Don’t put housing on the long finger

Better than anticipated grass growth during the months of September and October provided a life line for many flocks to improve ewe nutrition and address body condition. Reports from many flocks point to ewes performing positively throughout this period and in a good deal of cases this is giving rise to a perception of ewes being in adequate condition.

However Teagasc is finding through the experience of flocks in its BETTER farm programme, research demonstration flocks and feedback from advisers that in general there is no real difference in ewe condition from recent years.

More variation is also apparent and there is still a fair percentage of flocks possessing ewes falling below target body condition. This assessment was delivered by Damian Costello, Teagasc sheep specialist on Wednesday night’s Let’s Talk Sheep webinar.

Damian told farmers that the longer action is delayed in flocks with ewes below optimum condition the harder it will be to make any substantial improvements. He stressed the importance of physically handling ewes to assess body condition.

“You might be checking ewes daily and while it is not hard to pick out very thin ewes it is much harder to pick up more subtle differences in body condition in sheep with a fleece of wool. There is a danger in looking at a flock and saying on average they are in good condition as this can hide a lot of variation. The only way this can be assessed is actually handling ewes.”

Farm findings

Damian used the findings from the four flocks outlined in Table 1 to demonstrate this point. It is clear that there are issues on Farm D but on the face of it the three other flocks appear to be in a pretty good position with the average ewe body condition score recorded at 3.4 in three flocks and 3.6 in the other.

However when the actual range in scores is assessed the average condition score in flock A is stemming from a significant percentage of ewes above optimum body condition or veering on the side of fat balancing 17% of ewes falling below a condition score of three. This is despite the average condition running marginally ahead of 2023.

Damian highlighted that there is a narrow window of opportunity to address condition in such ewes in mid-pregnancy. “The best you can hope for in late pregnancy is for ewes to hold condition, even with preferential treatment so the aim at this stage is to first identify these ewes and then pull them aside for preferential treatment.”

Available options

The two options most likely available are to house ewes on top-quality silage (DMD 75% plus) or where forage quality is poor to offer concentrate supplementation or supplement outdoors depending on grass availability.

“We are not saying to start feeding all your ewes. In most cases the number of ewes lacking condition will be small, maybe 10 to 20 ewes in 100 ewes and these are manageable numbers to prioritise. We are also only saying 300g to 500g of a basic ration which will cost in the region of €5 to €8 per head during mid-pregnancy”.

The investment will more than pay for itself in ewes giving birth to adequately sized lambs and preventing issues with ewes lacking milk etc. Where weather conditions are inclement or grass dry matter and utilisation is poor then ewes will generally perform better indoors provided forage quality is satisfactory.

Root cause

A question that needs to be asked is why such ewes are below optimum body condition. Where ewes are a mixture of younger and older ewes that took longer to recover after rearing good-quality lambs then they can generally be cut some slack.

The exception to this is trends such as ewes being all first time lambers or two-tooth hoggets that reared lambs as yearling hoggets. If this is the case then you may need to assess if these sheep were given sufficient priority treatment or weaned in adequate time. These are questions that can positively influence management decisions next spring.

Similarly if the batch includes a high proportion of aged ewes then the question may need to be asked if age at culling is appropriate for the flock. While underlying health issues or sheep being bred from a particular breeding line that struggles to hold condition are other areas for investigation.

Silage quality

A dry ewe requires 0.8UFL to maintain condition in mid-pregnancy. Table 2 shows the energy feeding value of silage and hay of varying dry matter digestibility. Access to moderate-to-good-quality silage of 67DMD to 70DMD will be fine for ewes in good body condition during mid-pregnancy.

As long as protein levels are also reasonable (11% to 12%) then no supplementation apart from mineral/vitamins, if required, is necessary. Ewes fed higher quality silage will benefit from the higher nutrient intake and the fact that intake of top-quality silage is also boosted by more palatable feed.

The same can typically be said of top-quality hay as ewes have a higher intake capacity due to the higher level of dry matter but as we know there were big challenges faced in saving good-quality hay in 2024.

Dry matter of silage is also important. Ewes will need to consume about 1.1kg to 1.2kg silage dry matter, equivalent to 5kg silage freshweight at 20% dry matter or 3.5kg to 4kg freshweight at 25% to 30% dry matter.

Poor-quality low digestibility silage will depress intake.

This is particularly important in late pregnancy where the energy required increases by 0.4UFL per lamb carried.

Getting silage or hay analysed for feed quality is a small cost relative to the potential reward it offers.

Straw supplies and housing

Damian adds that a factor which may be tempting many farmers to delay housing in 2024 is the high-cost and relatively tight availability of straw on many farms. Where this is the case then a gradual approach on housing ewes can be implemented, prioritising what ewes to house first.

Damian recommends housing thin ewes, as these will typically get thinner in the absence of preferential treatment from now onwards, and older ewes which are more likely to have teeth issues. Post-scanning then triplet-bearing ewes are the obvious choice along with the first ewes due to lamb based on raddle colours.

Where ewes are being retained outdoors then there are two critical components – do not be tempted to re-graze closed areas to get a few weeks extra grazing and introduce supplementation to ewes once grass reserves are depleted.

In short