After a busy time here, we retreated to Sligo to relax and spend time with my grandparents. With the weather being so dry and mild, the autumn colours are a sight to behold.

We had a busy week here last week, as over the course of six days 600 ewes had sponges pulled and were AI’d. The ewes that were for natural service appear to have been tupped at this point, with very few having no raddle marks present.

I plan on leaving the rams with these ewes for another few weeks – to pick up any ewes that may repeat on their next cycle. The ewes that were AI’d here last week will also get rams let into them – to pick up any of the repeats that will occur. These repeats will be lambing down alongside my ewe lambs and any that are only carrying singles will be used to cross-foster lambs from some of the ewe lambs that have multiple births.

BETTER farm benefits

This year, I am very pleased with the body condition and weight of my ewe lambs. After assessing them late last week prior to the rams being introduced, this week I have been comparing results. On average they have weighed 50.8kg, which is approximately 68% of their expected mature bodyweight. Since joining the Teagasc Sheep BETTER farm programme my ewe lambs have improved consistently year-on-year. There are probably many reasons for this but in part can be attributed to changes I have made in terms of my overall management of the farm. Another aspect that has improved over my years of involvement has been the quality of my silage. This years silage analysis has just come back and what would have been my highest quality silage last year (75DMD) is the lowest this year, with 79DMD my top.

This quality silage should help reduce the volume of meal that needs to be fed to my ewes pre-lambing next spring.

Grass

Also much improved is my grassland management. For me, this is the single biggest influencing factor that I can see having an impact on my farm. With every improvement I make in grassland management, it in turn has a knock on effect on every other area of my operation.

Speaking of grass management, my autumn grazing plans are going well. Growth is good at 31kg DM/HA. Ground and grazing conditions have been excellent for the time of year and I’m having no problems hitting my grazing targets. A few fields have heavier covers than I’d like to graze at present.

I plan on skipping these for now to concentrate on getting more of the lower covers grazed out quickly, and closed in time for their winter rest period while conditions are still good. I will come back to the heavier fields later in the year.

I find having an autumn grazing plan is essential to having sufficient grass in the spring, but flexibility is also necessary to be able to get the balance right.