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It’s been a busy few weeks on the farm since we passed the longest day on 21 June.
Lambs have been weaned, sheep have been sheared, and silage has been cut. It’s marked a turning point in our year, with the first half of 2017 seeming to pass very quickly.
The countdown is now on to get wether lambs sold and ewe lambs ready for the ram.
Concentrates
It might not be best practise on bigger, better farms but we’re feeding the lambs approximately 150-200g of concentrates per day to help their growth.
This reflects where we’re at in terms of grass management (still learning) and stocking rate (rising slowly).
In other words, we don’t have enough paddocks or enough animals to properly clean-out graze.
These two issues are obviously different sides of the same coin and next year we should have both addressed.
Our grass is not that bad though, and combined with the concentrate, the lambs are doing well. The average weaning weight was 30kg and we’re on schedule for having all wethers gone by mid-August and leaving ewe lambs to the ram in late September.
Footbaths, worm dosing, and semi-regular cobalt drenches have all helped. There are very few mucky backsides, or high dag scores to give it the proper title, and lameness is almost non-existent.
Post-shearing
As ever, the ewes look gangly and lop-sided post-shearing.
However, on closer inspection you can see the majority are in good condition and we’ll have to monitor them to make sure they don’t get over fat in the run up to their date with the gentleman.
At the moment, we’re getting housing ready for them for next winter and will probably put them in post-weaning too next year.
We’re not in a position to feed silage bales to ewes over the winter. For our troubles, we’ll be buying in square bales of hay instead.
Silage
Hence, we don’t keep any cut silage on the farm. In fact, it’s only cut to help manage grass and once we get the stocking rate up, then we might not cut any at all.
The first year we cut and baled it, I put ads in the local paper advertising it. I got a few enquiries and three different buyers eventually took most of it.
It wasn’t a pleasant experience, arguing over price and the perceived quality with strangers on the phone.
Luckily, our contractor neighbour who cuts and bales it is expanding his farm, and he has bought it the last two years.
All going well, we’ll have more dealings with this neighbour over the coming years, but that’s a story for some future column.
So, the year has turned. Nights will start closing in after another few weeks. We’ll sell the lambs and the ram will go out. More fencing and water troughs will be set up. And we’ll start all over again.
Kieran Sullivan and his brother farm part-time in Co. Waterford. You can follow him on Twitter: @kieran_sullivan
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