This is a subscriber-only article
Following a recovery in grass growth, focus on 2017 Grassland Sheep Farmer of the Year Peadar Kearney’s farm has turned to ensuring there is grass available for ewes next spring. Peadar has a sheep-only enterprise of 300 ewes producing lambs for the factory on a 27ha farm outside Ardee, Co Louth.
He runs the farm with help from another local farmer Joanne Martin, who carries out the breeding and performance recording on the farm.
He was named Grassland Sheep Farmer of the Year in 2017 and the farm has a strong focus on grass measurement and management. On Friday, he hosted a Grass10 farm walk.
Upgrading the platform
Last year, the farm grew 12t DM/ha of grass and achieved 308 days at grass. As Peadar has a high stocking rate of 12.5 ewes/ha, it is important that he utilises as much grass as possible.
To do this, he has increased the grazing divisions on the farm over a five-year period from seven paddocks to 24, while working with local Teagasc adviser Hugh Rooney and the Teagasc BETTER Farm sheep programme. He utilised both temporary and permanent fencing and now has an average paddock size of 0.64ha (1.6ac).
The grass growth supports high ewe performance, as well as a high stocking rate.
In 2018, 93% of the 313 ewes scanned in lamb, with an average litter size of 2.2 (see Table 1). They reared 553 lambs achieving a rate of 177 lambs reared per 100 ewes joined.
On average, Peadar undertakes 35 farm walks to measure grass every year, which can take up to two hours to complete. However, he says without them the farm would not perform as well.
He said: “Grassland management lets you know what you are at; it’s as simple as that. I measure every week and when I put the data into PastureBase, I can see what paddocks I can take out, when I should graze them and which perform the best.”
Planning for spring
The focus for the remainder of the grazing season for Peadar is to ensure he builds a sufficient supply of grass for his ewes come lambing time.
Rams went to the ewes on 10 October, giving an estimated lambing date of 4 March.
Teagasc’s advice for autumn closing is to have 20% of the farm grazed and closed by the end of October. This gives closed paddocks a chance to achieve some regrowth before winter. Due to his high stocking rate and the large demand for grass, Peadar is ahead of this target.
He said: “The usual plan is to try close off 20% of the ground every month from October on. This year, we’ll have 28% closed by end of October, another 20% in November and everything by December. We’re lucky that we’re able to put all the sheep on to a neighbour’s stubble ground and that frees up the farm so the grass can grow.”
Sheep will remain on the stubble ground until mid-January, when scanning takes place, eight weeks before the lambing. Triplets are housed directly after scanning and the rest of the flock two weeks later.
The portion of the farm closed in October is the paddocks closest to the sheds and those with shelter belts available for lambs.
According to research from Teagasc, a paddock that has been grazed to 4cm and closed in October will have an opening cover of 900kg DM and be capable of feeding 50 ewes for seven days.
In contrast, the same paddock closed in November will have less than four days grazing.
Listen to "Peader Kearney, BETTER sheep farmer from Louth" on Spreaker.
Addressing forage deficits
This year’s weather had a major impact on Peadar’s farm. He explained: “Spring was very difficult and we had to feed concentrates up to 12 April, which was more expensive. Then the grass came and we thought we were out of the woods until June and the drought.
“It was awful bad round here and it meant for another six weeks we had to feed everything concentrates.”
Up until recently, Peadar did not grow any of his own silage and instead bought in all required winter forage. Due to additional grass growth, the average winter demand of 200 bales can usually be met through surplus grass from paddocks.
However, after an initial surplus of 100 bales was made on 25 May, the farm had no further grass surpluses until 60 bales were made in September.
Peadar said measuring his grass was more valuable this year than in any previous year, as he realised early there was a problem developing.
“At the start of June, we realised we were in big trouble through measuring the grass. There was no growth and the paddocks we earmarked that we might get silage off weren’t going to be cut. We drew up a plan straight away.”
Lambs were weaned early and the ewes were confined to certain paddocks and fed concentrates. Peadar also realised he was unlikely to have any further surplus silage and got in touch with a local contractor, securing 50 bales as and when he needs them.
Fortunately, growth conditions improved and, by September, the farm was able to preserve 80% of the winter feed requirement.
For 2018, there will be 280 ewes carried over winter. Between the time spent on stubble ground and housed indoors, they will require feeding for 3.5 months at a rate of 0.15t silage/ewe/month. This gives a ewe requirement of 147t (see Table 2).
There are also 112 hoggets on the farm, which will be fed for one month at a requirement of 0.12t/animal/month. They will require 13t.
A total requirement of 160t means Peadar requires 200 bales, assuming each bale is 800kg. With an available supply of 160 bales and a demand of 200 bales, he was left with a 20% deficit. However, this has been filled by the bales acquired earlier in the summer.
SHARING OPTIONS: