Housing, scanning and planning for spring in Co Leitrim
John O'Connell is a Teagasc BETTER Farm Sheep Programme participant, farming on the outskirts of Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim. He runs a mid-season lambing flock and a contract rearing system that caters for both dairy heifer and bull calves. Ciaran Lynch & Tom Coll Teagasc outline recent farm progress
Ciaran Lynch is a Teagasc Sheep specialist and Tom Coll is Teagasc advisor to John O'Connell.
John O'Connell is farming on the outskirts of Ballinamore in Co. Leitrim alongside his wife Amanda and their children Peter, Lizzie and Dearbhla. Johns grazing ground consists of two equal sized grazing blocks totalling 34.5 ha with an additional 2.4ha of forestry adjoining the home farm. John who is a participant in the Teagasc BETTER Farm Sheep Programme runs a mid-season lambing flock alongside a contract rearing system that caters for both dairy heifer and bull calves.
The ewe flock
John joined 156 ewes with the ram on the 12th of October with a further 60 ewe lambs with an average weight of 48.5 kg being let out with the ram a week later on the 19th. All rams were removed on the 24th of November allowing for a 6 and 5 week joining period for the ewes and ewe lambs respectively. With the good grass growth this autumn John was able to secure temporary grazing off farm in two different parcels for his ewes and replacement ewe lambs this winter following mating. This allowed him to move all stock off the home block in mid-November and off the out farm in early December. Although this has required erecting temporary fencing in some cases it has shortened up the winter feeding requirement on the farm. Moving all stock off the farm has also put John slightly ahead of his target grass closing plan. In John’s case this may not necessarily be a bad thing as it may facilitate earlier turnout of cattle on farm assuming weather conditions allow. All ewes returned home just after Christmas and were housed following routine health treatments.
Scanning results
All John’s ewes were shorn post housing which reduces pen space requirement, improves productivity and leaves it easier to monitor ewes while housed and at lambing time. The ewe lambs were shorn last August once ones being kept for breeding were selected. The flock was pregnancy scanned on the first week of January and the results are summarised in Table 1. The flock has consistently scanned around 2.0 on an annual basis and overall the scanning result were on target for the farm with just over 25% triplets, no quads present and very few empties. The ewe lambs scanned particularly well with 23 carrying twins and only 5 empty which is an excellent pregnancy rate for ewe lambs. The dry ewes and ewe lambs were sold following scanning.
Winter feeding
The attention now turns to winter feeding. To get the levels of concentrate supplementation right John tested all his silages before Christmas. Although bale silage suits Johns grazing system he has transitioned back to precision cut silage for his ewes this year. As the majority of them are housed on plastic slats he hopes that it will leave these cleaner as the week’s progress. He is also weighing up the costs of silage production for both the pit and bale silage systems for the coming year with likely increases in plastic wrap and other associated costs.
The silage test results for the pit silage being fed to the ewes was well preserved and came back with a high dry matter of 34%, 73% DMD and crude protein of 11.7%. This should allow him to keep concentrate input to his twin bearing ewes to 25kg/head in total for pregnancy, with singles and triplets adjusted accordingly. The ewe lambs will receive a daily allocation of 200g concentrate per head from early January to maintain performance, this will be stepped up in line with requirements as they approach lambing.
The cattle enterprise
On the cattle enterprise on the farm there are currently 44 weanling dairy heifers and 23 weanling dairy bull calves on the farm that were housed in October. These are being fed on 73% & 75% DMD baled silage supplemented with a daily allowance of 1kg concentrate per head. Both these groups are due to be weighed in the coming days to check on performance since housing and to ensure they remain on target for turnout. The diet will be adjusted up or down based on this weighing.
Fertiliser on the farm
Like many the increase in fertilizer prices will be challenge for the 2022 grazing season. Typically John would like many purchase the majority of his fertilizer in early spring, He has been using protected urea interspersed with 2 rounds of 18:6:12 during the grazing season. Currently John is trying to source protected urea to have it on farm for the early rounds of application in March and will purchase the rest as the season progresses. Like most he will aim to reduce the overall amount of fertilizer used during the season but will still apply P & Ks where needed. One advantage John has is the fact that he has been addressing soil fertility issues in particular soil pH status, hopefully this investment will pay dividends and give him more flexibility during 2022.
Sustainability
John is also participating as a demonstration farmer in the Teagasc Signpost Programme. This is a programme designed to support farmers to farm more sustainably including adopting practices that can be adopted on the farm to reduce gaseous emissions, nutrient losses, manage and enhance biodiversity and reduce costs. A sustainability plan has been drawn up to allow John to farm in a more sustainable fashion and future proof his farm against future policy and market requirements.
Find out more about the BETTER Farm Sheep Programme here