1. Healthcare

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Teagasc
Advisory
Newsletter
SHEEP
January 2015
Upcoming sheep events
Edited by
Shane McHugh,
Sheep Specialist
Teagasc is hosting three national sheep conferences in January/February of
this year. These conferences are a must for sheep farmers.
Hill Sheep Conference
Castlecourt Hotel, Westport,
Co. Mayo, Wednesday January 28,
2015 – 6.00pm
Topics to be covered:
n Findings from the RVL
n Recording hill sheep
n External parasites
n Fattening hill lambs
n Nutrition for hill sheep
n Marketing – the Mayo story
These conferences are
STAP approved.
National Lowland Sheep
Conference 2015
Malton Hotel, Killarney, Tuesday
February 3 – 3.00pm
Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim,
Wednesday February 4 – 3.00pm
Topics to be covered:
n Lambing difficulty
and mortality
n Vaccination and quarantine
n Lameness in sheep
n Making the most of grazed grass
n Late pregnancy nutrition
n Nutritional effects on
parasite burdens
Admission to conferences is free of charge courtesy of our industry
sponsors, and each conference boasts an exciting panel of Irish and
international speakers over two sessions. For further details,
tel: 091-845200, or contact your local Teagasc office.
In this issue
n Important sheep
conferences in
early 2015
n Scan ewes in
January to see
which animals will
need early
supplementation
n Don't forget
ram nutrition
n Update from the
BETTER Farm
Sheep Programme
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SHEEP
Sheep census
Have you completed and submitted your sheep
census for 2014? Apart from there being a legal
onus on you to fill in this form (if you have
sheep), it is also essential to enable you to make
a claim under the Grassland Sheep Scheme. This
year there is also a requirement to identify the
number of sheep that belong to mountain and
mountain crossbreeds.
The form must be submitted to the Department
of Agriculture by Friday January 31, 2015. It is a
good idea to keep a copy of the census for your
own records, and to register the letter when
posting it. Farmers have the option of completing
the census online at www.agriculture.gov.ie and
selecting the option for ‘Online Services’. If you
have any queries regarding the form, there is a
lo-call helpline available.
For queries regarding completion of the
sheep/goat census form, please contact 076106 4426.
Scanning
January is the peak time for scanning March
lambing flocks. Scanning is an essential tool in
managing your ewe flock pre lambing. Aim to
scan the ewes 80 days after ram turnout, but in
order for all pregnant sheep to be identifiable
the rams must have been removed at least 40
days prior to scanning. The benefit of scanning
ewes is to be able to identify those that are
carrying twins and triplets. Triplet-bearing ewes
will need supplementary feed much earlier than
twin- or single-bearing ewes, so identifying these
10 weeks out from lambing is critical if their
dietary requirements are to be met. With
moderate quality grass silage (66% DMD),
triplet-bearing ewes should start receiving 0.2kg
concentrates 10 weeks out from lambing. With
good quality silage, meal feeding can be delayed
by two weeks.
Condition of ewe flock
At scanning time condition of the ewes should be
assessed. Any thinner ewes should be removed
and treated as a separate group until their
condition has improved. These thinner ewes are
the first ewes to cause problems around lambing,
such as small weak lambs, or lack of milk to rear
Triplet-bearing ewes will need supplementary feeding
much earlier than twin- or single-bearing ewes.
lambs. Additional attention to these ewes at this
stage will pay off during a busy lambing time.
Ram nutrition
Rams are often forgotten about after the mating
season on sheep farms. However, the two to
three months after the ram is removed from the
ewe flock is crucial for the ram to replace lost
weight and body condition. This is especially
important in ram lambs and hogget rams as
these animals are still growing and developing.
Aim to feed 0.5-0.8kg of concentrate per day
with good quality forage.
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JANUARY 2015
BETTER FARM UPDATE
Time to scan and analyse feed requirements
By Ciaran Lynch, Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway.
Scanning
The first scan results from the mid-season
flocks look promising. The rest of the flocks in
the programme will complete this task from
late December into early January depending
on ram turnout date. In most of the cases
where ewe lambs were mated these will be
scanned later on.
Winter feeding
In all cases grass silage forms the basis of the
diet during the housing period on these
farms. Through their local advisers, each of
the farmers has completed their respective
forage analysis this month. On average the
silage quality improved slightly – see Table 1.
Table 1. Silage quality for the 2014 season.
Mean
Range
DM (%)
33.3
(16.6-64.6)
PH
4.8
(4.5-5.0)
NH3 (% total N)
12.0
(5-20)
Protein (% DM)
12.8
(9.3-16.2)
ME (Mj/kg DM)
10.9
(9.9-11.4)
DMD (% DM)
71.2
(68-74)
However, this was a reflection of fewer
farmers producing poor quality silage as
opposed to producing top quality silage. This
is still an area that needs be addressed on a
number of farms as it has a large bearing on
the amount of concentrate supplementation
needed during late pregnancy. These results
will determine how much supplementation is
needed for each farm. Following scanning, a
feeding regime will be drawn up for each
flock to meet the ewes’ demands in late
pregnancy.
E-Profit monitor
One of the first tasks for the New Year is to
reflect on the farm’s performance during the
previous 12 months. The farmers in the
programme, with their advisers, will complete
their E-profit monitor for 2014. For each farm
the strengths and weaknesses of the systems
will be examined and this helps to identify
areas where improvement is needed.
New flocks
We are pleased to announce, in a further
expansion of the programme, that three new
flocks were recruited into the BETTER Farm
Sheep Programme in early December. Details
of these farms are summarised in Table 2.
Table 2: New flocks in the BETTER Farm Sheep Programme.
Farmer
Location
System
Patrick Dunne
Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow
Hill flock
Dennis O’Riordan
Bantry, Co. Cork
Hill flock
Michael and John Prendergast
Hollymount Co. Mayo
Lowland flock
Adviser
Declan Byrne
Michael Connolly
Eamonn Patten
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SHEEP
RESEARCH UPDATE
Feed decisions for winter
Philip Creighton, Sheep Research Demonstration Farm, Animal and Grassland Research
and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry, Co Galway.
The first of the ewes have been housed, with
both high stocking rate (14 ewes/ha) groups
housed in early December and both medium
stocking rate groups housed in mid December.
Silage quality analysis shows silages varying in
quality between 67% and 73% DMD. Housed
ewes are currently being fed a maintenance
diet of the 67% DMD baled silage, with the
higher quality 73% DMD being kept to be fed
in the later stages of pregnancy, which will
reduce the quantities of meal required. Weather
permitting the low stocking rate groups have
sufficient reserves to support extended grazing
until mid January. Groups are being strip
grazed using temporary electric fencing. Grass
growth on the paddocks that have been closed
since late October/early November has been
good but this grass will be of more benefit next
March than if grazed now. Total grass grown
for the year has ranged between 11t DM/ha
(low stocking rate) to 12.5t DM/ha (high
stocking rate). Ewes will be scanned in early
January. Lamb drafting is almost complete with
97%, 94% and 90% of lambs in the low,
medium, and high SR groups, respectively,
drafted up to mid December. Lambs have been
on silage (73% DMD) and meal (0.7kg/hd/day)
since late November.
For further information on any issues raised in this newsletter, or to access other
enterprise newsletters, please contact your local Teagasc adviser or see www.teagasc.ie.
Produced by Think Media.
Housed ewes are currently being fed a maintenance diet of 67% DMD baled silage.