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Outdoor lambing: Relatively positive grass supplies and an upturn in the forecast is leading some farmers to consider if outdoor lambing may be a runner.
In terms of performance, good-quality fresh spring grass is potentially five to 10 units higher in nutrition value than good-quality grass silage and is comparable to a good-quality high-energy 18% crude protein ewe concentrate.
This makes grass a good feed option in late pregnancy, with ewes also capable of consuming up to 50% more dry matter than grass silage.
A grass diet can satisfy the nutritional demands of twin-bearing ewes in late pregnancy without the need for concentrate supplementation.
Trials carried out in AFBI show ewes fed grass (zero-grazed) or grass and 0.5kg concentrates in late pregnancy gave birth to lambs with an average birth weight of 5.2kg.
The batch fed grass only had a dry matter intake of 1.7kg per day compared to 1.3kg for the batch fed 0.5kg concentrates with the only difference being higher colostrum production (2.08kg v 1.62kg) in the concentrate fed batch.
Ewes fed high-quality grass silage only (1.2kg DM) achieved an average birth weight of 4.5kg producing just 1.28kg colostrum while those offered 0.5kg concentrates had a higher average lamb birthweight of 4.9kg and produced a sufficient level of 1.75kg colostrum.
This backs up the importance of getting late pregnancy diets correctly formulated.
The trial also highlighted the importance of not overfeeding ewes, with the average lamb birth weight recorded at 5.3kg, 5.5kg, 5.7kg and to 5.9kg for ewes offered from 1.3kg, 1.75kg, 2.2kg and 2.6kg grass dry matter. This led to the number of ewes requiring assistance being recorded at 5%, 9%, 8% and 18%.
The general recommendation is to use grass supplies for the final two weeks of pregnancy, with ewes supplemented indoors or outdoors before this.
Care should also be taken to ensure that an appropriate number of ewes are turned to grass that does not result in grass supplies running short post-lambing. Applying 20 to 25 units of nitrogen as soon as ground conditions allow will also help to boost supplies.
EID tag orders: Tag companies report an increase in tag orders in advance of lambing but note that there is still confusion or a lack of knowledge concerning the Department’s tag support subsidy.
The subsidy offers a once-off payment of up to €100 towards the cost of electronic tags.
The subsidy is payable on both EID tag sets and single electronic tags or a combination of both with a minimum subsidy of €10 payable.
There is no physical application procedure and tag companies also have no role in payment.
The subsidy will be paid in a tranche system in April, July and October with the deadline for orders set as 20 September 2019.
The subsidy cannot be divided meaning farmers must maximise their first order of EID tags to receive the maximum €100 payment.
Sheep census: Thursday 14 February is the last date for submitting or making amendments to the 2018 annual sheep and goat census online.
The Department of Agriculture agfood helpline can be contacted at 076-106 4424 or by emailing agfood@agriculture.gov.ie while for those with queries the National Sheep Identification System (NSIS) helpline is 076-106 4407.
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