BETTER Farm Update: Grass growth and closing for next spring

Frank Campion, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway reports on grass growth and the preparations for closing on the BETTER sheep farms.

Grass growth rates across the Teagasc BETTER sheep farms have been ahead of where they were this time last year during the past couple of weeks.

This will make it easier for flocks to build covers coming into autumn and ensure ewes and lambs both receive good quality grass. This is particularly helpful with a number of the flocks reporting that lamb drafting rates are behind where they would like them to be.

It will be vitally important, even if supplies are plentiful, that the autumn closing plan is implemented on time to ensure there is sufficient grass next spring. Flocks will start closing paddocks in rotation 120 days prior to target turnout date, with the target being to have 20% of the farm closed by late October.

Planning for this needs to begin straight away to ensure that the rotation allows for the paddocks intended for grazing first next spring to be closed first. Sheltered paddocks close to the yard will be prioritised, as these are where ewes and lambs will be turned out to first, with the farms closing in rotation from there.

The lowland flocks will be joining the ewes with rams this month and will be raddling rams throughout the mating process with colours changed regularly. This will help at housing time as well as identify potential issues with ram fertility. The rams will be joined for a maximum of six weeks but some flocks will be pulling them out after five.

While this can seem short, the majority of ewes lamb in the first three weeks of lambing after the ram is joined to ewes in reasonable body condition score (BCS), as shown in Table 1. Leaving the ram in longer than five to six weeks prolongs lambing for a very small number of ewes, and takes attention away from the ewes and lambs already out at grass. No different to a grass closing plan, the decisions we make at this time of year with ewes and rams will be felt next spring.

Table 1: Mating BCS and percentage of mature ewes lambed in the first three weeks of lambing in 2023 on five of the lowland Teagasc BETTER sheep flocks

This article first appeared in the October Teagasc Sheep Advisory Newsletter. Click here to access the full publication.

Also read: BETTER Farm Sheep Programme participants sought