A hectic lambing season

Michael Duffy’s flock have returned excellent scanning results so it should be a busy spring for the Donegal farmer, writes John Cannon

ALOT has happened since our last report from Michael Duffy’s farm in October. Michael has made a big change in the farmyard, the ewes have been mated successfully and Michael and family took a well deserved holiday in the US over the Christmas.

They left on December 20 and returned on January 7. They visited Arizona and Colo- rado and spent four days skiing during the Colorado leg of the trip.

The farm ran smoothly under the supervision of Michael’s father William and Michael had his flock scanning arranged to coincide with his return.

FLOCK UPDATE

Ewe body condition at mating was excellent in 2018 due to flock management and the excellent grass growth during the summer (unlike the drought hit southern counties).

Table 1 shows the 2019 scanning data for the Duffy flock. Overall scanning result is excellent with 2.02 lambs scanned per ewe mated and a litter size of 2.22 per ewe.

This compares with a scanning rate of 1.95 and litter size 1.99 in 2018.

Michael says that “the ewe flock has increased by six ewes but the scan data shows an extra 32 lambs.

However there is one major surprise with 27 barren ewes, which is almost 9pc compared to less than 3pc in 2018”.

Michael has looked at this issue but so far hasn’t been able to pinpoint a cause.

“I ‘single sired/mated’ the flock and rotated the rams after 19 days,” he says.

“Ewe body condition scores were excellent and there was very little issues with ram lameness or other health issues.

“The only trend is black headed or Suffolk bred ewes have higher barren percentages”.

The white faced ewes would have Belclare genetics of up to 50pc in some cases.

Michael put a ram in with the barren ewes after scanning and on January 24, approximately 50pc of these ewes had fresh raddle marks. He will cull any ewe not in lamb on March 1.

The scan data shows 93 ewes with triplets, 30.39pc of the flock. This compares with 51 in 2018, 17pc of the flock.

This is not such a major surprise given the ewe body condition at mating but it means that Michael will have to make significant preparation to cope with these triplet lambs.

“I will have to make sure that the automatic lamb feeder is well fired up when lambing starts this year.”