Agri research that has a practical basis and can be easily applied to commercial farms is invaluable. The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) has centred much of its sheep research over the past decade on commercial partner farms. Sam Wharry has been involved in these trials since 2001 and has seen the benefits filtering through to his hill ewe flock.

Sam farms 500 acres (202ha) of SDA hill land with 160 acres (64.75ha) of common grazing. The farm quickly rises from sea level to 1,100 ft and carries 420 hill sheep plus 120 Blackface hoggets for breeding replacements which lamb as two-year-olds.

Scottish Blackface genetics form the nucleus of the breeding flock. Ewes are a mix of Perth type and Lanark type ewes. In the past few years, Sam has been trying to introduce Swaledale bloodlines into his ewes to further improve hardiness in a hill environment and mothering ability. Such traits are important as his breeding flock is wintered out on the hill and due to the steep nature of the land, supplementing with forage is difficult.

Sam said: “The Swaledale cross ewe will bring lamb conformation down compared to the pure Blackface, but I find them to be better mothers on the hill ground. They are better equipped to rear lambs in an area where grazing is more heather than grass and can withstand the weather better. During late autumn and winter, they do not lose body condition which is important during the breeding season and early to mid pregnancy.”

Trial work

After dispersing his suckler herd, Sam’s aim for his sheep enterprise was to find a suitable cross-bred ewe that could move onto the hill and be capable of withstanding the harder environment.

At the time, AFBI was running a trial programme looking at five different breed crosses on Blackface ewes to examine lambing percentages, lamb conformation and lamb survival. Sam decided to become involved as a partner farm. He said: “focussing on breeding and getting advice from the researchers and other farms was extremely helpful in giving me confidence to try something different with my sheep.”

That trial has since evolved into other breeding-based projects looking at ewe fertility and lamb growth rates in both traditional hill breeds and cross-bred hill sheep.

“Fertility is more important than conformation,” said Sam. Increasing lambing percentage by 10% is worth more to me than moving lambs up a slaughter grade. Weaning an extra 0.1 lambs/ewe is worth €8 to €9 whereas moving from an R to U grade lamb is worth only €3. Breeding for conformation can also increase lamb mortality which is often overlooked.

The flock has 160 ewes currently on trial through AFBI with 80 Blackface ewes crossed with a Swaledale ram and vice versa, as outlined by option one in Figure 1. These ewes are being assessed to measure maternal traits such as lambing percentage, lamb survival and lamb weaned per ewe mated.

There are also 100 crossbred ewes that were bred through trial work based on a three-breed composite of Belclare, Highlander and Texel genetics, as outlined in Figure 1.

These three-breed composite ewes are being monitored for longevity having just completed their third lambing crop on Sam’s farm. The ewes are now being tupped with a Suff-Tex ram which is a crossbred ram consisting of Suffolk and Texel breeding. The Suffolk genetics are New Zealand type rather than conventional bloodlines.

Using the maternal breeds in the cross-breeding programme has seen lambing percentages increase with the flock currently weaning between 15% to 20% more lambs compared to over a decade ago when ewes were pure Blackface.

With many Blackface flocks struggling to wean a lamb per ewe mated, the cross-breeding has been an undoubted success on the farm. In a 420-ewe flock, this is the equivalent of producing an additional 60 to 80 lambs for sale annually.

Ewe management

Lambing normally starts around the 1 April and the target is to have all sheep lambed in 30 days. Ewes are scanned on 1 February. Twin-bearing ewes do not go back onto the hill after scanning. Instead they are housed until they lamb.

Ewes carrying single lambs return to the hill ground to grass prior to the start of lambing when they are moved down to the lower ground.

This spring, there were 20 barren ewes from 420 ewes mated. Barren ewes are culled rather than running empty for the year. Ewes that have persistent feet problems or have problems at lambing are marked for culling. With strong ewe prices this spring, Sam increased culling rates.

Condition scoring is viewed as a vital management tool and is carried out:

They are also weighed on these occasions. The Blackface X Swaledale ewes typically weigh 60kg and there is little change in body weight or condition over the season. The weight range runs from 50kg to 65kg liveweight. The three-breed composite ewes are typically 5kg heavier over the season. However, body condition is more variable. The ewes put on condition over the summer and utilise this flesh during winter.

Ewes are weaned in late August and moved onto parts of the hill with low grass covers. The lambs are moved to better quality grass on the lower parts of the hill. Lambs that are not finished off grass by October are finished indoors so that ewes can be flushed before tupping.

Ewe nutrition

Single bearing ewes receive 0.25kg meal supplementation three weeks pre lambing and are retained outdoors.

There is no silage fed to housed sheep, which simplifies the system in terms of labour and machinery. Ewes are offered an 18% protein blend containing barley, citrus pulp, whole maize, maize gluten and soya hulls at a rate of 1kg/day for eight weeks. This is split between a morning and evening feed.

Four weeks pre-lambing, soya is added to the ration at a rate of 100kg/t for twin-bearing ewes to lift protein content and boost milk quality in ewes. Straw is also fed ad-lib through bedding. Since moving to straw bedding, Sam has had fewer feet problems in ewes. Silage is not fed as it increases the rate of soiling in a straw bed.

At a ration cost of €258/t excluding soya and €270/t including soya, the feeding costs for the eight-week period pre-lambing is €14.78/ewe plus straw which is purchased at €100/t.

Lambs

The system is based on producing lamb from grass. Lambs are not offered creep feed during the grazing season until late September in preparation for housing. Once housed, the lambs are finished on the same 18% protein blend fed to in-lamb ewes. The only change is a lamb mineral replaces ewe minerals.

All lambs are finished by December. Crossbred lambs are normally finished off grass and the first draft for sale usually occurs at weaning in late August. Blackface/Swaledale cross lambs are normally finished indoors on a straw bed.

Lambs are slaughtered through Dunbia and 90% of lambs achieve an R grade at 18kg carcase weight. There is an even split between the remaining 10% of lambs, with 5% U grading and 5% O grading.

Ewes have not been vaccinated against foot rot since culling lame ewes and moving to straw bedding. Ewes are not vaccinated for Toxoplasmosis or Enzootic abortion. Ewes carrying twins or triplets are dosed pre-lambing. Ewes carrying singles, and in good body condition, are not dosed pre-lambing. However, fluke is a problem for the flock with Sam treating ewes up to three times during the past winter. Fasinex and Flukiver are the products used to control fluke.

Ewes are vaccinated with Heptavac P six weeks pre-lambing with lambs treated at six weeks old and five weeks later. They are also treated for pasturella two weeks before weaning in August.

Lambs get a white drench for nematodirous in May. Dosing after this point is based on faecal egg counts. Single lambs are rarely dosed unless they are becoming dirty at the tail end. Twins are more commonly treated for a second time.

Ram selection

Blackface rams are usually sourced in Scotland from performance recorded flocks. Sam records the performanace of his own sheep and is only one of two Blackface flocks in Northern Ireland to have performance figures for his sheep. High-index rams born on farm can be retained for further use or sold for breeding.

Sam believes in the merits of buying sheep with performance figures after seeing how his own flock has progressed since using these rams. Sourcing a performance-recorded Swaledale ram is proving to be a problem as there are no breeders in the UK recording performance traits.

Therefore, Sam is using his own records to select Swaledale rams bred on his own farm that are producing maternal ewes and lambs with good growth potential. With a small number of suitable rams to chose from, this will be a long-term project.

Farm performance

Sam benchmarks his flock through CAFRE. This gives him a yearly summary of how the flock has performed, physically and financially. By his own admission, comparing farm to farm has its limits. The big benefit is comparing his own farm to the previous year and seeing how his management decisions affect net margin.

Gross margin per ewe was €29 which was ahead of the average farm at €25/ewe. Output was €99/ewe. Variable costs are €10/ewe higher than the average at €69/ewe and an area that Sam intends to address by trying to get more lambs finished on a grass-based system rather than housing for meal finishing.

Using more cross-bred rams is just one method to achieve this and using rotation grazing on his better grass to finish lambs.