‘Good bacteria’ will protect lambing sheds from disease

grouped and fed accordingly to the raddle mark after scanning.

The pedigree Bluefaced Leicester ewes have been running with the rams for the past few weeks and been served naturally this year.

All breeding sales are over for us this year. The mule lamb trade was solid, perhaps not quite as strong as other years, but the clearances of sheep were good, with farmers coming to Ballinrobe from all over Ireland.

There were quite good sales for Bluefaced Leicester rams and Lanark rams and ewes considering it has been a tough year for breeding sheep.

The remaining wether lambs and Blackface ram lambs are on a final push for finishing. They are currently on the remainder of the Typhon, with the under-sown grass coming through well. These lambs are also being fed creep to help them reach better finishing weights and conformation.

Some of the lambs in the bunch are more than heavy enough to kill but need a while longer to have the right cover of flesh on them. I’d like to move them on as soon as I can to leave more grass for the ewes for the autumn and going into the winter months. Hopefully the price will hold up.

The focus now turns to breeding and other jobs such as cleaning sheds, some fencing etc.

All sheds will be power-washed, cleaned with a detergent and disinfectant and then sprayed with a probiotic to repopulate the sheds with ‘good bacteria’, a practice that has worked well for the past few years. Since I started lambing indoors, I find hygiene is critical.

We got some more silage bales made in the past few weeks. I hope this should cover our requirements for the winter and spring.