Thinner ladies first in the queue for better grass

IAM going to cheer up. It’s been a really tough year for farmers, but I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s not much point in letting it get to you. Touch base with friends, take your mind off the weather and be grateful for the important things in life which we can often take for granted such as friends, family and health. Stay positive and I’m certain we will get through this.

On the farm, probably the most important thing sheep farmers can do right now for a mid-season lambing flock is condition score your ewes.

Separating them out allowing the thinner ladies access to better grass gives them time to recover from the stresses of rearing lambs and the sooner you do it after weaning the better.

My flock has been really badly hit this year with mastitis. It’s just one of those things that you have to take on the chin. It’s annoying to find a good sheep with a lumpy udder, but you have to be ruthless as there is little point in keeping a ewe that looks great but can’t rear two lambs.

I have also noticed a lot of ewes have damaged teats, not quite mastitis, but damaged nonetheless and I’m just wondering whether to take a look at them again in a month or so to see whether they can heal up and might be good to go again for next year, but I have my doubts. Remember the saying, cull your lowest performing 5pc and you increase profitability by 15pc. This rule of thumb is particularly relevant when selecting your culls.

I brought the rams in for an MOT. Ninety-nine percent of a rams fertility can be assessed visually. Their feet, condition and thrive are hugely important at this time of year as the semen that they produce now is what is needed for breeding in three month’s time.

Looking at my rams, there are a few lads long on the tooth that I need to move on and I also need to replace a few.

It’s no harm to start thinking about touching base with the pedigree breeders you source your rams from, purchasing them now allows them time to settle into life on your farm which is hugely important.

I buy Suffolk rams from a good friend of mine, Eamonn Duffy in Kells. He recently won the award for the ‘Champion Suffolk flock in Ireland’ for the second year in a row and also an award for the ‘Best large flock in Ireland and the UK’. This is a huge achievement.

The reason I chose Eamonn’s rams is because of their length. They cross well with my mostly mule ewes. Not only this, the Suffolk mule cross ewe lamb makes a great home-bred replacement. It is cheaper and healthier for your flock to rear your own replacements.

It’s expensive going into the mart to buy replacement ewe lambs and not only this, unless you know the flock you are purchasing your stock from, you are running the risk of importing all sorts of problems.

My aim from now on is to select replacements exclusively from within my flock. The most profitable flocks are the ones that do this. The only stock you should be buying in really are replacement pedigree rams.

I have taken the decision to plunge dip all my ewes. Blow fly is slowly making an appearance as the ewes get more wool on them post shearing.

A good thorough dipping really cleans up the ewe and gives them a lot of comfort going into the breeding season. I am also going to dip all lambs that are less than 38 kilos.

Demand

The withdrawal for the dip is 35 days so I don’t expect many of these lambs to be fit within that timeframe as it’s important to keep this in mind and they can also benefit from a good dipping.

Lambs are gradually coming fit and they all have access to meal. I need to keep them moving as I don’t want to get caught with a hangover of lambs com- ing into the winter. The Muslim festival of Eid is on the cards and the entire country of France is on holidays so demand should be strong, as should the price. Factories are going to have to dig into their pockets if they want to maintain a sheep industry in Ireland.

I recently read the sheep section of the ‘Food Wise 2025’ policy document. It’s worth a look. The industry wants an extra one million lambs? It’s ambitious and tototally unrealistic. How can you expect farmers to produce more for less? That day is over, but I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

HOW CAN YOU EXPECT FARMERS TO PRODUCE MORE FOR LESS?

John Fagan farms at Gartlandstown, Co Westmeath