Monitoring mating liveweight and body condition score on BETTER sheep farms

Frank Campion of the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry, reports on mating liveweight and body condition scores on the BETTER sheep farms.

Mating liveweight and body condition scores (BCSs) for the mature ewes from the lowland BETTER farm sheep flocks are presented in Table 1. Mature ewe BCS is mixed across the flocks, with some of the farms hitting their target of 3.5 and some coming close to it.

A couple of the flocks’ ewes are thinner than they would have wanted at mating time for various reasons, including flock health. Looking across the flocks with the lower BCSs, there is a large degree of variation within some of these flocks. While the ship has sailed for getting animals in good BCS for mating, it will be important that care is taken with these thinner ewes up to and after lambing.

Table 1: Mature ewe liveweight and BCS at mating on the lowland BETTER farm sheep flocks in 2023

Some flocks will have culled a number of these thin ewes prior to letting out the ram. However, where there is a significant number of thin animals, this is not always an option. The thin ewes remaining will be re-checked to ensure issues, such as broken mouth, were not missed in earlier checks that may prevent them putting on BCS. These ewes may then need to be housed earlier than the rest of the flock and given preferential treatment during the winter feeding period.

All of the flocks are following an autumn closing plan and aim to have 20% of the farm closed by the end of October, with a further 20% (40% in total) closed by mid-November. The hill flocks will be joining rams with ewes this month and similarly to the lowland flocks, ewes will be weighed and condition scored prior to joining.

This article first appeared in the Teagasc Sheep Advisory newsletter for November. Access the full publication here, which also features an update from Teagasc Athenry and other management advice for sheep flocks.