Fine-tuning a sheep and suckler enterprise

There has been a slight move away in recent years from mixed suckler and sheep enterprises. Some farmers reported a higher workload in running the sheep enterprise as a reason for the switch. Others reported challenges in operating a rotational grazing system in the absence of heavy investment in sheep fencing.

Wicklow sheep farmer and host of this year’s IGA sheep farm walk John Pringle is bucking this latter trend. Along with his wife Linda, daughter Lucy (10) and twin sons Scott and William (5), John farms a 50-cow suckler-to-beef enterprise alongside a 255-ewe mid-season lambing flock and 70-head yearling hogget lambing flock.

The 56ha farm is laid out in one block, located a short distance from the village of Aughrim, Co Wicklow. Land type can be described as relatively dry, but as it extends to 650ft above sea level at the highest point it is vulnerable to late growth stemming from harsh east winds in spring and also faces a risk of burning up in a hot, dry summer.

Impressive advancements

John has made huge improvements to the farming system in recent years. The suckler cow herd has been increased from a 25-cow suckler-to-weanling system to a 50-cow suckler-to-beef enterprise, finishing bulls in the spring-calving herd under 16 months of age and heifers off grass at 18 to 20 months of age.

The increase in the suckler herd and change to bringing progeny through to beef, while holding the sheep flock at the same level, has significantly increased the stocking rate and, in turn, brought about a sharp rise in farm output.

The stocking rate on the cattle side is 2.39LU/ha, producing an impressive 802kg output/ha. The sheep stocking rate has also increased and now stands at about 10 ewes/ha, with an equally impressive output value of 310kg liveweight/ha.

Grassland management

The increase in stocking rate has been feasible through improved grassland management, where significant gains have been made.

The farm is laid out in large fields, many of which are 10 to 12 acres. In the past, this limited the potential of operating a rotational grazing system.

In recent years, large fields have been subdivided in a permanent and semi-permanent or temporary manner, allowing a rotational and mixed grazing system to be operated.

Dividing fields has been done with the use of four strands of electrified polywire and PVC posts. John says this works particularly well, with animals quickly getting accustomed to the electric fence.

Ewes are split into two groups of about 120 to 125 ewes and their lambs, with each group run with a batch of 25 spring-calving suckler cows and their calves.

Yearling hoggets and their lambs are run with heifers which are finished at about 20 to 22 months of age. Each group has access to about seven paddocks and, while John says a slow spring may still leave grass tight, especially when 50 acres are closed for first-cut silage, grass quality is easier to manage.

Working closely with his Teagasc adviser Bob Sherriff, John has put in place many other practices to increase grassland performance.

A targeted lime programme has lifted soil pH levels to 6.0 to 6.2. The farm is in an ongoing battle with low soil P levels, with a greater focus on spreading compound fertilisers and targeting slurry from the bull-beef enterprise and dung to fields with the greatest demand.

This is already delivering benefits, with Bob explaining that soil P levels are a particular problem in the area, added to by the soil profile.

The farm has also started measuring grass growth, with John and Bob both explaining that identifying the swards that are not performing, on the back of accurate grass growth records on Teagasc’s Pasturebase facility, will allow the “lower-hanging fruit” to be rectified first in a reseeding programme.

Fine-tuning the system

While several impressive steps have been put in place, John says the farm still has room to improve, with a number of key areas highlighted in a farm plan for the immediate years ahead.

He is hoping to experiment with the reseeding programme, along with members of his local discussion group, by growing some alternative forage crops, such as plantain and chicory in 2016.

This will hopefully address a lag phase in lamb drafting in July and August and take some pressure off building a bank of grass for autumn and winter grazing.

A new breeding policy, incorporating Belclare and New Zealand and Irish Suffolk genetics into the foundation ewe flock (mixture of Texel, Suffolk, Border and Blue Leicester) is contributing, along with better grassland management and addressing mineral issues, to an increase in flock output.

This year’s mature ewe flock scanned 1.91 lambs per ewe to the ram and a litter size of 1.98 for those in lamb. This has increased from 1.7 and 1.76 lambs per ewe put to the ram in 2014 and 2015.

John wants to maintain the litter size at this level, avoiding increasing to a higher level that could greatly increase labour around lambing and put excess pressure on the one labour unit at lambing.

No ewes go to grass suckling triplet lambs and lambs that have no opportunity for cross-fostering are reared artificially on a simple bucket feeder.

Breeding programme

John feels that incorporating New Zealand genetics is also benefiting lambs, which are born with more vigour and are up faster to suckle.

Like in other areas of the farm, he wants to be able to base decisions on accurate records rather than estimates in performance.

All lambs have been electronically tagged this spring and the wheels have been set in motion to performance-record across the entire flock using a TGM software package.

“I can quickly see what cows are not performing by looking at the calving report or quality of the calf, but with over 300 ewes lambing, it’s a lot harder to identify the lower-performing sheep,” says John.

“I have increased to the maximum number of stock I can carry and hopefully over the next few years I can improve performance and output by culling the lower-performing genetics and replacing with ewes that best suit this system.”

Performance in the ewe lamb flock is also impressive, with a litter size of 1.04 lambs after a three-and-a-half-week breeding season.

Replacement ewe lambs are selected from the first draft of lambs from those born as multiple births.

The aim is that performance-recording will also add the lamb’s own performance to selection decisions.

Changes are also afoot in the suckler herd, with the breeding policy changing from a Simmental-cross-Limousin breeding programme to incorporating more Simmental genetics, with a focus on milk yield.

Weather woes

Like most other sheep enterprises, the farm is currently struggling with poor grass growth and unfavourable ground conditions.

The current focus is on trying to meet nutritional demands of lactating ewes by offering access to fresh grass, but slowing down the rotation by offering supplementation of 0.5kg concentrates and fodder beet.

If temperatures improve in the days ahead, a severe grass shortage will be averted.

Some paddocks have not been grazed to date and the hope is to get a higher cover to carry ewes and lambs for longer and satisfy a rising intake requirement when they do enter these fields.

This will be dependent on weather in the coming days and temperatures rising to allow swards to respond to 20 units nitrogen applied in CAN and compound form.

Exciting conference lineup

The IGA sheep conference takes place Tuesday 26 April with a conference in Lawless’s Hotel, Aughrim, Co Wicklow, and the farm walk in the afternoon. The event is jointly sponsored by Mullinahone Co-op and ICBF’s Gene Ireland programme, who are also sponsoring the beef event the next day in the Radisson Blu hotel in Limerick. Topics confirmed are:

PastureBase, grass utilisation and the latest research: This session will give an explanation of the new Pasturebase facility and give a flavour of the Teagasc grassland programme, including a look into what grasses and clover varieties are performing for sheep farmers.

Mixed species grazing trials in UCD: The results stemming from year one of the mixed-species grazing trials in Lyons Research Farm look very positive. Tommy Boland will give an overview of performance to date and plans for the trial in year two and beyond.

Running 2,400 ewes – what works best for me: Welsh sheep farmer and Nuffield Scholar Neil Perkins explains grassland management on his farm, the swards that are working best for him and the benefits possible from using EID tagging and performance recording.

Costs for the event are €30 for members and €60 for non-members, with deals for discussion group members. Booking on www.irishgrassland.com or 087-962 6483.