Grass tetany: There could be a heightened risk of grass tetany over the coming days with a forecast change in weather possibly acting as a stress trigger.

If grass intake or utilisation is affected or ewes are grazing lush swards on high potassium soils it will limit their ability to absorb nutrients or magnesium from the grass.

Ewes do not store magnesium in their system and as such need access to magnesium on a daily basis.

The typical requirement is 1g to 2g magnesium daily but this can be higher where absorption is impeded. It also takes a couple of days for magnesium reserves to build meaning ewes should have access in advance of a heightened risk.

Offering ewes access to high-magnesium buckets/blocks will generally suffice to reduce the risk. Buckets should be placed in areas where sheep are likely to congregate with multiple buckets used if required.

Where farmers have encountered significant issues on high potassium soils (or where high volumes of slurry or potassium have been recently applied) then alternative measures may be required on a short term basis.

This could include feeding concentrates short term to ewes most at risk those or administering boluses. It is important to ensure that concentrates have sufficient magnesium content or that volumes offered supply enough supplementation. Teagasc advise cal-mag inclusion/feeding to provide 10 grams per head per day. Adding magnesium to water is less reliable during periods of rainfall.

If ewes are identified in the early stages then administering magnesium sulphate at body temperature under the skin in a number of locations will work with good success.

Nematordirus risk: It is almost three weeks since nematordirus warnings were released by the Department of Agriculture and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute. A growing number of March-born lambs fall into the higher risk bracket – aged six to 12 months of age and grazing large quantities of grass.

It is important to review your treatment protocol and to be alert for signs of scouring in lambs and signs of ill-thrift or poor performance. The disease can hit quickly where ewes and lambs are grazing pastures grazed last spring and on sheep-only farms operated at a high stocking rate.

The type of scour to watch for is a green scour and given the risk profile it is possible that lambs already treated may need a subsequent treatment. Reports indicate there has been more problems this spring with coccidiosis which has similar symptoms but a dark black or grey scour.

The two ailments can also be present together so it is worth keeping that in mind. The advice remains to use a product with the active ingredient, benzimidazoles (white drench).

Scales calibration: Many producers lambing in February may only be using the weighing scales for the first time in a long time. It is worth calibrating the scales to ensure that it is accurate. Placing known weights similar to the weight of lambs you will be weighing across the weighing platform will quickly tell if there are problems. Handy weights are 25kg bags of concentrates, 50kg fertiliser bags or lick buckets.

It is wise to weigh lambs/hoggets coming fit for slaughter regularly at this time of year and to draft accordingly with seasonal pressure on price often kicking in quickly.