John and Hannah Doyle and their children Peter, Michael, Jonathan, Niamh and Ciara farm 66ha in Ballinacoola, Bunclody, Co Wexford. The mixed farm, which includes 16ha of tillage (14ha barley and 2ha turnips), a 19-cow suckler to beef herd and early, mid-season and yearling hogget lambing flocks, has seen big changes implemented since joining the Teagasc BETTER farm sheep programme in 2012.

The greatest change is switching from a 250-strong early lambing ewe flock dependent on high levels of meal feeding to lambing 440 ewes in 2017 with a target of finishing the majority off grass.

The change has occurred from the same 50ha land base with the net result of close to doubling lamb output and increasing the gross margin from the sheep enterprise from €335/ha in 2012 to €887/ha in 2015.

John believes there is further potential for the farm to improve and is working closely with his B&T adviser Martina Harrington and BETTER farm adviser Frank Campion. He summarised the changes that have benefited the farming system at last week’s Teagasc lowland sheep conferences.

Change of sheep system

While the farm has changed, with about 240 ewes lambing in March, followed by 100 yearling hoggets, the Doyles have also maintained an early lambing flock of 100 ewes.

About 130 to 150 ewes are sponged with the aim of getting 100 ewes bred in the first cycle. Those not in lamb are bred with the mid-season flock. The three-way split makes the best use of available facilities and labour, with the early lambing flock also providing a source of cashflow early in the year.

Switching to lambing hoggets has also greatly increased output. John explains that he thought this would have stunted their growth in the past, but now that he has experience in the system he finds that hoggets have no problem reaching their potential once they receive preferential treatment in their first year. They also make better mothers.

Bred to a Charollais ram at a minimum of 45kg liveweight, hoggets are treated as a separate flock and supplemented with meal three weeks post-lambing, with creep also offered to lambs for eight weeks pre-weaning.

Breeding policy

The type of ewe on the farm has also changed from a Suffolk-Texel-cross ewe to a Belclare-Suffolk-cross ewe. The litter size in the mid-season flock has increased from 1.77 lambs per ewe mated in 2014 to 2.01 in 2015 and 2.05 in 2016.

Flock health issues (toxoplasmosis) reduced the lambing rate in 2016 and 2017, meaning that the weaning rate has remained similar at 1.62 lambs weaned, but John now hopes to increase this to 1.7 lambs weaned.

Replacements are selected from the mid-season flock, with coloured discs applied with tags to suitable replacements from twin and triplet litters. Performance records are matched with a physical assessment later in the year, allowing the best possible means of selection. Monitoring body condition score was the other area highlighted as delivering substantial benefits.

Soil fertility

John said that he had to be careful when building stock numbers to avoid a situation where numbers were increasing on the back of an already significant meal bill expanding.

Increasing the volume of grass grown and utilised was central to this and was achieved through improvements in soil fertility and grazing infrastructure.

Two-thirds of soil samples had a pH below the optimum of 6.2 for grass growth (on clay soils) which kickstarted a programme of applying 2t lime/acre. Twenty per cent of the farm is now receiving lime annually, which helps spread the cost and maintain soil pH levels.

Phosphorus is another area where work is ongoing. Seventy-three per cent of soils analysed in 2015 were recorded at Index 1, with 22% at Index 2.

The low levels were attributed to an emphasis on applying straight nitrogen fertilisers.

The farm now receives a half bag of urea per acre in the first round, with 18:6:12 used thereafter. Slurry and FYM is also targeted at silage fields and low-fertility areas. This is an area that was described as especially challenging for the farm and one John says you cannot take your eye off.

Grazing divisions

Explaining the change in grazing emphasis, John says: “In the past, I could have turned 100 ewes and their lambs into a large field for two to three weeks. I was happy with how the lambs performed, but this was coming from me being busy hauling meal to a creep feeder rather than lambs gaining from grass.

“I now aim to minimise meal feeding to early born lambs and finish the majority of mid-season lambs off grass.”

This has been achieved by improving grazing infrastructure and paying more attention to the quality of grass offered. The optimum paddock size is 1.2ha to 1.6ha for the farm, with the number of paddocks available rising yearly and now totalling 45 between permanent and temporary divisions.

This increases further during peak growth, with more temporary fencing used to subdivide existing paddocks or slow down the grazing rotation and take greater control of grass management.

Grassland management

John says implementing paddocks was the first step to increased performance from grass; the second was committing to grass measuring to make the best use of available supplies and foresee grass deficits or surpluses.

Hannah collects grass measurements and inputs the data into the Teagasc Pasturebase programme.

This, John says, has greatly increased his confidence in managing grass and is central to his aim of maximising output from it.

The long-term goal is to continue to drive grass growth and use this as the foundation in reaching his target to lamb 400 ewes and 100 yearling hoggets.

Weaning early born lambs at eight weeks

As mentioned previously, the early lamb flock is a good fit for the farm. Ewes exit the shed after lambing, allowing the mid-season flock to be housed from grazing turnips. There is a risk where operating a number of enterprises with an early lambing flock of giving it preference for grass supplies, with the net result of leaving supplies tighter later in the season. On the Doyle farm, 10ha (25 acres) of sheltered ground is closed in early October to have a grass supply for the early lambing flock. This carries ewes and their lambs for eight weeks, at which stage lambs are weaned and offered good-quality grass and ad-lib meals. This significantly reduces grass demand, with ewes tightened up initially and used later in the season to clean out paddocks and improve grass quality. Coccidiosis has been an issue in the past and this year, John has set out to prevent problems before they occur with all lambs treated at 21 days of age.