Several weeks of localised showers have left organising one dry day that suited the shearer and I difficult. But the task was completed on Friday evening. I had treated one ewe for fly-strike a week ago, but during shearing we discovered 6 ewes with fly-strike. Just a reminder of how vigilant we have to be as herdsmen and shepherds.

As far as I’m aware, wool is currently trading at around €1.30 per kg, which although modest covers the cost of completing the job. For the most part, sheep farming in recent years has seen a steady improvement. I am only a recent entrant to sheep farming and have been increasing my small flock for the past eight years.

But eight years ago, factory fit lambs were making €80 and dropped as far as €60 when peak supplies hit in July and August. This week's prices range from €110-€125. So why are sheep farmers in the bottom category for average yearly incomes?

For a long number of years sheep have be seen as second class citizens next to other enterprises, in a lot of cases it was beef. But do sheep deserve more credit.

For many years, very little in the way of innovation has helped to improve sheep farming. Prolificacy rates are definitely one area that needed to be examined and rightly so are currently attracting some attention. But is it all good to have a high scan rate? I usually find it is around lambing time that the biggest gains can be made by having ewes with adequate milk. Also, having the facilities in place that allow a large number of sheep to be lambed in a short period, and which also minimises the risk of mortality.

Grassland management

One of the other major factors I have found that drive lamb growth rates is good grassland management. A ewe reaches peak milk yield at between three and five weeks post-lambing. But I find that a lambs reliance’s on milk reaches far beyond that. In our own case the reseeding has definitely driven lamb growth rates and this should be the first years where we have the biggest draw of lambs in June.

On the beef side this week, it has been a case of keeping the cattle entering paddocks without too much stem. I would say we will be forced into some topping as I don’t want the quality to be compromised in the next rotation. We are beginning to monitor animal performance as we enter into the next three month its critical steers continue to thrive and begin to flesh.