All lambs on the farm have received their first dose of the year. I used a white wormer to combat Nematodirus but I won’t use one again on the lambs for the rest of the year. We dosed because of the warnings for nematodirus from the Department.
ver the next few weeks I will take some dung samples from the different batches of ewes and lambs to monitor the level of worms. Lambs will be dosed on the basis of the results.
All the lambs got a mineral and vitamin drench along with the wormer. I find this helps to optimise the performance of the lambs.
Cobalt, copper, selenium and iodine are all deficient on the farm in different areas. Lambs will get cobalt on a regular basis after weaning to keep them on target.
All the lambs have now got their second shot of 10-in-one vaccine. I decided to do all the lambs this year as some that were not vaccinated died last year due to clostridial diseases.
The prices of the few extra bottles of vaccine has been well worth it so far.
We are hoping for an increase in temperatures, as the grass on the silage ground is not as good or as advanced as I would like for the time of year.
We will cut early June, weather permitting, perhaps a little later than we normally would like.
If we haven’t enough bales we will take up some of the ground again for a second cut of silage. If this is the case fertiliser will be applied straight away.
There are many things in farming that we cannot control including the weather and prices. All we can do is to improve what we control.
We farmers have adapted to a lot of unforeseen changes over the past 15 months. The way we trade stock, promote and carry out our day-to-day business has changed quite a lot.
Selling stock online is now usual for many and it looks like some of these changes are here to stay. Hopefully some of the social outings such as sales and shows will return later this year
The dry hoggets on the farm will be shorn over the next few weeks. Starting with the rams and the ewe hoggets followed by the Lanark hill hoggets.
The ewe hoggets will be kept on a fairly good run of ground if possible to have them in good shape for breeding later in the year.
They will get a mineral drench at shearing and a wormer if needed.
The Lanark hill hoggets were gathered last week and have got Vector pour-on for ticks and a mineral drench and were let off again until they will be brought down for shearing time.
I was happy with the condition they were in and how they were growing on the hill.
The Bluefaced Leicester and Lanark hogget rams will checked at shearing and hopefully we will have some for selling in September.
The month ahead will mainly involve treating lambs with Clik extra for blowfly, shearing, silage and perhaps cleaning out sheds.
Tom Staunton farms in Tourmakeady, Co Mayo