Francis and Bernie Gonley – along with their children Niall, Orlaith and Aoife – run a hill and lowland farm in Tormore, Glencar, Co Sligo.

The hill farm comprises 18ha of enclosed ground on the foothills of Benbulben, adjoining a 72.5ha share of commonage on the mountain.

The lowland farm comprises 19.5ha of heavy land with the ultimate aim to run both enterprises in a mutually beneficial manner.

The farm joined the Teagasc BETTER farm sheep programme in 2016 and last week held an open evening with a focus on farm planning including breeding, options for finishing hill lambs and flock health.

The farm’s breeding programme was a significant element when drawing up the five-year farm plan.

The starting position for the hill enterprise was a 150-head ewe flock based on a breeding programme utilising Scottish Blackface and Cheviot genetics.

Increasing output

Francis says the system worked well but there was no pressure on ewes due to the low stocking rate.

This allowed the majority of ewes to remain on lowland ground post-lambing with hill grazing only utilised for short periods post weaning in late summer and winter.

Grass supplies on lowland ground were also tighter for finishing lambs and this resulted in significant quantities of meal being consumed.

Francis says his aim now is to increase output and get more from hill grazing with at least single-suckling ewes returning to the hill post-lambing.

Central to this objective on the farm is changing the breed of ewe with Francis progressing down a route of switching to the Mayo Connemara type of the Scottish Blackface breed.

Francis feels that the Blackface ewe will perform better than the larger-sized Cheviot x Blackface cross ewe when returned to the hill post-lambing.

Along with facilitating an increase in stocking rate, the dual target of getting ewes back to the hill earlier in the year is ensuring vegetation is maintained in the best possible manner.

This is a point that was expanded upon by Michael Gottstein, Teagasc head of sheep programme.

Michael pointed out that where ewes are not returned to the hill in May, there is a reluctance for them to graze vegetation when turned up in July or later in the year, which negatively affects the quality of vegetation available for grazing and hits performance.

The farm is gradually tweaking the makeup of the flock and increasing numbers in order to cut down on the risk of introducing disease and also build numbers in line with improving grazing management.

A small number of Mayo Connemara hoggets were purchased from a known source to speed up the process and also expand the pool of genetics. These ewes underwent a robust quarantine programme.

There will be 200 ewes joined to rams this year.

Single-sire mating will be used with ewes handpicked for their suitability to grazing on the hill, bred pure, while crossbreeding will continue in ewes not required to breed hill replacements.

However, instead of a Cheviot being used, Belclare sires will be mated with the remaining ewes, with female progeny then transferred to the lowland farm as a source of prolific maternal replacements.

Frank Campion, Teagasc BETTER farm programme adviser, explains that carrying out crossbreeding in surplus ewes will also serve to increase the value of male progeny.

Table 1 details the performance of the hill flock for the last two seasons.

The performance is positive for a hill flock but, as mentioned previously, there was no real pressure on ewes. Frank says the aim for the farm is to continue to increase flock numbers, maintain this level of performance and improve the weaning weight of lambs.

Lamb drafting

Tables 2 and 3 detail lamb performance from birth to weaning and the breakdown of lamb weights at weaning.

Francis Gonley says that, in recent years, all lambs were kept on the farm and transferred at a stage to his lowland farm before finishing indoors.

Temporary grazing was rented for ewes to facilitate this.

This year, a budget was completed on finishing lambs taking into account the cost of rented grazing while also assessing the store trade.

He said the store lamb trade was too good to pass up for light lambs with all lambs under 25kg sold. These are generally the lambs that normally end up consuming the most grass and competing with ewes.

Lambs weighing in the region of 25kg to 35kg will be retained on grass only in the short term, while there is a batch of lambs weighing upwards of 40kg which are performing ok but lacking flesh.

Concentrate feeding will be introduced to these lambs and, weather-dependent, lambs may be housed for a short finishing period.

Frank Campion expanded on this point and told farmers the focus now should be on ensuring sufficient grass supplies are available for ewes.

Performance of lambs on grass should not be overestimated when developing finishing plans. At present, the aim is for lambs to gain about 1kg per week.

However, given the level of rainfall since the start of August and the low dry matter of grass, performance is likely to be running at 50% of these levels.

Francis concluded by advising farmers to reassess performance on a regular basis and tweak plans, where necessary, to keep finishing plans on track.