Sheep grazing: it’s all about keeping it fresh

An exceptional grass management system was on show at the Grass 10 sheep farm walk on the farm of Enda Finnegan, Templeboy, Sligo. Enda is a full-time farmer running a 150-ewe flock along with carrying forward store cattle on 21ha of good-quality free-draining soil.

Tom Coll, Teagasc adviser in Mohill, Co Leitrim, gave an overview of the farm system in place. Enda increased his stocking rate from 1.85 LU/ha in 2017 to 1.89 LU/ha in 2018.

His liveweight output per hectare is up 35kg this year compared with last year due to the rise in the stocking rate and this has increased gross output by 15%. Enda has lowered his variable costs by 4% due to better utilisation of his grassland and less use of concentrates.

Ewe type on the farm is mainly Texel cross and these are bred to a Charollais ram. Lambing begins in early March and ewes are turned out to grass as soon as possible. Drafting generally starts from the end of June, with weaning taking place at an average of 14 weeks of lactation. Post-weaning lambs graze ahead of ewes.

Enda had a gross margin per ewe of €98 in 2017, 1.57 lambs were reared per ewe and concentrate costs were €22 per ewe.

Temporary paddock divisions in place on the farm.

Grass 10

Philip Creighton, Teagasc research office in Athenry, outlined the growth pattern of the grass plant throughout a 21-day grazing rotation and the target stage in which best utilisation of the plant can be achieved at grazing. He also spoke of the importance of the paddock system to improve grass utilisation and production, improve animal performance and the great control over your farming system that can be achieved by it.

He said paddocks intended for grazing should be grown for three weeks and eaten in three days to maintain high-quality swards. In three days a new leaf will have emerged and ewes will always keep going back to eat new leaves of grass. Leaves will provide energy whereas stem provides fibre. For this reason, paddock residence should not exceed three to four days.

Current weather conditions will reduce the length of the grazing rotation. The first grass leaves are fully formed after five days currently while they would usually take seven days to form.

Prolonged periods of grazing will allow time for fresh grass to re-emerge and older grass will not be grazed off properly. Topping should be carried out to get rid of stemmy grass and weeds.

Philip also stated that Grass10 principles can be applied on all farms, but this doesn’t always mean every farm has to implement these principles exactly as Grass10 has. It can be done; it just needs the planning.

In fragmented farms, water may be an issue. There are short-term solutions to this – ibc tanks or slurry tanks can be used to set up temporary water access.

Teagasc sheep specialist Ciarán Lynch spoke about the lactating ewe’s grass demand. Peak demand is usually six weeks post lambing with the lamb’s dependency on grass increasing thereafter. A ewe will typically eat 3.5kg of grass per day at her peak demand and this will reduce to 2kg of grass per day at the time of weaning. A lamb’s demand will increase gradually all the way up to the time of weaning where its demand will be at 0.9kg of grass per day, meaning the combined demand for the average ewe and two lambs will be 4kg of grass per day prior to weaning. Ciarán specified that from better grass management, higher performance can be achieved and this will be replicated in profit monitors.

Higher energy intake will result in greater lamb growth rate. Weaned lambs will require as much as 1.2kg of grass per day.

Nutrient management

There is a high removal of nutrients from silage ground once the first cut has been taken and, if nutrients are not replaced quickly, soil fertility deficiencies will be seen. Ciarán spoke of the importance of getting slurry and artificial fertilisers out as soon as silage crops have been taken to try to build up silage reserves. Slurry should be targeted to ground where silage has been taken and areas that are really low in P & K will require higher compound fertilisers along with 80 unit of nitrogen per acre.

Pastures that have been taken out as surplus bales will require a top-up of P and K as nutrients have also been extracted.

Even though growing conditions are very good at present, nitrogen is still required in small quantities to maintain grass quality.

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