Pushing back lambing date
Farming in Glenmalure in the Wicklow hills Teagasc BETTER sheep farm participant Patrick Dunne is operating a sheep and suckler beef system. Here Ciaran Lynch and Kevin Sheehan, Teagasc give information on Patrick's enterprises
Sheep
The sheep enterprise on Patrick’s farm is split into 2 separate units with a 170 ewe mid-season lambing flock plus replacements on his home farm alongside 20 suckler cows and followers. Patrick also runs a further 230 hill ewe flock plus replacements that spend most of the year grazing on the hill portion of the farm some 7km away.
Hill Flock
The hill ewes mainly comprises of Cheviot ewes with some Scottish Blackface ewes in the flock with the majority of these crossed back to their respective breed. The tail end ewes in the flock such as poor performers and those that struggle to maintain body condition are crossed to Suffolk rams to ensure their ewe lambs don’t enter the system as replacements.
The hill ewes are brought back to the home farm for lambing and grazed on the silage ground until after lambing. Lambing started for this flock on the 25th of March. With the hill ewes lambing outdoors they were rotated through a number of fields near the yard during lambing. Ewes were raddled during mating allowing him to keep those nearest lambing based on raddle colour in smaller batches beside the yard. Patrick drafts off the un-lambed ewes away each evening allowing him to batch up, tag and record those that lambed in the previous 24 hours. The ewe’s tag number is sprayed on their side which is a useful aid when recording.
Conditions during late March were ideal for lambing with over 85% lambing in the first 3 weeks. Ewes rearing singles will be pushed back to the hill in late April with the twin rearing ewes remaining on the low ground grazing alongside the suckler herd. Once the single rearing ewes are gone back to the hill more ground will be closed up for silage.
Lowland Flock
Patrick has made a few changes to the lowland flock this season. He has increasing off farm commitments so he pushed back the lambing date on the lowland flock to the start of April from mid- March in an effort to streamline the system. This allowed him to plan his time off work with the start of lambing and it also better matched grass supply on the farm which helped take some pressure off the system at turnout. It did mean a few busy weeks.
Given the location grass growth is typically slow to take off on the farm with growth rates of just 5kg/DM/ha in early March. The lowland ewes are managed on their own grazing block on the home farm. This grazing block had an average farm cover of just 316 kg/DM/ha in mid-March with individual covers from 1300kg (8.5 cm) in the first paddocks ewes will be turned into dropping right down on the more exposed fields that were closed later last winter. Delaying lambing date meant Patrick built grass covers for a further two weeks compared to previous years and ewes were being turned out at a period of higher grass growth. This will hopefully avoid the pinch in grass supply faced by many in mid-April a key period for lamb growth.
Fertiliser budget
To address some of the increased input costs this season Patrick completed a fertilizer budget early this spring along with an amended fertilizer plan. On that basis he had decided to increase his overall fertilizer spend to purchase a similar amount of chemical Nitrogen as 2021 in order to provide adequate feed supplies. To stay within his new budget he has changed the type of fertilizer purchased from 2021 reducing the amount of compound fertiliser bought. Straight nitrogen in the form of protected urea will account for approximately 75% of this year’s spend with the remaining 25% of comprising of 18:6:12 which will be targeted at key areas. On the basis of his nutrient management plan Patrick will spread 50 ton of lime this year which will help boost grass supplies and improve overall soil fertility.
Silage ground
The first silage ground has already been closed up, this received 1500 gallons of cattle slurry in late February and was grazed off by the hill ewes. This was topped up with a further 1500 gallons in early April and will receive 60 units of Urea in mid-April aiming for a cut in mid-May. Further silage ground will be closed up in rotation as the hill ewes are moved off the home block.
Become a Teagasc BETTER Sheep Farmer
Teagasc is seeking farmers who are interested in becoming a participant in the BETTER Farm Sheep Programme. In particular we are looking for lowland sheep farmers in the Midlands, North East and Donegal as well as hill sheep farmers in the South East and farmers nationwide who are running organic sheep enterprises.