Grass management: With daylight hours reducing and night-time temperatures dropping well back in the last week, grass growth rates will come under pressure fast. It is important to monitor grass supplies and not let lambs eat more grass than should be apportioned to them, leaving ewes tight on grass. The target for a mid-season lambing flock should be to have 30 days grazing ahead of ewes at the start of October, with this figure increasing to 40 days in mid-October.

This will be hard to achieve in a situation where ewe intake is running on average at 1.6kg DM/day for lowland ewes if lamb drafting rates are not on target. If it looks as if grass supplies are likely to run tight at this stage of the year then early action will give a much better chance of getting back on track. Options include introducing or increasing concentrate levels to lambs to reduce grass intake, selling lambs as stores and moving cull ewes off the farm where not already sold. Availing of temporary grazing may also be an option this year.

Indoor finishing: Where lambs will be finished indoors, having them trained into eating concentrates in advance of housing will lead to a smoother transition. This is especially relevant to hill lambs, with some lambs taking longer to start eating significant volumes. Once you are happy with the volumes they are eating, it is important to keep the diet consistent.

Teagasc research shows Scottish Blackface lambs are typically capable of achieving an average daily gain (ADG) of 200g to 220g and achieving a food conversion efficiency (FCE) of 6.5kg of concentrates to gain 1kg of liveweight. Crossbred lambs will achieve an ADG in the region of 250g to 270g per day and have a better FCE of 5:1.

Some crossbred lambs can achieve an ADG of between 300g and 400g once well accustomed to a high-concentrate diet and, as such, it is important to monitor performance regularly and particularly be aware of starting weights and withdrawal periods of health treatments administered.

Intake levels will average in the region of 1kg to 1.2kg for hill lambs and 1.2kg to 1.4kg for crossbred or lowland lambs. The best response will be achieved where lambs are allowed to develop a frame at grass and are then transferred on to an intensive finishing diet.

While light Scottish Blackface lambs weighing 25kg to 30kg can be brought to French weights successfully it may be more appropriate to feed these on grass where possible and finish at heavier weights.

This is especially true of lambs weighing less than 25kg liveweight. Performance of these lambs will be quite good on good-quality grass and range from 100g to 130g in October, dropping to 80g to 100g in November and 50g to 60g in December, provided reasonable levels of grass utilisation are achieved.

Teagasc recommends including ammonium chloride at 0.5% of the finishing diet to protect against urinary calculi, while offering lambs a good supply of fresh water is crucial. Health treatments such as clostridial disease and pneumonia vaccination, worm treatment, lameness control and external parasite control should all ideally be carried out in advance of housing. Sufficient space at feeding troughs and an adequate stocking rate and shed ventilation is also important.