After a great start to the year for Roy and Marilyn Mayers’ sheep flock, lamb performance stalled during July post-weaning.
While lamb performance tends to slow for a short period after coming off the ewe, regular weighing confirmed that lambs were still not gaining weight almost three weeks later.
At the time, lambs were grazing a combination of fresh, reseeded grass every three days and forage brassicas, so everything was in place to drive weight gain post-weaning.
But after some investigation, blood samples pinned the problem down to a cobalt deficiency, which has since been addressed.
Deficiency
“Lambs just were not putting on flesh and appeared dull, lethargic and physically off-colour. Having discussed the issue with programme adviser Senan White, we bloodtested sheep through our local vet and this flagged up the problem as a lack of cobalt.
“To rectify the deficiency, all lambs were given a cobalt mineral drench every four weeks and since then, there has been a noticeable difference in performance.
“Lambs are thriving again and at their last weighing, they gained 5kg over a three-week interval, which is around 240g/day,” said Roy.
Marilyn and Roy Mayers, Ballyreagh, Tempo.
Later drafting
The cobalt deficiency has resulted in a delay in getting lambs drafted for slaughter, with almost 300 new-season animals still on farm. Around 40 to 50 ewe lambs from this group will be retained as future flock replacements, leaving approximately 250 to be sold.
The preferred option is to take lambs through to slaughter, with 20 animals booked for killing next week.
But with a strong demand for store lambs, consideration is being given to offloading some animals live, given the downturn in weather conditions.
Additional grazing
“With lambs not thriving as hoped for this summer, we are carrying more animals than normal at this time of year.
“While lambs are starting to come fit for slaughter, we have options to offload lighter animals as store lambs. Which option we take will depend on grazing conditions over the next month, as ground is getting wet.
Lamb performance was affected by a cobalt deficiency in July. This has been treated with a mineral drench, given every four weeks.
“We have an additional 25ac for grazing ground this autumn. Normally, this was ground we rented out, but we decided to keep it ourselves this year as we try to build up the flock.
“Having this extra ground means we can carry lambs to finish off grass and not compromise grass supplies for the ewes during the breeding season.
“Also, it will depend on what store lambs are worth compared to fat lamb prices.
“If demand holds up for lighter lambs, we will have to do our sums to work out what margin there potentially is in finishing animals off grass this autumn or selling now.”
Preparations under
way for breeding
Ewes have been grazed on good-quality swards after weaning and this has helped maintain body condition scores around the optimum 3.0 to 3.5.
“We have tried to keep ewes in consistent body condition over the summer. Any ewe that we feel is still on the thin side will be moved on to better-quality grass at the start of September – although there shouldn’t be too many animals this applies to.
Rams will go out with the ewes at the start of October. We are using the same rams as last year for breeding.
“We have a New Zealand Suffolk ram that mated 65 ewes as a ram lamb last year. This year, he’ll get 100 to 120 ewes.
“We also have a Belclare ram that is now in his second breeding year on our farm. He too will get more ewes, with the aim of breeding more replacements with greater maternal abilities. The remainder of ewes will be bred to Texel rams,” said Roy.
Replacements
Flock replacements are mainly homebred animals, with the aim of getting at least 50 animals settled in-lamb for next year.
But with plans to expand the flock, Roy intends to purchase an additional 20 Belclare ewes direct from a farm with a known background. Ewes were purchased from this farm last year and have a high health status.
Sheep were grazed on forage brassicas and reseeded grassland during July.
Selection policy
“We started weighing ewe lambs at eight and 12 weeks of age this year. We have a flock management package that records lamb weights and links this back to ewes and flock sires. Rather than just aiming to pick replacement ewe lambs that weighed at least 35kg around weaning, I am more interested in knowing how long it took to get the lamb to that 35kg.
“Faster-growing lambs are bred from better rams and ewes with greater milking ability. These are the animals that we are now keeping as our flock replacements.
“We introduced the Belclare breeding as we felt ewes were too terminally bred, having traditionally crossed Texel rams on to Texel-cross ewes.”
Animal health
After a problem with enzootic abortion in ewes last winter, Roy is planning to vaccinate ewes before going to the ram in October.
“We lost around 15 lambs last year and a number of ewes because of abortion. While not all these lambs would have made it through to weaning time, it is still a considerable loss of income for the flock and there were additional veterinary costs from treating infected ewes.
“This year, we will vaccinate the ewes against abortion. It is expensive at £5/head and over 200 ewes will cost £1,000 for the flock.
If we can prevent this situation from re-occurring, and increase lamb numbers weaned by 15 lambs at approximately £100 fat, this is worth £1,500 in additional sales. Added to lower veterinary expenses at lambing time, this will more than cover the cost of the vaccine.”
In addition to vaccinating the ewes, mineral supplementation will be covered by bolus before the start of breeding season.
33.3ha lowland farm. 200 lowland-cross ewes.Medium to heavy soils.
Read more
Beef management: be on high alert for tetany and pneumonia
In pictures: top of €1,710 at Donegal Texel sale
After a great start to the year for Roy and Marilyn Mayers’ sheep flock, lamb performance stalled during July post-weaning.
While lamb performance tends to slow for a short period after coming off the ewe, regular weighing confirmed that lambs were still not gaining weight almost three weeks later.
At the time, lambs were grazing a combination of fresh, reseeded grass every three days and forage brassicas, so everything was in place to drive weight gain post-weaning.
But after some investigation, blood samples pinned the problem down to a cobalt deficiency, which has since been addressed.
Deficiency
“Lambs just were not putting on flesh and appeared dull, lethargic and physically off-colour. Having discussed the issue with programme adviser Senan White, we bloodtested sheep through our local vet and this flagged up the problem as a lack of cobalt.
“To rectify the deficiency, all lambs were given a cobalt mineral drench every four weeks and since then, there has been a noticeable difference in performance.
“Lambs are thriving again and at their last weighing, they gained 5kg over a three-week interval, which is around 240g/day,” said Roy.
Marilyn and Roy Mayers, Ballyreagh, Tempo.
Later drafting
The cobalt deficiency has resulted in a delay in getting lambs drafted for slaughter, with almost 300 new-season animals still on farm. Around 40 to 50 ewe lambs from this group will be retained as future flock replacements, leaving approximately 250 to be sold.
The preferred option is to take lambs through to slaughter, with 20 animals booked for killing next week.
But with a strong demand for store lambs, consideration is being given to offloading some animals live, given the downturn in weather conditions.
Additional grazing
“With lambs not thriving as hoped for this summer, we are carrying more animals than normal at this time of year.
“While lambs are starting to come fit for slaughter, we have options to offload lighter animals as store lambs. Which option we take will depend on grazing conditions over the next month, as ground is getting wet.
Lamb performance was affected by a cobalt deficiency in July. This has been treated with a mineral drench, given every four weeks.
“We have an additional 25ac for grazing ground this autumn. Normally, this was ground we rented out, but we decided to keep it ourselves this year as we try to build up the flock.
“Having this extra ground means we can carry lambs to finish off grass and not compromise grass supplies for the ewes during the breeding season.
“Also, it will depend on what store lambs are worth compared to fat lamb prices.
“If demand holds up for lighter lambs, we will have to do our sums to work out what margin there potentially is in finishing animals off grass this autumn or selling now.”
Preparations under
way for breeding
Ewes have been grazed on good-quality swards after weaning and this has helped maintain body condition scores around the optimum 3.0 to 3.5.
“We have tried to keep ewes in consistent body condition over the summer. Any ewe that we feel is still on the thin side will be moved on to better-quality grass at the start of September – although there shouldn’t be too many animals this applies to.
Rams will go out with the ewes at the start of October. We are using the same rams as last year for breeding.
“We have a New Zealand Suffolk ram that mated 65 ewes as a ram lamb last year. This year, he’ll get 100 to 120 ewes.
“We also have a Belclare ram that is now in his second breeding year on our farm. He too will get more ewes, with the aim of breeding more replacements with greater maternal abilities. The remainder of ewes will be bred to Texel rams,” said Roy.
Replacements
Flock replacements are mainly homebred animals, with the aim of getting at least 50 animals settled in-lamb for next year.
But with plans to expand the flock, Roy intends to purchase an additional 20 Belclare ewes direct from a farm with a known background. Ewes were purchased from this farm last year and have a high health status.
Sheep were grazed on forage brassicas and reseeded grassland during July.
Selection policy
“We started weighing ewe lambs at eight and 12 weeks of age this year. We have a flock management package that records lamb weights and links this back to ewes and flock sires. Rather than just aiming to pick replacement ewe lambs that weighed at least 35kg around weaning, I am more interested in knowing how long it took to get the lamb to that 35kg.
“Faster-growing lambs are bred from better rams and ewes with greater milking ability. These are the animals that we are now keeping as our flock replacements.
“We introduced the Belclare breeding as we felt ewes were too terminally bred, having traditionally crossed Texel rams on to Texel-cross ewes.”
Animal health
After a problem with enzootic abortion in ewes last winter, Roy is planning to vaccinate ewes before going to the ram in October.
“We lost around 15 lambs last year and a number of ewes because of abortion. While not all these lambs would have made it through to weaning time, it is still a considerable loss of income for the flock and there were additional veterinary costs from treating infected ewes.
“This year, we will vaccinate the ewes against abortion. It is expensive at £5/head and over 200 ewes will cost £1,000 for the flock.
If we can prevent this situation from re-occurring, and increase lamb numbers weaned by 15 lambs at approximately £100 fat, this is worth £1,500 in additional sales. Added to lower veterinary expenses at lambing time, this will more than cover the cost of the vaccine.”
In addition to vaccinating the ewes, mineral supplementation will be covered by bolus before the start of breeding season.
33.3ha lowland farm. 200 lowland-cross ewes.Medium to heavy soils.
Read more
Beef management: be on high alert for tetany and pneumonia
In pictures: top of €1,710 at Donegal Texel sale
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