Culling Ewes and Drafting Lambs for Sale
Over the summer there is a lot of movement of sheep out the farm gate either with culling ewes and rams in advance of next breeding season or drafting lambs for sale as they reach suitability for the market. Advisor Eamonn Dempsey has some advise on these tasks
Culling ewes/rams and drafting lambs are part of good flock management and require skill and experience to be completed correctly. Culling is the first step in preparation for the next breeding season and takes place, as soon as ewes have been dried off after weaning.
Assess ewes
All ewes regardless of age, should be assessed for suitability as breeding ewes to reduce problems and improve prolificy in the next lambing season. A lambing review and good records, will allow you to identify the causes of lamb mortality, you will know what issues the ewes your assessing presented around lambing time e.g. mothering ability.
Reasons for culling ewes
The main reasons for culling ewes are:
- feet
- teeth condition
- age
- diseases
- body condition score
- udder
- reproduction problems
When assessing a ewe for culling, generally the first check is the mouth to identify if undershot/overshot and age of the ewe. If your records indicate a ewe had prolapse in the past she should not be kept. The udder should be examined for pendulous udder, lumps or lesions and ewes that have had blind teat or mastitis should be culled. Lame ewes should be separated from the main flock and treated, if treatment fails they need to be culled. It is important not to make exceptions in your culling policy to avoid carrying passengers into the new production year. Scanning identifies barren ewes, however culling young ewes for barreness increases replacement cost unnecessarily as the likelihood of being barren on a second occasion is low. Rams also need to be assessed in advance of the next breeding season to ensure good functionality.
Assess Rams
Make sure that each ram is walking correct, check reproductive organs and cull any old rams. Now is the time to identify the need to purchase rams, so you can attend rams sales over the coming weeks with a focus to improve genetics in your flock. Have genetic evaluated replacement rams on your farm two months prior to mating to allow them to acclimatise and get used to the different feeding regime.
Drafting lambs
Regarding drafting lambs for sale it is important to achieve maximum value for every lamb produced and presented for sale or slaughter. The weight at which lambs are drafted for slaughter will depend on market specification, particularly the maximum carcass weight paid and kill out rate. This will vary depending on age of lamb, breed, gender, and if lambs are meal fed or not. With this in mind farmers must demonstrate careful management ensuring sheep and lambs are healthy, free of disease and meet the desired conformation and weights as the market demands.
It is important to obey the withdrawl period after dosing and the clean livestock policy which sets out the standards for acceptable and unacceptable levels of cleanliness. The key skill for any sheep producer is knowing when their lamb is ready for the market, and to understand why a rigorous culling policy coupled with a replacement policy is the foundation of high flock performance.