Weaning of the two main batches of ewes and lambs took place on Tuesday on Tullamore Farm.

Manager Shaun Diver said he was giving the two groups every chance for grass growth to pick up and was holding off with the hope of receiving significant rainfall at the weekend.

This has never materialised with daily grass growth rates falling to just 30kg DM/ha and running well below a demand of 45kg DM/ha.

This is resulting in the average farm cover reducing fast, despite efforts taken to conserve grass and has left the farm with no option but to wean the oldest born lambs earlier than planned.

Lambs grazing post-weaning in a secure field beside the yard. They have since been moved to fresh grazing with concentrates introduced in troughs.

“Grass growth has come to a standstill on much of the farm. We are feeding suckler cows hay and introducing concentrates to calves to try to underpin performance and slow down the rotation.

“Grass supplies are nearly depleted and if we waited any longer we would run into a position of having no grass at all for lambs post weaning.

“As it is, supplies are very tight but at least now we can prioritise what grass is available to lambs and tighten up the ewes for a while.”

The average weight was recorded at 30.08kg with a range from 14kg to 47kg

Over 200 lambs in the two grazing groups were weighed to monitor performance with weights recorded through the Sheep Ireland app. Performance has been good despite the slowdown in growth, with lambs maintaining an average daily gain in the region of 300g per day. This is likely to be boosted by the fact that lambs are aged 85 days on average, or just over 12 weeks, and are being weaned two weeks earlier than planned.

The average weight was recorded at 30.08kg with a range from 14kg to 47kg. There are 11 lambs weighing in excess of 40kg liveweight (average of 42kg) and these were drafted for slaughter on Wednesday.

Twenty-two per cent of lambs ranged in weight from 33kg to 38kg, while over 42% of lambs weaned ranged from 28kg to 32kg liveweight.

Another 20% weighed between 22kg and 27.5kg with a small number below this range.

Post-weaning plans

The plan now is to introduce concentrates immediately to weaned lambs at a rate of 250g to 300g daily.

If rain does come as forecast and grass supplies recover in the next week to 10 days, then this rate of supplementary feeding will remain as it is and will be reviewed when grass supplies increase sufficiently.

If growth remains under pressure, the most probable scenario is separating ram lambs from ewe lambs to allow feeding levels to be increased to ram lambs.

These decisions can call on the experience of the drought of 2018. Feeding levels were built up to 0.5kg but ram lambs and ewe lambs were retained as one group until late July.

The higher feeding level was ideal for ram lambs and underpinned lambs achieving a good kill-out percentage and fat cover.

It also contributed to 65% of lambs being drafted by the first week of September and helped build autumn grass supplies after a prolonged drought period.

Where the system fell down slightly in 2018 was when grass supplies recovered ewe lambs were tending to go overfat at lighter weights.

This was rectified by grazing them separately, reducing the concentrate feeding level from 500g to 250g per day and allowing ewe lambs more time to develop.

Ewe management

Ewes were housed on Tuesday post-weaning and offered hay. The plan is to shear ewes on Thursday (18 June) and then graze in a bare paddock to limit milk yield and aid drying off.

When this has been completed, ewes will be inspected for their suitability for breeding in 2020. Any ewes that present with any reason for culling, including records maintained at lambing, will be then grouped separately for preferential treatment.

Yearling hoggets

The batch of yearling hoggets and problem ewes/lambs, which are grazing in the third batch will also be reviewed in the coming days in light of grass supplies.

Shaun remains very happy with performance in this group with an initial analysis of weight records showing lambs suckling yearling hoggets averaging in the region of 270g to 280g daily, while the performance of a small number of Texel-born lambs suckling mature ewes is being boosted by the fact lambs are consuming creep (offered 250g to 300g daily at present) and running over 300g daily.

Further analysis will be carried out on the yearling hoggets by breed of ewe (Texel cross and Mule) and by litter size and will be included in an upcoming report.