Condition of hill ewes: Grass supplies vary greatly on hill farms. Farms along the western seaboard are generally in a relatively good position, but farms in the east are facing a significant shortage in forage.

There is a bit more time on some hill farms to address ewe condition but steps will need to be taken quickly with the period for influencing change reducing by the week. The benefit of addressing ewe condition in hill flocks is even greater than in lowland flocks.

Research shows increasing from BCS 2 to 3 has the potential to raise the lambing percentage by in the region of 13.5%.

The higher lambing percentage is achieved through a combination of an increased litter size and a reduced barren rate. Teagasc research has outlined weight targets at mating as:

Another advantage of having ewes in an optimum BCS of 3 to 3.25 is that it will deliver a significant tightening in the lambing spread. While on the subject, lowland farmers should continue to monitor condition of ewes regularly, taking steps to segregate any ewes which have dipped below target body condition at mating for preferential treatment.

Caution purchasing stores: A quarantine protocol for purchased sheep was recently listed in these management notes including worm treatment, external parasites, lameness, abortion-causing agents in breeding sheep and iceberg diseases. The protocol also mentioned that there may be other specific diseases seen on the farms selling or purchasing and that there is always a risk when purchasing sheep from different origins of disease spreading between batches.

I was at a farm walk last week, where a farmer with a known coccidiosis problem highlighted their experience of purchasing lambs that had never faced a coccidiosis problem and which were naive to the disease and quickly succumbed to it. The farm had treated lambs for worms with two additional products used to when they were purchased to no avail. The lesson shared from the experience was to take quick action in investigating; in this case submitting a faecal sample for analysis to the vet and, if possible, to be mindful to the disease profile on your farm when purchasing sheep.

Store lamb presentation: Mart managers report a marked differential in prices paid for store lambs that are optimally presented and those that are poorly presented. The preference for lowland store lambs for finishing short term off grass is for wether and ewe lambs, with demand for hill lambs split with rams possibly more sought after for intensive finishing.

Advice from mart managers includes batching lambs of the same gender and type and avoiding a significant range in liveweight. Inserting a couple of plainer-quality or lighter lambs in to a batch of better-quality lambs may appear a good option for getting plainer-quality lots sold, but managers state that it can also greatly reduce demand with many buyers steering clear of lambs which are not uniform in type. The appearance of lambs in terms of the presence of daggings or soiled fleeces can also have a big influence on potential demand, as can poor tagging practices for ewe lambs.