As August is drawing to a rapid close, so too are the summer holidays for Alison and the children. There is great excitement here as Drew begins primary school; how long that excitement lasts we will have to see. Mia, no doubt, will get great pleasure bringing home stories of his exploits in school.

With the children heading back to school and some semblance of a routine being restored here on the farm, it will be back to the grindstone for me.

The breeding season is also getting ever closer so I will be going through the mature ewes to assess how their body condition scores are progressing.

Any of the ewes that are falling outside the ideal condition will be separated into a smaller group, along with any lame ewes. Any ewes that don’t improve or put on condition before mating commences will be culled from the system.

I am also planning on shearing the ewes at some point in the next fortnight, weather permitting. As I’ve mentioned before, I find shearing at this time of year gives me more flexibility later. The ewes are not as bulky with wool when housed, yet they have enough of a wool cover to be able to out-winter some of them on the redstart.

I find it also helps with keeping an eye on the ewe condition scores over the next while.

Building condition on ewes doesn’t happen overnight or even flushing them for a week or two on good grass just before mating, as was traditionally practised here. It takes time and I have never seen a productive ewe to be over-conditioned.

As lambs are continuing to thrive well here this year I have about 50% of them drafted at this stage. I will probably get another draft or two gone before I start to supplement lambs.

This will be targeted at lambs that are about 40kg as I find introducing it to lambs that are any lighter means they become overfat before they reach factory weights.

The unsettled weather hasn’t been good for the spring oats here. It is slowly starting to lodge in spots around the field as the heavy showers hammer it.

The grass, on the other hand, is loving the moisture and warmth. I currently have 21 days grazing ahead after I drop out another couple of paddocks that were after getting stronger than I would like to be putting stock onto. These will be cut and baled at the next opportunity the weather gives us.

With ram sales in full swing at present, as commercial farmers we should question what we want from our rams. They are 50% of our flock and, depending on whether we keep replacements from them, may have a major role in how our flock performs in future years.

As was mentioned at the recent walk here by Michael Gottstein of Teagasc, the Sheep Ireland star ratings are like a compass to aid us in selecting a ram for the farm.

However, a compass is not the only tool you use when navigating your way to a purchase. I use the star ratings in conjunction with how the animal actually looks.

I find that I am looking at the details of the rams’ scores closer now as I see how my lambs’ productivity and the records I am keeping feed into Sheep Ireland’s records. The more records we keep, the better the information for farmers at the time of purchase.