programme will be on pre-lambing feeding plans. All of the farms took silage samples in November and the results are summarised in Table 1. On average the figures are similar to last year, but there are differences in ranges in DMD, etc., between batches of silage on the farms. This is particularly evident at the upper end of the scale where the farms struggled to achieve 75+ DMD silage this year.

Silage analysis will be combined with fodder budgets and used to draw up feeding plans for ewes in the final six to eight weeks pre lambing, with the highest-quality silage targeted at the pregnant ewes to try and reduce the quantities of concentrates required.

Table 1: Results from silage quality tests on baled silage on the Teagasc BETTER sheep farms

The above article appeared in a Teagasc Sheep Advisory Newsletter. For more information, access the full publication here.

Find out more about the Teagasc BETTER Sheep Farm Programme here.