Watch: Tullamore Farm - lambing progressing well after tricky lead-up

Lambing is progressing steadily on Tullamore Farm, with over 150 ewes lambed since lambing commenced on 11 March 2025.

While lambing is progressing smoothly now, there were some worrying periods in the final run-in to lambing, with a number of cases of ewe and lamb mortality.

There were two cases of ewe mortality where ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) was confirmed as the cause and another suspect case which could not be confirmed due to decomposition of the carcase.

On top of this, two ewes were lost due to uterine prolapse, with both cases too far gone to have any hope of recovery.

In the same week to 10 days as the uterine prolapse, there were also two ewes which aborted. The foetuses and foetal membranes were submitted to the Athlone Regional Veterinary laboratory for post mortem. One result proved inconclusive while the second case identified chlamydial, or enzootic, abortion as the cause.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis came after the first ewes had lambed, with no interventions carried out as a vaccination programme is in place for both enzootic abortion and toxoplasmosis.

The ewes in question were older ewes and it is suspected that cover may have waned over time. This is something that will be explored in greater detail post-lambing.

A similar situation occurred a number of years ago and at that time aged ewes were vaccinated again before the subsequent breeding season.

With an emphasis on building flock numbers in recent years, there is a small percentage of ewes aged upwards of seven to eight years of age.

Lambing statistics

Lambing data has been recorded on the Sheep Ireland commercial app on over 120 ewes lambed to date and their lambs.

Within this, 72% of ewes gave birth to twin lambs, 18% to a single lamb and 9% to triplet lambs. The app’s lambing report shows that 61% of lambs were born unassisted, with 20% voluntarily assisted.

Farm manager Shaun Diver explains that voluntary assistance occurred at times where a ewe may have been lambing and was handled to speed up lambing to allow other tasks to be completed away from the lambing shed or where the lambing shed was going to be left unsupervised for a period.

Another 13% of ewes required slight lambing assistance, with 5% recorded as requiring significant assistance.

Ewe data

Milk yield is scored on a scale of one to five, whereby one is the worst score and five is the best. The highest percentage of 69% of ewes were recorded with a score of four, with another 23% given the maximum score of five.

Just 4% had a score of three and 3% granted a score of two.

It was a similar story with ewe mothering ability, with 74% of ewes recording a score of four, 23% scoring five and 2% and 1% scored at two and one respectively.

Lamb birth weight

The average lamb birth weight of all lambs born to date was 5.9kg. This ranged from a top of 9.3kg for a single Suffolk lamb born to a Mule ewe and a low of 2.6kg for a twin Charollais lamb born to a Texel-cross-Mule ewe.

A high percentage of weight records for twin lambs are in the region of 5.4kg to 6.4kg, with large twins and singles pushing up to 7kg, while triplet lambs are weighing around the 4.8kg to 5kg mark.

Analysis will be carried out on lamb birth weight by breed and ewe type at a later stage.

Lambing aftercare

Ewes and their lambs are typically spending 24 hours in an individual lambing pen, with some spending another 12 hours in group penning before being turned outdoors. Conditions have been excellent so far, with no real issues to report.

Ewes are being offered about 0.3kg concentrates daily as a nutritional boost to aid stock management and reduce the risk of grass tetany. Ewes also have access to magnesium lick buckets.

Ewes and lambs are being turned outdoors in small numbers of about 12 to 15 ewes and their lambs to sheltered paddocks and after a few days are being batched into larger groups.

The first group of about 60 to 70 ewes and their lambs are soon ready to be transferred to the outfarm block.

Yearling hoggets

The first of the yearling hoggets are on the point of lambing. These sheep will likely spend 24 to 36 hours in an individual pen or group penning to allow extra time for monitoring before turning outdoors.

They will be grazed as a separate batch, along with any problem mature ewes (for example, ewes with milk yield issues, recovering from sickness, etc) and will be supplemented with about 0.5kg concentrates for the first five weeks of lactation, while lambs in this batch will be creep fed.