Mark Davidson – Dungannon, Co Tyrone
The lambing season kicked off a week earlier than expected on Mark’s farm, with the first ewe lambing down on Monday 7 February.
After a quiet couple of days, the pace started to pick up over the past weekend.
As of Monday, nine ewes have lambed down, all with a live lamb at foot.
To suit housing space and spread the workload, Mark lambs his sheep in three batches. There are two groups of ewes and one group of ewe lambs.
All ewes in the early-lambing group were scanned on 9 December with a lamb crop of 186%
The first group to lamb consists of 95 Texel and Suffolk cross ewes, which are mostly second, third and fourth crop animals.
These animals went to Texel, Suffolk and Belclare rams on 18 September and were mated over three weeks.
All ewes in the early-lambing group were scanned on 9 December with a lamb crop of 186%. This breaks down to 60 doubles, 11 triplets and 24 singles.
Mark expects that the bulk of ewes in this group will have lambed by the early stages of next week.
Post-lambing
management
The ewes remain in group pens until they lamb, at which point Mark moves animals to individual mothering pens in an adjacent shed.
Ewes will stay in these pens for two days and are then moved to a loose pen in a hay shed until the weather allows turnout to grass.
Grazing paddocks have been closed off since mid-autumn
As of Monday, lambing facilities are not under any major pressure, so ewes and lambs can stay housed in the loose shed until the weather settles again.
Post-lambing, ewes are getting silage and concentrate to drive milk production. However, once ewes go back to grass, meal will be removed from the diet.
Grazing paddocks have been closed off since mid-autumn in order to build covers for post-lambing turnout.
Mid-season lambing
The second lambing group consists of 156 ewes which were all mated to Suffolk, Texel, Belclare and Meatlinc rams from mid-October and are due to lamb in mid-March.
Scanning results for this group were 48 singles, 93 sets of twins, 14 sets of triplets and one set of quads
These ewes are still at grass, grazing on silage ground and getting buffer-fed with some supplementary silage, but no meal as yet.
Mark would like to get this group housed, but the wet conditions are making it hard to get a window for bringing ewes inside while they are dry.
Scanning results for this group were 48 singles, 93 sets of twins, 14 sets of triplets and one set of quads, or 179% overall. Once housed, meal feeding will commence.
Ewe lambs
The final lambing group has 59 ewe lambs, all of which were housed on straw bedding on Saturday 12 February.
These animals were shorn last September and with the lighter fleeces, they were housed while dry.
Ewe lambs are getting silage only since housing.
Meal will be introduced in the coming days, starting on low levels and building up gradually as lambing date approaches.
Scanning was carried out last week and results show an overall lamb crop of 161%. This breaks down to 23 singles and 72 sets of twins.
Paraic McNeill – Annaclone, Co Down
Paraic also runs a lowland sheep flock and again, his ewes are lambed in three groups, as housing space is limited, and
Lambing started on Wednesday 9 February for the first group of mature ewes.
There are 115 animals in this batch and when scanned, they averaged 164% with 69 sets of twins, five sets of triplets and 41 singles.
As of Monday, 25 ewes had lambed and all animals have a live lamb at foot.
There have been no major issues to report, other than two ewes that were scanned with twins actually giving birth to singles.
Post-lambing
Ewes are allowed to lamb on a straw-bedded group pen, before being moved to an individual mothering pen.
Lambs are tagged – they have their birth weight, dam and details recorded on a farm software package Paraic uses.
Ewes with a single lamb will normally get 12 hours in mothering pens, then get moved on to a larger loose pen for another four to five days to free up space.
When ewes are in individual pens, they are offered high dry matter silage
Ewes with twins will get 24 hours in a mothering pen before moving to a loose pen.
When ewes are in individual pens, they are offered high dry matter silage, as this helps to keep bedding clean and stretch straw reserves.
Once ewes move to the loose pens, they are offered silage along with concentrate.
Turnout
Ideally, Paraic would like to get some ewes out to grass, but rain has been heavy and frequent, so animals remain indoors.
Weather is delaying turnout, so ewes and lambs will stay in group pens until conditions improve.
The plan is to start turning ewes with lambs that are at least one week old out to grass on an out-farm by this weekend.
The out-farm has some shelter and housing available if required. Grass covers are excellent on the out-farm, so ewes will not get supplementary concentrate unless grazing starts to run tight.
Later batches
The second lambing group consists of 56 hoggets and mature ewes from the first group that repeated, while the final lambing group is made up of 31 ewe lambs.
The second group had 56 hoggets and 31 ewe lambs. The hoggets averaged 157%, with 33 sets of twins, one set of triplets and 22 singles. The ewe lambs at 104% had five sets of twins and 26 singles.
Housing
As mature ewes lamb move to the loose housing or the out-farm, Paraic will draft the 56 hoggets and ewe lambs for housing on a weekly basis.
The animals coming close to lambing will get priority. Feeding rates will then change accordingly each week as animals get closer to lambing.
Meal is introduced four weeks ahead of lambing, then built up to 0.2kg/day for singles, 0.5kg for twins and 1kg for triplets.
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Mark Davidson – Dungannon, Co Tyrone
The lambing season kicked off a week earlier than expected on Mark’s farm, with the first ewe lambing down on Monday 7 February.
After a quiet couple of days, the pace started to pick up over the past weekend.
As of Monday, nine ewes have lambed down, all with a live lamb at foot.
To suit housing space and spread the workload, Mark lambs his sheep in three batches. There are two groups of ewes and one group of ewe lambs.
All ewes in the early-lambing group were scanned on 9 December with a lamb crop of 186%
The first group to lamb consists of 95 Texel and Suffolk cross ewes, which are mostly second, third and fourth crop animals.
These animals went to Texel, Suffolk and Belclare rams on 18 September and were mated over three weeks.
All ewes in the early-lambing group were scanned on 9 December with a lamb crop of 186%. This breaks down to 60 doubles, 11 triplets and 24 singles.
Mark expects that the bulk of ewes in this group will have lambed by the early stages of next week.
Post-lambing
management
The ewes remain in group pens until they lamb, at which point Mark moves animals to individual mothering pens in an adjacent shed.
Ewes will stay in these pens for two days and are then moved to a loose pen in a hay shed until the weather allows turnout to grass.
Grazing paddocks have been closed off since mid-autumn
As of Monday, lambing facilities are not under any major pressure, so ewes and lambs can stay housed in the loose shed until the weather settles again.
Post-lambing, ewes are getting silage and concentrate to drive milk production. However, once ewes go back to grass, meal will be removed from the diet.
Grazing paddocks have been closed off since mid-autumn in order to build covers for post-lambing turnout.
Mid-season lambing
The second lambing group consists of 156 ewes which were all mated to Suffolk, Texel, Belclare and Meatlinc rams from mid-October and are due to lamb in mid-March.
Scanning results for this group were 48 singles, 93 sets of twins, 14 sets of triplets and one set of quads
These ewes are still at grass, grazing on silage ground and getting buffer-fed with some supplementary silage, but no meal as yet.
Mark would like to get this group housed, but the wet conditions are making it hard to get a window for bringing ewes inside while they are dry.
Scanning results for this group were 48 singles, 93 sets of twins, 14 sets of triplets and one set of quads, or 179% overall. Once housed, meal feeding will commence.
Ewe lambs
The final lambing group has 59 ewe lambs, all of which were housed on straw bedding on Saturday 12 February.
These animals were shorn last September and with the lighter fleeces, they were housed while dry.
Ewe lambs are getting silage only since housing.
Meal will be introduced in the coming days, starting on low levels and building up gradually as lambing date approaches.
Scanning was carried out last week and results show an overall lamb crop of 161%. This breaks down to 23 singles and 72 sets of twins.
Paraic McNeill – Annaclone, Co Down
Paraic also runs a lowland sheep flock and again, his ewes are lambed in three groups, as housing space is limited, and
Lambing started on Wednesday 9 February for the first group of mature ewes.
There are 115 animals in this batch and when scanned, they averaged 164% with 69 sets of twins, five sets of triplets and 41 singles.
As of Monday, 25 ewes had lambed and all animals have a live lamb at foot.
There have been no major issues to report, other than two ewes that were scanned with twins actually giving birth to singles.
Post-lambing
Ewes are allowed to lamb on a straw-bedded group pen, before being moved to an individual mothering pen.
Lambs are tagged – they have their birth weight, dam and details recorded on a farm software package Paraic uses.
Ewes with a single lamb will normally get 12 hours in mothering pens, then get moved on to a larger loose pen for another four to five days to free up space.
When ewes are in individual pens, they are offered high dry matter silage
Ewes with twins will get 24 hours in a mothering pen before moving to a loose pen.
When ewes are in individual pens, they are offered high dry matter silage, as this helps to keep bedding clean and stretch straw reserves.
Once ewes move to the loose pens, they are offered silage along with concentrate.
Turnout
Ideally, Paraic would like to get some ewes out to grass, but rain has been heavy and frequent, so animals remain indoors.
Weather is delaying turnout, so ewes and lambs will stay in group pens until conditions improve.
The plan is to start turning ewes with lambs that are at least one week old out to grass on an out-farm by this weekend.
The out-farm has some shelter and housing available if required. Grass covers are excellent on the out-farm, so ewes will not get supplementary concentrate unless grazing starts to run tight.
Later batches
The second lambing group consists of 56 hoggets and mature ewes from the first group that repeated, while the final lambing group is made up of 31 ewe lambs.
The second group had 56 hoggets and 31 ewe lambs. The hoggets averaged 157%, with 33 sets of twins, one set of triplets and 22 singles. The ewe lambs at 104% had five sets of twins and 26 singles.
Housing
As mature ewes lamb move to the loose housing or the out-farm, Paraic will draft the 56 hoggets and ewe lambs for housing on a weekly basis.
The animals coming close to lambing will get priority. Feeding rates will then change accordingly each week as animals get closer to lambing.
Meal is introduced four weeks ahead of lambing, then built up to 0.2kg/day for singles, 0.5kg for twins and 1kg for triplets.
Read more
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UK sheepmeat production up 9% in January
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