There has been as much as a 20-25% drop in the amount of flocks lambing early this year, according to Kieran McGee of Farm Relief Services (FRS).
The Bovine Ultrasound Technician gave Agriland an update on what is happening on the ground and any changes he has noticed when comparing this year to last.
The first difference Kieran noted was the number of farmers opting against early lambing this year.
Kieran said: “The first thing would be is that there is a noticeable drop off in the number of farms early lambing.
“I’d say there will be 20-25% less early lambing flocks. Those that are lambing early, scanning percentages would also be back a small bit.
“On average, they would be scanning 1.7-1.8 lambs, which would be a bit less than previous years.”
The next big difference would be delaying ram turnout, Kieran said, with many commercial farms pushing back ram turnout by at least two weeks.
He said: “Typically, January would be the busiest month for scanning.
“Although it won’t be any less busy, it will be 10-14 days later before it gets real busy, as the delayed turnout of rams means those that scan usually in early to mid-January will be scanning two weeks later.
“While farmers that would usually scan in late-January into February are still going to be scanning then, so it will be busy period – but it will all get done.
“As a result of this, there will be a lot more later-lambing ewes this coming year and a lot less early lambs.
“It might even leave lambs a bit scarce in the early part of the year,” he said.
“Farmers, with the price of meal, have just opted to delay putting out the ram, in the hope of making the most of grazed grass in the spring to try and keep costs down.
“Farmers are just going to try and make better use of their grass because at the price of meal it just doesn’t make sense.
“The only way they can do that is hold back their lambing date and hope that a good spring comes with plentiful amounts of grass.
“I’d be expecting good litter sizes come scanning for those mid-season flocks with a lot of late-March-born lambs rather than early march born lambs which we would normally see in previous years.”