Weaning early a good move
Frank Campion of the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway reports on how early weaning worked well on some of the BETTER sheep farms.
As mentioned in the July update, some of the flocks took the decision to wean lambs off the ewes a couple of weeks earlier than planned in order to reduce overall grass demand on the farm and ensure the best grass was kept for the lambs.
This turned out to be a good move for most of the flocks, as weather conditions had restricted grass growth rates and it took a couple of weeks after the dry weather conditions for rates to return to normal.
The performance of lambs from birth to weaning and from the seven-week weights to weaning are presented in Table 1. Lamb performance was behind target for most up to seven weeks, but recovered somewhat from seven to 14 weeks.
Lamb growth rates from seven to 14 weeks were ahead of where they were last year, meaning the average weaning weight for most of the flocks was on a par with last year. There are a couple of potential reasons for this, including what appears to be better quality grass swards during this period as there was no significant explosion of grass growth, and lower-stocked flocks found it easier to maintain grass quality in late May / early June.
Also, typically during this period, lambs would experience an internal parasite challenge from strongyles, but the dry weather conditions kept this burden lower than normal, which benefited lamb performance.
Table 1: Lamb performance from the Teagasc BETTER lowland sheep flocks from birth to 14 weeks (weaning)
| Birth type | ADG 7-14 weeks (g/day) | ADG 0-14 weeks (g/day) | 14-week weight (kg) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | Range | Mean | Range | Mean | Range | |
| 1 | 257 | 194-371 | 281 | 235-331 | 33.3 | 28.6-38.3 |
| 2 | 219 | 174-265 | 241 | 195-282 | 28.6 | 23.6-33.1 |
| 3+ | 221 | 156-267 | 242 | 216-277 | 28.2 | 25.5-31.4 |
Grass growth rates and maintaining quality
Currently, grass growth rates on the farms are exceeding demand and the days ahead are increasing for some of the flocks. This will present a significant challenge in the coming weeks to re-establish a good grazing rotation, while also maintaining grass quality and lamb performance following the dry conditions and the wet period that came after that. It will be very important in the next few weeks that lambs are not forced to graze heavy or poor-quality covers so that lamb performance is maintained.
This article first appeared in the July Teagasc Sheep Advisory newsletter. Access the newsletter here.
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