Lambing figures in the flock operated by Ken and Richard Mathews, who farm in Killeigh Co Offaly, are astonishing. The flock of 265 Belclare x Suffolk cross ewes and 81 Suffolk ewes put to the ram scanned with an amazing 850 lambs from 330 ewes scanned in lamb, as detailed in Table 1. The actual lambing percentage is turning out to be higher and this is especially the case in the Belclare cross ewes, which are driving the average litter size.

The 251 Belclare cross ewes scanned in lamb contained 116 triplet bearing ewes and over 40 ewes carrying quadruplets while the number of quintuplets scanned at six ewes, but over the course of lambing this has risen to 11 ewes, with 20 ewes still left to lamb last Tuesday. This will increase what are already hard to believe figures for the Belclare cross ewes of 2.64 lambs per ewe to the ram and 2.78 lambs per ewe scanned in lamb. The overall scanning rate when Suffolk ewes are added into the mix is still remarkable at 2.46 lambs per ewe put to the ram and 2.58 lambs per ewe in lamb.

The Mathews have witnessed a gradual increase in the flock’s litter size over the last three to four years but were left stunned with the scan in 2017. “We knew during scanning that we were in for an even higher lamb crop. Scanning took over three and a half hours and our scanner John Guinan had great patience and did a really good job. It was only when scanning was finished and litter sizes calculated that we knew the scale of the job that faced us”, said Richard.

Successful lambing

After three very intense weeks, the Mathews are now getting time to reflect on what has to date been a successful lambing. They are also slowly catching up on some well overdue sleep. Mortality levels are equally as amazing as the litter size. Ken says that 11 lambs were lost due to ewes slipping lambs before lambing started, while there have only been 40 lambs and two ewes lost since lambing began. Despite the higher numbers of lambs, this is running ahead of 2016 levels where 80 lambs were lost. While Richard and Ken say that they have had their fair share of luck during lambing, this doesn’t happen without having the foundation in place for good performance with the farm’s attention to detail very impressive.

Nutrition and ewe condition have been the driver of lambing success. Ewe condition is excellent with the feeding regime leading to ewes lambing with plenty of milk and lambs born at a favourable liveweight.

The farm is a mixed sheep and tillage enterprise and Richard says access to a green cover crop put ewes on the right track. “Grazing ewes on a green cover crop of rape and leafy turnip for GLAS for the month of December really set the ewes up. It gave them a nutritional boost and improved condition and also allowed them to be held outdoors for an extra month which really helped ewes coming indoors in a fit condition.”

After this, management was precise and ran like clockwork. “We were working with a tight timeframe. Once ewes were housed, we needed to shear to have eight weeks of wool regrowth and scan to start to manage ewes, according to litter size. Silage quality was excellent this year which sort of happened by chance. We went for an earlier cut to take advantage of the good weather with the pit silage analysed at 75 DMD while bales made from surplus grass were 76 DMD,”explained Ken.

The silage quality helped to maintain ewe condition and also limited the level of meal required. “We worked off the Hillsborough feeding recommendations and used our own initiative with thinner ewes and quads and quins. These ended up at about a kilo a day in the final couple of weeks with triplets on 0.8kg and twins from 0.4kg to 0.6kg. The total meal fed has been relatively small. We ordered 11t with ewe lambs also fed from this and will have enough to bring us through lambing”.

24/7 supervision

The other features which have contributed to a positive lambing performance are excellent planning, good facilities and above all implementing high levels of supervision.

“I suppose you could say there was someone with the ewes 24 hours a day during lambing. Dad did the night shift, I started at 6am and we had very good help from our family and a few excellent students.

‘‘There was hardly time to think straight at times but touch wood all is going great. It couldn’t have happened though without the help. James, Edward and Janina (brothers and sister) gave great help at key times and we had two very good UCD veterinary students, Miranda Bean from Washington State and Katy Cooke from Wisconsin, who fed and looked after lambs round the clock. Gurteen College student Graham Armitage is still with us and has been fantastic in all aspects over the last few weeks. My mother Janice kept everyone involved in good spirits and well-fed and provided accommodation for all the students. My wife Maria, with help from her parents Liam and Sarah Stapleton, was very supportive despite being eight months pregnant and looking after our two girls Kate and Clodagh. This allowed me to spend more time lambing.’’

The farm had about 100 individual lambing pens set up with one shed dedicated as an intensive care unit. Quad and quintuplet ewes and their lambs were transferred to this area. Pens were set up in advance of lambing with red lamps constructed in secure and safe housing working extremely well and providing a tip for other farmers to address health and safety concerns.

Grassland management

Ewes and lambs are let outdoors in smaller numbers and are batched into their grazing groups over a space of two to three weeks. The first batch of ewes released has now been joined into a group of 110 ewes in a large field to give extra time for lambs to get used to running in larger numbers. This group will be transferred to their grazing area next week, which consists of four to five paddocks per group. This allows a rotational grazing system to be put in place while also allowing better control of sward quality.

The farm has developed lots of tips that work well for it through experience and another is reducing the incidence of grass tetany. Mineral buckets are offered to ewes in the final weeks of lambing so that when ewes are released outdoors, it is not a new experience and ewe intake resumes quickly. A small number of ewes that have experienced issues at lambing or are lacking condition are initially grouped together and receive a small level of meal feeding for a few weeks at grass. This, Ken says, also serves to ward off the risk of tetany in these ewes that are possibly more prone.

Future direction

The high litter size is driving output but operating such a system is demanding on labour.

The litter size is far greater than equivalent flocks operating a similar breeding mix with replacements only selected from Belclare cross lambs born to Suffolk ewes. It could be somewhat understandable if replacements were selected from Belclare cross ewes that have delivered the higher litter size but this is not the case.

The Suffolk ewes are sourced from flocks with no history of high prolificacy in their background, while Ken explains that the Belclare rams used are also not from breed strains that have been highlighted for particularly high prolificacy. The driver of the unusually high litter size is therefore hard to nail down and is something the Mathews are keen to explore.

The worry is that the litter size could rise even further and put excessive pressure on the system. “Demand on time is huge. We got away ok this year with a few hiccups but if the weather that occurred around St Patrick’s Day had lasted for longer, it could have been a different story. Most people plan to increase their stocking rate but in the longer term we need to reduce the litter size for a more manageable system,” concluded Ken and Richard.

Triple, quad and quintuplet lambs are left with ewes for a couple of days before being transferred to an automatic feeder. All of these lambs receive ewe colostrum or a colostrum supplement if required and these lambs (only) also receive Spectam Scour Halt as an insurance policy against watery mouth.

Lambs that drink from the bottle receive a spray mark on their rump and after a couple of days are removed to the automatic feeder. Another tip Ken found that worked well this year is feeding lambs with the same rubber teat as the milk feeder, with lambs quicker to take to the feeder.

Some cross-fostering was carried out but with time at a premium during the peak lambing period, cross-fostering was confined to triplet ewes lambing at the same time as a single. Getting lambs switched on to the automatic feeder was also time-consuming, particularly where lambs spent over two days with their ewe. The area serviced by the feeder is split into five pens, which works extremely well in allowing lambs to be penned at a similar age which also aids more concise health treatments.

Lambs accustomed to the feeder have access to ad-lib milk and are thriving excellently. The target is to confine feeding to six weeks with lambs hopefully consuming sufficient levels of creep at this stage.

Another tip that seems to be working well in getting lambs starting to eat creep is mixing some Frosties cereal into the mix.

Lambs will be intensively finished indoors, which has worked well in previous years.

Regular checks

Ken says that lambs still need to be checked regularly with the risk of mortality greatly cut down by spotting any problems quickly. The farm has experimented with letting ewes outdoors with triplet-bearing ewes in the past, but with the numbers present and issues encountered with lambs subsequently thriving poorly or ewes facing a higher risk of contracting mastitis, no ewe is let to grass with three lambs.

“A ewe that has delivered extra lambs deserves some preferential treatment and the last thing we need at that stage of the year is more work.

‘‘We have about 150 lambs on the feeder at the moment and this will probably finish closer to 180 when the final 20 ewes and ewe lambs are done. Letting a ewe and two lambs outdoors leads to a more straightforward system to operate with no meals fed to lambs at grass,” explains Ken.