Scanning in Tullamore Farm at the start of the week revealed positive breeding performance, with an average litter size of 1.91 lambs per ewe joined achieved across a flock of 242 ewes, ewe hoggets and ewe lambs. Leaving aside a barren rate of 4% across all animals, the in-lamb rate is 1.99 lambs.

The table above summarises performance across mature ewes, hogget ewes and ewe lambs and also details how this year’s scanning results compared to the previous two years. The scanning rate of 2.13 lambs per ewe joined in the 141 mature ewes is slightly lower than 2018 levels but is still positive, with the reduction coming from fewer triplet ewes.

The 51 hoggets achieved a 0.04 increase above 2018 levels with a scan of 1.82 while the ewe lambs recorded excellent breeding performance. There were just three ewe lambs barren after a breeding season of about three weeks, with the average scanning rate recorded at 1.34 lambs per ewe lamb joined.

Litter size

The table below details the breakdown in litter size. There were 27 single-bearing ewe lambs and 20 twin-bearing ewe lambs. The focus now is to keep ewe lambs thriving to have them lambing down in optimum condition. Ewe lambs are being run in a separate batch and will shortly receive concentrate supplementation.

There were 74 twin-bearing mature ewes scanned, 44 triplets, 17 singles and one quad. The triplet ewes and one quad-bearing ewe have been joined with the three hoggets carrying triplets and will be the first batch housed in the coming days. Meal feeding will begin at a rate of 0.2kg to 0.3kg once ewes are settled indoors along with access to good-quality silage which tested in the low 70s for dry matter digestibility.

The twin-bearing ewes will be supplemented outdoors with baled silage while alterations take place to housing over the coming 10 days. This is being carried out to allow a higher number of ewes to be housed in a given space. These ewes are receiving average-quality baled silage and will also receive a low level of concentrate supplementation (approximately 0.2kg per head) in the next week to compensate for its lower quality. The aim is to house these ewes in the next fortnight and feed them better-quality silage.

Ewe condition

Ewe condition is also being monitored closely. Condition is generally good but with grass reserves targeted at ewes, depleting condition is starting to ease slightly. With a high lamb crop, it is vital that excessive condition is not lost as it is easier to hold now with the correct feeding programme; it will be far more valuable to utilise post-lambing. There are a couple of twin-bearing ewes below target condition and these will be joined with triplet-bearing ewes for preferential treatment.