“Local solutions to local problems,” was Teagasc’s Declan Byrne’s view as he challenged hill farmers at the Teagasc Hill sheep conference in Killarney.
“Ticking boxes to say you are a hill farm won’t do,” he said.
Declan, who is from Tinahely in Co Wicklow, envisaged dealing with whole commonage as a unit rather than dealing with individual farmers combined with locally led environmental schemes as a way forward.
He said these needed a five- to 10-year plan for each area as knee-jerk reactions don’t work on the hills.
Undergrazing has become a big issue in Wicklow and is leading to increased wildfires.
Byrne added that “grazing uplands at a sustainable level is the ideal management for farming and biodiversity. Grazing is the only way to control molinia with cattle particularly adept at this, but need to be there in April and early May.”
Number of sheep on hill dropped
In 2015, half of those with commonage declared for their BPS, never actually used it.
In 1999, hill farmers in Co Wicklow were surveyed. All of the farmers surveyed said they declared as upland for agriculture environment schemes.
Of these farmers 70% had sheep on the uplands for six months or more. When the same questions were asked 15 year later, all of them still declared as upland but only 18% sent their sheep to the hill for more than six months.
The number of sheep on the hill has reduced dramatically as has the amount of time they spend on the hill.
Listen to the views of Beaufort sheep farmers David Leane and Sean O'Connor in our podcast below:
Listen to "Kerry farmers at Hill sheep conference" on Spreaker.
Targeted selective treatment
Dr Ann McLaren from the SRUC Hill and Mountain research centre in Scotland outlined targeted selective treatment (TST).
In this treatment, they only wormed animals that were not thriving. Those achieving target weight are not dosed. This was compared with conventional faecal sample method.
If faecal egg count is above 500 eggs per gram, all the group is dosed. While, if it is below this figure, they received no group treatment.
After two year, the study showed that the number of lambs requiring a worm dose was closer to 80% for the conventional method while only 50% were dosed using TST.
A similar approach is now under way with ewes.
TST helps reduce anthelminthic use without having an adverse effect on lamb growth rates, while also reducing labour involved and the rate of resistance to wormers.
Parentage data and performance recording
Kevin O’Sullivan of Teagasc Killarney told those present: “For breed improvement we need parentage data and performance recording. Data has decreased since 2014 and it’s not making life easy. Logistical reasons on the hill make it difficult, but the BETTER hill farms managing to get 50% with parentage records.”
He reminded farmers that assistance is available from Sheep Ireland, adding “you could improve your flock 3 times faster than focusing on female selection alone.”
A fact backed up by Michael Gottstein, who told attendees: ”We have ram lambs coming from the hill into Athenry and they have a growth rate of 500 grams a day and there are others who are only capable of 10 grams a day and we don’t know the sires they are from. It is a major issue.”
Read more
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Farmer vigilance needed to reduce dog attacks
“Local solutions to local problems,” was Teagasc’s Declan Byrne’s view as he challenged hill farmers at the Teagasc Hill sheep conference in Killarney.
“Ticking boxes to say you are a hill farm won’t do,” he said.
Declan, who is from Tinahely in Co Wicklow, envisaged dealing with whole commonage as a unit rather than dealing with individual farmers combined with locally led environmental schemes as a way forward.
He said these needed a five- to 10-year plan for each area as knee-jerk reactions don’t work on the hills.
Undergrazing has become a big issue in Wicklow and is leading to increased wildfires.
Byrne added that “grazing uplands at a sustainable level is the ideal management for farming and biodiversity. Grazing is the only way to control molinia with cattle particularly adept at this, but need to be there in April and early May.”
Number of sheep on hill dropped
In 2015, half of those with commonage declared for their BPS, never actually used it.
In 1999, hill farmers in Co Wicklow were surveyed. All of the farmers surveyed said they declared as upland for agriculture environment schemes.
Of these farmers 70% had sheep on the uplands for six months or more. When the same questions were asked 15 year later, all of them still declared as upland but only 18% sent their sheep to the hill for more than six months.
The number of sheep on the hill has reduced dramatically as has the amount of time they spend on the hill.
Listen to the views of Beaufort sheep farmers David Leane and Sean O'Connor in our podcast below:
Listen to "Kerry farmers at Hill sheep conference" on Spreaker.
Targeted selective treatment
Dr Ann McLaren from the SRUC Hill and Mountain research centre in Scotland outlined targeted selective treatment (TST).
In this treatment, they only wormed animals that were not thriving. Those achieving target weight are not dosed. This was compared with conventional faecal sample method.
If faecal egg count is above 500 eggs per gram, all the group is dosed. While, if it is below this figure, they received no group treatment.
After two year, the study showed that the number of lambs requiring a worm dose was closer to 80% for the conventional method while only 50% were dosed using TST.
A similar approach is now under way with ewes.
TST helps reduce anthelminthic use without having an adverse effect on lamb growth rates, while also reducing labour involved and the rate of resistance to wormers.
Parentage data and performance recording
Kevin O’Sullivan of Teagasc Killarney told those present: “For breed improvement we need parentage data and performance recording. Data has decreased since 2014 and it’s not making life easy. Logistical reasons on the hill make it difficult, but the BETTER hill farms managing to get 50% with parentage records.”
He reminded farmers that assistance is available from Sheep Ireland, adding “you could improve your flock 3 times faster than focusing on female selection alone.”
A fact backed up by Michael Gottstein, who told attendees: ”We have ram lambs coming from the hill into Athenry and they have a growth rate of 500 grams a day and there are others who are only capable of 10 grams a day and we don’t know the sires they are from. It is a major issue.”
Read more
Sheep prices: more bite for in-spec hoggets
Farmer vigilance needed to reduce dog attacks
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