As the breeding sales swing into action, now is the time to assess the performance of your flock and to make decisions on what type of replacement ewes and rams to buy.
There are no single criteria that can be applied across all farms when it comes to these purchasing decisions, so each farm needs to decide what their priority is and then to identify the stock to support the achievement of this.
For some it will be minimal intervention at lambing time, for others it will be maximising the number of lambs weaned per ewe, and everything in between.
In UCD Lyons Farm we have focused on the use of prolific genetics in our ewe flock. I know this is not for everyone, and a major issue surrounding the hesitancy to chase prolificacy is the increase in the percentage of triplets in the flock.
We think we have developed a system which works well for us — the ewes and the lambs at Lyons and the triplet reared lambs are currently growing at 230 grams per day on Redstart, so there is great potential in this cohort of animals.
What is somewhat more difficult to assess at farm level is the performance of individual ewes, but again there is great potential in collecting some data in this regard, especially when operating at larger scale.
With animals that can appear visually the same, there can be a three-fold difference in the efficiency of carcass produced by ewes, even when they give birth to the same number of lambs. This has a large impact on the profitability of the flock.
Great strides have been made in recent years, through the activity of Sheep Ireland and the development of breeding indices for both terminal and maternal traits.
While there is still room for improvement, this can only be driven by farmers demanding this data of the ram breeders who will respond by providing what the customers want.
Our competitive advantage in Ireland is finishing lamb from grass and forage systems and this must be to the forefront of our minds.
At Lyons we are nearing the end of our comparison of three prolific breed types, and while the objective of this work is not to say what ewe type any farmer should use, it will provide information across a range of performance metrics which will aid in the decision making of commercial producers.
Lamb sales are progressing well, with the last batch if lambs slaughtered retuning €134 and on the hook at 22kg, which was slightly overweight but somewhat unavoidable given the volume of work on the farm in recent weeks.
The main group of lambs at Lyons are averaging 40kg and have grown at 215g per day since weaning.
Prof Tommy Boland is a lecturer in sheep production at Lyons Farm, UCD; @Pallastb
tommy.boland@ucd.ie
