Although the high fertiliser and fuel prices are scary to think about, all is not lost when it comes to managing grassland this spring.
Home-grown forage remains the cheapest form of feed available, and we need to keep this front of mind when making decisions to see the full value of the investment. Here are my top tips to maximising your investment.
If your lambs are struggling on low-quality forage or limited grazing options, you should turn to creep feeding your lambs. Read our top tips to consider when creep feeding.
Meet Dyfrig Bowen, and his partner Lyndsey, at Pengelli Farm in Cardigan. Their system comprises 40 head of Pedigree Aberdeen-Angus cows and 900 Aberfield-Cross ewes. They also buy in a further 1,500 store lambs and sell their finished lambs direct to slaughter. Around 180 ewes are lambed indoors early on and then the rest are lambed outside in April.
In order to increase performance in any flock, it is important to consider regular body condition scoring (BCS) in order to identify any drastic changes in ewe condition not noticeable through observation alone.
We are all aware of the importance of ewe colostrum as the first feed and antibodies has always been the ‘buzz’ word, however, successful colostrum feeding is a considerably bigger picture.
Hygiene is crucial during lambing to help reduce stock losses through infections such as; watery mouth, joint ill and scours, and mastitis and metritis in ewes.
The best electric fence is the one that is suited to your requirements. Our table outlines the 3 main types of electric fence structures as a starting point to help you identify which fence type best suits your needs.
For sheep, constant management of fluke is necessary because there is often no break in the grazing cycle. So, with no product persistent against fluke, a sheep treated one day can pick up infection the next if they are grazing infected pasture.
It’s never too early to be thinking about winter ewe feeding.
Managing your ewes effectively in the last eight weeks before lambing is one of the most important stages in the sheep calendar, says experienced sheep consultant Kate Phillips. If things go wrong at this stage the effects will be noticed in the following areas, lamb birth-weight could be low, lamb losses high, colostrum is poor in quality and supplies are below average poor and subsequent lamb growth below target. Thus ensuring the health of the ewe is vitally important.
