A common message from the conclusion of farm programmes is that three years is generally too short a time-frame to witness the benefits of implementing a farm plan. Programme managers state that a period of at least five years is required to see the fruits of your labour.

The Gonley family farm, run by Francis and Bernie Gonley and their children Niall, Orlaith and Aoife in Ballinorley, Colga, Co Sligo, is a testament to this thinking. Having joined the Teagasc BETTER farm sheep programme at the end of 2016, the mixed hill and upland farm hosted a recent farm walk demonstrating significant improvements.

The farm is split into two distinct farming systems – a hill farm comprising 18ha of enclosed ground on the foothills of Benbulben, adjoining a 72.5ha share of commonage on the mountain, and a lowland farm comprising 17ha, adjusted, of heavy lands which is challenging, at times, to manage.

One of the greatest changes implemented is a clear breeding policy for both flocks with a defined replacement policy and stabilised age structure, a big change in the hill flock. The development of grazing infrastructure on lowland and green ground has facilitated a significant increase in ewe numbers on the lowland farm, as detailed in Table 1, and also underpinned a marked increase in animal performance.

The increase in ewe numbers has also been facilitated by altering cattle housing and replacing cattle slats with sheep slats and upgrading lambing facilities. This was highlighted as a game changer in terms of taking the pressure off grazing ground, improving ewe nutrition and easier management. A batch footbath and race were erected in the old creep area of the shed with any lameness issues now much easier to control.

The increase in ewe numbers and lift in litter size has been achieved without increasing the volume of concentrates fed. Francis credits this to improved grassland management. The concentrate bill per ewe, plus her lamb(s), in 2023 was €32.

Critical exercise

Tom Coll, the farm’s Teagasc adviser, told farmers that a critical exercise to monitor performance is to establish the level of concentrates fed. “This can be done quite easily by dividing the total concentrate bill by the number of ewes. It can be a big reality check for farmers ranging from €20 to over €50 to €60 per ewe-lamb unit.”

Poor silage quality, lambing too early for the farm and a failure to close paddocks in time in autumn to have sufficient grass in spring are some areas highlighted as contributing to higher concentrate bills.

Main changes

Silage quality has drastically improved with the aim being to make silage with a DMD in the mid-70s. He explains that the silage-making process has changed from closing distinct ground for a first or second cut to taking surpluses out of the rotation as they develop. There are 13 divisions now on the lowland farm and these are subdivided further with temporary electric fencing during periods of peak grass growth.

“I don’t fertilise for first or second cut anymore and work on paddock-by-paddock. It is great for me, terrible for the contractor and excellent in terms of silage quality and maintaining top-quality grass ahead of sheep.”

Lamb performance

The number of lambs weaned per ewe joined reduced in 2023. Lambing coincided with the unfortunate passing of Francis’s father and he explains that maybe their eye was taken off the ball with a few more lamb losses than normal.

Lamb performance for the lowland flock is detailed in Tables 3 and 3A. Programme adviser Frank Campion explains that weaning weights are on target for the system, despite the challenging year, weather-wise. Frank told farmers that a valuable exercise to complete at weaning is to weigh lambs and establish the percentage of lambs within different weight ranges.

The ideal situation is where all lambs are weighed, but where this is not feasible, weighing a random sample will still allow one to get a feel of the proportion of lambs within different weight ranges, and put a finishing plan in place with greater accuracy. This is particularly beneficial in hill flocks.

“When we have weighing information available, we can have a look and assess performance... its importance is that we can put finishing plans in place relatively easily. For example, on Francis’s farm, we know that lambs weighing over 35kg are suitable for finishing without competing with ewes for important grass supplies. Decisions can be taken on light lambs with a fair degree of confidence around target sale dates.”

Finishing groups

Frank discussed the data presented in Table 5 which is a valuable asset in forecasting sale dates. It takes a weaning weight and forecasts the sale date based on variable lamb performance thereafter. Frank says that the problem in a challenging year like 2024 is that flocks may possess a higher percentage of lambs in the 28kg to 30kg weight bracket. Where performance is in the region of 120g to 160g/day, it will be a significant period of time before the lambs will be finished.

He says that a practice in 2023 and 2024 on most of the Teagasc BETTER farms is the running of finishing groups. On the Gonley farm, lambs weighing in excess of 37kg are transferred into a finishing group. Lambs weighing 30kg to 37kg are grazed on high-quality grass while lambs less than 30kg are sold. “Lambs less than 30kg are off to the mart. For us longer-keep lambs don’t suit the system and only end up eating grass that is better used to finish heavier lambs or carry ewes for breeding.”

The breeding policy in the lowland flock incorporates New Zealand Suffolk, Texel and Charollais genetics. In recent years, replacements have also been incorporated from the hill flock and the focus has turned to a closed flock policy with only rams purchased.

The breeding policy in the hill flock before to 2017 was retaining a lot of old ewes, which were prone to presenting with issues and lower performance. About 50% of the flock is now bred pure to Scottish Blackface rams to have a good choice on the selection of replacements, while also taking advantage of crossbreeding in remaining ewes.

The focus from now until breeding will be to identify any problem or poor-performing ewes and to identify ewes requiring preferential treatment to regain body condition.