The weather conditions this autumn have proven favourable from a performance perspective for the store lamb operation on the ABP Demo Farm.
ABP Food Group’s Advantage Beef Programme farm liaison officer, Gavin Healy, explained that 720 store lambs were purchased by the farm in mid-August at an average weight of 33kg.
Healy said: “The milder than usual fall of the year has allowed the lambs to thrive well over the past few months. Over the first 70 days on farm, the lambs achieved a daily live-weight gain of 0.08kg/head/day on a grass-only diet.
“This can be expected to drop over the remainder of December as both grass quality and weather conditions turn less favourable. The group had an average weight of 39kg at their last weighing in late October.”
Store lamb health
Healy described the health plan applied to the store lambs on the farm as “simple but effective”.
Once the lambs have settled after arrival to the farm they receive:
- Pasteurellosis vaccine;
- Pneumonia vaccine;
- Clostridial disease vaccine (booster shot four weeks later);
- Fluke and worm dosed where necessary;
- Cobalt-based mineral drench;
- Blowfly preventative pour-on.
Once the arrival protocols are complete, all lambs are gathered once a month for a fluke dose (based on dung samples) along with a mineral drench.
Healy said: “Lameness on the farm is taken on a prevention rather than cure approach. Lambs walk through a zinc sulphate footbath at each monthly handling to discourage disease spread between the group.”
Dung samples were taken from the group recently which identified a worm burden and a slight fluke problem. This warranted a fluke and worm dose.
Store lamb finishing
The lambs on the farm will be progressing into their finishing period in the coming weeks.
Healy said: “The plan is to build the lambs up to 1kg of concentrates/head/day on an outdoor system where they will have constant access to grass until supplies run out and silage thereafter.
“The target liveweight for processing is 50kg in order to achieve a 22-23kg carcass. As soon as the lambs meet this weight goal and present a satisfactory fat cover, they will be drafted for processing at ICM’s Camolin site.
“A full health and performance breakdown will be put together shortly after all lambs have been finished.”
Five-star lambs
Amongst the store lambs on the ABP Demo Farm is a group of 150 lambs from the ICM Sustainability trial.
This trial group is made up by a mixture of five-star sired lambs and conventionally sired lambs all from one birth farm.
The aim of the project is to demonstrate the benefits of using five-star rams on Irish family farms across a range of production systems.
The performance of these lambs over the upcoming finishing period will be recorded and made available on Agriland.