Sheep management: ewe condition, drafting lambs and sheep census returns

Ewe condition

Conditions have not gotten any easier for outwintered sheep since the article featured in print a few weeks ago regarding winter management. It is important that ewe condition is monitored on an ongoing basis and that any ewes failing in condition are segregated.

If ewes are grazing extended grazing, such as temporary grazing on cattle farms, then the grass allocation will need to be increased to account for poor utilisation. To achieve an average intake of 1.3kg grass dry matter, ewes will need to be offered upwards of 1.7kg grass dry matter at 70% utilisation. This will increase to upwards of 2kg where utilisation is low, in the region of 50% to 60%, or if grass dry matter is low.

Under normal grazing conditions, a 100-ewe flock should have enough forage for 11 to 12 days grazing at an offering of 1.7kg DM per day.

This could be reduced to eight to nine days or even lower in current conditions, and this needs to be taken into account when planning grazing, or calculating how many ewes to stock in a given area.

In terms of silage, ewes will consume on average 1kg to 1.2kg silage DM per day in mid-pregnancy (5kg fresh weight @ 20% DM), or in other terms access to moderate-quality silage (67 to 70 DMD) will generally be sufficient to maintain body condition. Intake will be significantly higher with top-quality and chopped silage.

As a rule of thumb, 1t pit silage at 25% dry matter will feed 10 ewes for 25 days, or 100 ewes for two and a half days. A 650kg round bale of silage at 30% dry matter will feed 10 ewes for 20 days, or 100 ewes for two days.

Drafting lambs

The majority of factories will resume processing of lambs from Monday 29 December. Some are planning lower throughput for next week and have a significant percentage of their required throughput lined up for the first day or two.

Where you have lambs to draft, it is worth making contact early, with a day’s less processing on 1 January. Demand for ewes is variable between plants and, as such, it is worth clarifying price, weight limits, etc, before moving ewes.

Sheep census

The date of the 2025 annual sheep and goat census is 31 December 2025. Note the facility to complete the census online will not go live until 31 December 2025 – ie the census cannot be completed in advance of the census date.

When the portal goes live, the census is straightforward to complete on MyAgfood.ie or agfood.ie, or on the Department’s Animal Identification and Movement app.

If accessing through agfood.ie, it will transfer you from the AIM tab and sheep keeper option across to the Department’s new AIM services portal whereby you can select sheep and census. This is the route of accessing through MyAgfood.ie.

Happy Christmas: I would like to take this opportunity to wish all readers and their families a happy and safe Christmas and all the best for 2026. The weather in recent months has been hard on man and beast, but hopefully you can get a chance to have some down time and recharge the batteries over Christmas.