Over 150 farmers and industry personnel attended last Thursday’s Irish Grassland Association (IGA) farm walk on the farm of John Bell, Castletown Geoghegan, Co Westmeath.

An overview of the system was featured on the sheep pages in recent weeks but this did not include the financial performance presented at last week’s event sponsored by MSD Animal Health and Mullinahone Co-op.

The 2016 eProfit monitor analysis carried out by John and his Teagasc business and technology adviser David Webster showed that in 2016 the farm achieved a gross margin of €1,105/ha, which positions the farm in the top few per cent in the country. Breaking it down on a per-ewe basis, each of the 480 ewes and 130 ewe lamb replacements delivered an average gross margin of €87 per head.

All components of the system work favourably together, which is vital in the smooth running of an enterprise with €2,088/ha gross output value. We selected five main aspects that provide the basis for the farm’s high performance.

1 Gross output: the key drivers of farm output – stocking rate and prolificacy are both excellent. Stocking rate on the 46ha farm is about 13 ewes/ewe lambs per hectare, while Belclare-cross Suffolk and Texel mature ewes scanned 2.1 lambs per ewe to the ram with a 98% pregnancy rate. Ewe lambs achieved a pregnancy rate of 82% after just three weeks and a scanned litter size of 1.3 lambs. Mortality is running at less than 10% with mature ewes rearing 1.88 lambs and yearling hoggets rearing 1.25 lambs. There are also 123 orphan lambs being artificially reared and John explains that this is one aspect of a high prolificacy system that soaks up additional time around lambing. This leads to the next key aspect, labour.

2 Labour: John explained at the farm walk that the system could not work without additional labour at key times and particularly during lambing. Two men are hired to do shifts at peak lambing, including local farmer Darrell Meehan who also works on and off to complete major tasks during the year. The farm is set up to reduce labour input with an automatic feeder used to rear orphan lambs while a silage feeder cuts down on the time spent feeding ewes in winter.

John is well set up to erect and dismantle temporary fences. Most temporary fences are about 100m to 120m in length and can be set up in about 20 minutes and dismantled in 10 minutes using a three-reel system which has been set up to work off the quad.

3 Grassland management: grassland management is the driver of maintaining variable costs, which were recorded at €983/ha in 2016, at a low level. This is where most change has taken place on the farm.

In the past, ewes and lambs were set-stocked with lambs creep fed and very high levels of concentrates being used. There are now 25 permanent divisions and with the use of temporary fencing the farm is set up to give over 50 grazing divisions. This allows quality to be managed easier with silage harvested from surplus grass during peak growth to give high-quality feed for late pregnancy feeding.

First-cut silage was analysed at 78DMD in 2016 with second cut at 72DMD. Mature ewes are housed in December to give a 100- to 120-day rest period. Soil fertility is also good with a pH of 6.2, P index of three or four on 75% of the farm and K index of three or four on over 60% of the farm. Areas falling below target receive farmyard manure or compound fertilisers to try to correct deficits.

4 Strategic use of meal: while moving away from creep feeding has reduced costs, John is not against meal and sees targeted use as a key part of his system. Meal supplementation is introduced to forward ram lambs (over 38kg) in mid- to late August to boost performance and introduced as required thereafter to remaining lambs for slaughter.

Maintaining a good drafting pattern where over 50% of lambs are drafted by mid-August and 70% to 80% of lambs for selling are moved before the end of September is critical to building autumn grass supplies and prioritising ewes during breeding.

A balance is achieved between keeping lambs moving and optimising carcase weight with lambs averaging 20.8kg carcase weight in 2016 and 20.6kg in 2015. Figure 1 details the lamb sales pattern for the last two years.

5 Preventing health issues: there is a strong focus on preventing health issues becoming established. A closed flock policy is practised with only rams purchased. Lambing difficulty is taken account of before breeding with each ewe selected to breed with either the Belclare, Charollais, Suffolk or Texel rams on her suitability and potential to lamb. Yearling hoggets are run with a Charollais ram for ease of lambing and Belclare sires with good maternal characteristics are selected.

Progeny born from ewes selected to breed the next season’s crop of replacements are marked at birth. Lambs born to ewes experiencing problems are not retained and a strict culling policy is in place.

Routine tasks like dosing, footbathing, dipping, etc, are all carried out as necessary with ewes in a programme for clostridial disease vaccination.

There is also a focus throughout the year on keeping ewes in good body condition and general good all-round health, which helps to boost performance and also keep health issues at bay.

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Special focus: sheep handling