Purchasing rams

For farmers participating in the Sheep Improvement Scheme and required to purchase rams in year one of the scheme, there is an added incentive in getting rams purchased early. Farmers should not panic buy, but at the same time it is important not to ignore the requirement until late in to the season, when the pick of available rams will be lower. The feature on pages 44 and 45 addresses readers’ commonly asked questions on the genotyped ram requirement. There is still plenty of time for breeders to get rams genotyped. Sheep Ireland advises breeders to allow a timeframe of six weeks from ordering tags to getting rams genotyped. The process is likely to be quicker, but breeders should not take this for granted and act now. Purchasing rams in good time offers plenty of time for rams to acclimatise to their new surroundings. It also offers an opportunity to implement a good biosecurity protocol. This should include quarantining any purchased sheep indoors for a period of 24 to 48 hours, during which time treatments to guard against introducing resistant worms are administered. The optimum option here is to use a new generation wormer, eg Zolvix and a moxidectin-based product. Where this option is not feasible, then the next option is a moxidectin-based wormer and a levamisole-based wormer. Other health concerns include liver fluke treatment, external parasite control, lameness and a vaccination programme, with the main ailment here being clostridial diseases. Sourcing grass-fed rams provides obvious benefits with numbers thankfully growing, but many rams continue to be reared on intensive diets. Where this is a factor, then offering rams access to concentrate supplementation (0.3kg to 0.5kg) for a period will help underpin performance during the transition phase. Exploring previous management, where possible, will aid in implementing the best possible plan to safeguard your investment.

Concentrate supplementation

The typical seasonal downward pressure on lamb price has ramped up again over the last week. The merits of introducing high levels of concentrates to lambs post-weaning become increasingly questionable in such a scenario. The focus post-weaning should remain on optimising grass-quality, with lambs offered access to the best-quality grass and moved to fresh pasture regularly without being forced to graze out lower-quality herbage. The optimum situation, where concentrates are being introduced to aid finishing performance, is to batch lambs into finishing groups. For example, grouping ram lambs weighing upwards of 38kg to 40kg and offering concentrates in troughs at a rate of 300g to 500g daily, will be much more economical than blanket feeding all lambs or offering meal ad-lib.

Tagging considerations

The manner in which tags are applied can have a big influence on retention rates. Button tags should be applied midway in height of the ear, while taking care to avoid cartilage (this can be seen on the underside of the ear) and about one-third of the way along the animal’s ear measuring from the head out for most breeds. This may need to be extended for sheep with thick ears to provide room for tags to rotate and air to circulate. The same positioning is advised for wrap around tags with the added advice of leaving 4mm to 5mm room between the edge of the ear and the tag for ear growth. Hygiene is critical to reducing the risk of infection and tagging on a dry day is also advised.