SWS action timelines
The timeline for completing actions for in excess of 17,000 sheep farmers participating in the National Sheep Welfare Scheme is 15 October 2024. This is the case for all actions including shearing, body condition scoring, clostridial disease vaccination and plunge dipping.
There is some flexibility on plunge dipping with farmers who notified the Department by 15 September to seek an extension permitted to complete dipping until 25 November 2024. Taking this extension means that payment may be delayed until late December or January 2025.
Regarding body condition scoring, the first assessment must have been carried out between 15 April and 15 July 2024 and the second between 1 August and 15 October 2024. Scores must be recorded on the scheme action booklet and appropriate follow-on management completed.
Worm burdens
Farmers attending Wednesday’s Sheep Expo 2024 event were cautioned about the risk of worm burdens increasing rapidly in grazing lambs. Teagasc specialists noted worrying results recorded by their network of farmers including BETTER farm sheep programme and research/demonstration flocks.
The importance of carrying out regular faecal egg counts was highlighted, with worm counts rising rapidly over a few weeks. Now is an opportune time to carry out a faecal egg count reduction test to ensure the anthelmintic being used remains effective and to establish if resistance is an issue in the flock.
Mating management
Raddling is a simple but effective way to quickly identify issues with ram infertility or sub-fertility. Changing the raddle colour every two weeks will help identify high repeat rates in ewes or animals not coming in to heat. This is crucial where carrying out single sire mating.
Switching rams between groups will reduce the impact of an infertile ram being run with ewes but be careful to ensure that rams are switched in a time frame that means they will not be back mating the same ewes at a similar time in their next breeding cycle. Group mating will help reduce the risks associated with a sub-fertile or infertile ram. They will not eliminate problems completely as while minor in frequency a dominant ram in a group can impede others from working. For this reason, it is advisable to continue to raddle and change colours.
Changing raddle colours on a weekly basis is a valuable management tool to implement late pregnancy feeding with greater accuracy.
The advice from Sheep Expo 2024 was about the importance of watching rams serving ewes to ensure that they are working correctly and that false mounts are not a problem, particularly in young rams.
Hill ram sales
The trade recorded at many hill ram sales is much sharper than in recent years, with many sales reporting good demand for rams eligible for the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS). Sheep Ireland is hosting its inaugural multibreed hill ram sale in Manorhamilton Livestock Mart, Station Road, Manorhamilton, Leitrim on Friday 11 October at 7pm.
There will be in excess of 100 SIS-eligible rams which are all genotyped and sire verified and Type 1, 2 or 3 for Scrapie status.
The catalogue and details of this and other upcoming hill ram sales can be found at www.sheep.ie/hill-sales-2024/.
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