The leaves are starting to build up around the farmyard, a sign that we are coming to the end of another year.

Another sure sign is the breeding season, which is in full swing here on the farm at present.

The first round finished last week, with the natural service ewes all going well. We won’t have many repeats.

This year, I am removing the rams for three to four weeks so that all the repeats from the natural service and artificial insemination will be due together from the start of April, with minimum spill over between the different lambing groups.

The artificial insemination for the central progeny testing ewes has started

At that stage, I will start raddling the rams and changing the colours every seven days. This will help identify any ewes that are repeating and also identify what ewes are due between different dates come next spring.

The artificial insemination for the central progeny testing (CPT) ewes has started this week, with Friday being the last day. As in previous years, the sponges are removed 48 hours prior to insemination and PMSG administered.

Lambs

The number of lambs on the farm has reduced lately, with approximately 26% of the lambs remaining on farm. This is slightly higher than last year, but I fed a lot of meal this time last year and have only just introduced meal to the lambs in the last week.

I will continue to draft the ewe lambs from 45kg and the rams from 46kg, as the usual increase in the deadweight limit to 22kg hasn’t materialised yet.

The current lamb prices are a disgrace and it makes it hard not to push lambs to the max for the weight limit that is there to maximise my financial return.

Unfortunately, this has a major draw back, in that you end up producing excess carcase weight that you don’t get paid for.

The main cause of the low prices at the moment is the uncertainty that Brexit is creating, resulting in UK farmers moving lambs to market at lighter carcases than normal, for fear of the consequences of a no-deal Brexit and WTO tariffs.

It is such a concern to all sheep farmers, especially here in the Republic of Ireland, as the Budget doesn’t appear to offer any support to us during this crisis either.

Grass growth

Grass growth over the last few weeks has been very good overall. I have 43 days grazing ahead at present, which is nearly bang on target for the time of year.

I have drawn up my autumn rotation plan and will stick to it, as my main objective now is to set the farm up for next spring. The Redstart sown after the barley is doing well and it will help stretch the length of time the ewes remain outside over the winter.

Silage quality

Another job that has been completed recently is that of getting the silage tested for quality. I find this a very important task, as you get a true reading of what you have for feeding over the winter.

This year is the first time since I started testing that some of my silage is up at 78% DMD. This will be reserved to feed to ewes in the last few weeks before lambing.

We also had results of 68% and 74% DMD, which will lend itself nicely for feeding at the different stages and reducing the level of meal that is required over the winter housing period.

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