Sheep Management: grass supplies, liver fluke and selecting replacements

Grass supplies: Conditions for lambing ewes are as close to ideal as possible and presenting excellent opportunities to get ewes and lambs turned outdoors quickly, or for flocks to lamb outdoors. Grass supplies are not flush with a sharp dip in night-time temperatures and relatively low daytime temperatures reducing soil temperatures.

Most farmers however will happily accept this position compared to last year’s challenging underfoot conditions with grass utilisation excellent and sheep much easier to keep content. Where grass reserves are being depleted quickly then taking steps to conserve supplies and introducing concentrate supplementation will help. Ewes which have access to sufficient grass supplies (4cm plus) will not typically require supplementation to meet nutritional demands. Aged/two-tooth hogget ewes or ewes in poor body condition will benefit from a nutritional boost that offering 0.3kg to 0.6kg concentrates provides. Where grass supplies are scarce at a sward height of less than 3.5cm (or utilisation is poor) the concentrate supplementation will be required to satisfy nutritional demands and avoid any check in performance/milk yield hit. Twin-suckling ewes in good body condition will perform satisfactorily receiving 0.7kg to 1kg concentrates with this rate rising to 1kg to 1.2kg for ewes lacking flesh.

The corresponding supplementation rates for single suckling ewes are 0.3kg to 0.5kg concentrates for ewes in good condition, rising to 0.5kg to 0.7kg for ewes in poor body condition. In cases where grass reserves are depleted then twin-suckling ewes will require 1kg to 1.2kg where they can afford to utilise some body reserves and 1.4kg to 1.5kg for ewes lacking condition. Single suckling ewes in good condition will require 0.5kg to 0.8kg concentrates with this ranging from 0.8kg to 1kg for ewes lacking condition. As protein intake from grass is compromised it is important to feed a high protein feed and also to provide sheep with access to forage.

Liver fluke: Outwintered ewes or ewes housed short term for lambing which have been run on farms with a history of liver fluke may require treatment post-lambing to ensure ewes have a clear bill of health. The decision to treat animals should be based on previous experience of the threat profile on the farm and making use of any additional sources of information such as discussions with your vet, faecal egg counts, the health of livers in slaughtered sheep and general reports as to the incidence in the area. The threat at this stage of the year is mainly from chronic liver fluke which opens up the opportunity to use a product which primarily targets mature fluke parasites and reduces the use of other commonly used flukicides. Care should be taken to still select a product that provides sufficient protection. Characteristic symptoms of chronic liver fluke include ewes losing significant condition, a bottle jaw appearance and a loose fleece.

Selecting replacements: For flocks retaining homebred replacements, lambing is the perfect time to identify potential replacements from ewes exhibiting good maternal instincts and milk yield. Lambs should also ideally be sired by rams with good maternal traits and not excessive in terms of terminal traits. Spray or raddle marking will provide a short-term identification but risks information being lost if not followed up in sufficient time. Tagging or ear notching is a longer-term solution.