Most farmers will quickly want to see the back of this spring, but this is not easy to forget with the effects of poor weather still lingering. The situation is no different for well-known Tipperary sheep farmer John Large and his family who run a flock of 630 ewes and 120 ewe lambs alongside a 35-cow autumn-calving suckler herd on 80ha in Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary. The farm which is stocked at about 12 ewes/ha is still coming through one of the most difficult spring periods that John can remember.

Recalling the fodder crisis of 2013, John says that both 2013 and 2018 were blighted with poor grass growth rates but 2018 shades it as a more challenging year due to the higher rainfall levels combined with low temperatures and a resulting rise in labour and lamb mortality. The farm is slowly getting back on track but the difference to recent years is still stark. “This time last year, I had two surplus paddocks taken out [home farm grazing block] and baled. This year I am just about getting back on track with no silage ground closed here yet. I have silage ground closed on the out-farms but will need growth rates to significantly improve to save enough silage.”

The important component of the farm’s grazing system is that it is set up to capitalise once growth rates improve. Ewes have been batched into grazing groups of about 100 ewes and their lambs. They graze in a rotational manner across four to five paddocks. John explains that in recent weeks there was no option but to progress through the rotation faster while using supplementation to try and stretch grass supplies.

The main grazing groups were working on a grazing rotation of 11-12 days last week, but following an increase in grass growth rates at the weekend, the aim is to stretch this out to 16-17 days and drop out ground for silage. The first areas for grazing on the home farm received slurry in October, followed by three quarters of a bag of urea on 17 March and a half a bag of 18-6-12 or pasture sward in April. Fertiliser will continue to be applied post-grazing with the aim of developing surpluses which can be taken out as silage.

Preferential treatment

Lambing progressed well and was aided by ewes lambing in good condition and possessing a good milk yield. As a CPT participant, all ewes were artificially inseminated over two days with a two-day interval to limit any environmental bias due to lambing date. This resulted in a tight lambing spread within the region of 900 lambs born in the first eight days. The main ewe flock scanned at about two lambs per ewe and losses in the first 24 hours were low at 3-4%. However, John predicts that losses post-turnout could be running at 7-8%, which would significantly exceed the normal mortality rate.

There is also a larger batch of problem ewes which are being run together due to issues such as mastitis, sore teats, lambing difficulties, sick lambs etc. These lambs are being offered creep and this will remain the case until weaning. The other batch of animals which are receiving creep are lambs being reared as triplets and lambs suckling yearling hoggets. Concentrate supplementation to these ewes is also being continued for longer at a rate of 0.5kg/head to counteract the effects of the tough spring. This will be phased out once lambs are eating about 250g creep daily.

Breeding programme

The farm’s breeding programme is influenced by retaining replacements from sires of interest across a number of breeds. This allows replacement and terminal indexes to be put to the test and longer-term helps to build accuracy of Sheep Ireland €uro-Star evaluations. Twenty one Belclare, Charollais, Suffolk and Texel sires were used in 2017 and replacements from this lamb crop will be retained on a combination of their genetics and also physical performance.

As lambs are mated as ewe lambs (along with repeats from AI), the focus is on selecting well-grown lambs with a minimum weight target of 48kg at joining. Lambs are given the opportunity of two cycles to mate and the breeding programme is delivering on its target with a conception rate of 86% and a litter size for those in lamb of 1.24 lambs per ewe. The target weaning rate is one lamb per ewe lamb mated.

Management of yearlings is important to avoid lifetime performance being negatively affected and along with creep feeding, progeny will be weaned early at 12-13 weeks of age to give hoggets a longer recovery interval.

Targeted feeding

Running at a stocking rate of 12 ewes/ha requires good grassland management skills and an ability to respond to challenges. The farm will need to continue to respond and tweak management for the remainder of the year with lamb performance running behind normal. Once lambs are weaned, they are offered access to top-quality grass with lambs destined for slaughter batched from August onwards once they reach 40kg liveweight. This allows concentrate supplementation to be offered in a targeted manner and John believes introducing meals at this stage reduces the overall volume of meals that would be required if feeding was delayed and also helps to build autumn grass supplies. Forage rape is also grown as an aid to finish later born lambs.

Beef system

The suckler-herd combines with the sheep flock to aid in grassland management and stands on its own merit in terms of physical and financial performance. Cow type is first-cross Limousin heifers from the dairy herd with 20 heifers purchased annually.

The best of these are mated with a terminal Angus bull with the remainder joining home-bred heifers for finishing. The overall system is based on high output from a straightforward production system. Cows calve outdoors in July and August with heifers finished off grass at 18-22 months of age at a carcase weight of 300-330kg. Male progeny are sold as bulls with the system achieving output of 777kg/ha in 2017.

John Large, host of the 2018 IGA farm walk.

John Large, host of the 2018 IGA farm walk.

IGA Sheep Conference and Farm Walk

The farm is the host for this year’s IGA sheep conference and farm walk which takes place on Tuesday 22 May and provides an excellent opportunity for farmers to see the impressive system in action. The conference takes place at 10am in the Horse and Jockey Hotel with three presentations. Darren Carty, Irish Farmers Journal will outline opportunities and challenges facing the Irish sheep sector while Eamon Wall and Kevin McDermott, Sheep Ireland will discuss the future for sheep breeding in Ireland. Mathew Blyth, flock manager from Didling Farms Ltd, based in West Sussex UK will discuss the management of their 1,000 ewe flock, grazing rotations, use of alternative forages and how incorporating the latest technology has helped him manage and improve flock performance.