Land eligibility: The Farm Finance section on the opposite page recently carried a piece on Areas of Natural Constraint payments. The article made reference to eligible forage areas to which there were some following queries relating to eligibility for lands with rushes or heather.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) published a land eligibility booklet in 2015 which is still available on their website www.agriculture.gov.ie under the schemes and payments section.

For rushes, DAFM classify lands containing rushes as ineligible where there are tall rushes and lands are not being accessed by grazing animals or there is a high density of rushes and again it is not being accessed by animals. Lands that are controlled by grazing animals (immature rushes) or topped/mowed where mature rushes are present, thereby allowing animals to continue to access all areas and graze, will be deemed eligible. The booklet contains photos which will help explain different situations best.

For heather it states that low immature heather is edible and where heather in this condition is present and being grazed, land is eligible. Areas deemed ineligible include heather getting too strong, tall and woody and being accessed by animals or areas where there is evidence it is not being grazed at all by animals.

Kill-out percentage: Lamb kill-out percentage has improved slightly but reports indicate weaned lambs continue to achieve a variable kill-out percentage. The kill-out percentage of lambs will often fall 1% to 2% post weaning and even greater if lambs are drafted too close to weaning, are lacking adequate flesh cover or performance has been poorer than expected in the immediate weeks after weaning.

This should be kept in mind when presently drafting lambs with the drafting weight increased if necessary. Typical kill-out percentages of fleshed lambs pre-weaning have ranged from 43% to 44% for ram lambs to 45% to 46% for fleshed wether and ewe lambs on a high plane of nutrition. Lambs lacking flesh can be 2% to 3% lower.

In some cases there may be merit in selecting lambs at a lighter weight pre-weaning and reaping the benefit of a higher kill-out compared to weaning and delaying the slaughter date.

Each situation will vary between farms and will also be influenced by the volume and quality of grass available.

TAMS sheep fencing: This week’s ‘Farmer Know-how’ feature on page 41 covers sheep fencing. The current tranche of the scheme is open since 25 June and will remain open until the end of September. Applications must be submitted online through the Department’s Agfood facility. The scheme is well worth considering and while expensive at the outset, the long lifetime of the job will dilute costs. See Peter Varley’s feature for more information.

Sheep breeding and avoiding health issues: this week’s focus has extensive advice on numerous areas of breeding including the ram NCT, €uroStars and selecting sires, optimum breeding policies and selecting the most suitable mating and lambing date. It also details factors to consider for a quarantine procedure. While discussed for breeding, the same principles also apply to the rising numbers of store lambs and cull ewes being traded.