The Irish Grassland Association (IGA) is set to host a free to attend on-farm sheep event on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
The event will take place on the award-winning sheep and cattle farm run by mother and son team Margaret and Jack Stevenson.
The farm is located in south-east Donegal, midway between Castlefinn and Killygordon. The Eircode for the event is (F93 KF77.
In 2023, the Stevensons won the suckler to weanling category in the National Livestock Show Sustainable Farmer Awards.
The Stevensons sheep enterprise includes a mid-season flock lambing just over 500 mature ewes and 60 ewe lambs.
The mature ewes consistently scan over two lambs/ewe with the most recent scan 2.04 lambs/ewe joined.
Because of the high scan rate, up to 17% of the ewes bear triplets and after cross fostering, about 50 triplets are artificially reared on the farm.
There is a mix of sheep breeds on the farm including:
- Suffolk X Texel;
- Charolais;
- Roubex;
- Dutch Spotted.
Mature ewes and ewe lambs are all mated to lamb at the same time and breeding female replacements are kept from within the flock.
The cattle enterprise comprises a herd of 29 spring-calving suckler cows with all progeny sold as weanlings.
The suckler herd comprises a lot of first-cross dairy-beef cows with plenty of milk producing very impressive growth rates up to weaning.
Bulls are gaining 1.47 kg/day on the farm and heifers are gaining 1.35 kgs/day.
Similar to the sheep enterprise, faecal sampling is used to determine whether cattle require anthelmintic dosing, cows are condition scored and a very good vaccination programme is in place for the Suckler herd.
Thanks to the great foresight of Margaret’s late husband Nicholas, the sheep handling facilities are first-class with sheep housed in a slatted house with plastic sheep slats, a roofed handling unit with washdown facilities and permanent individual pens for ewes after lambing.
Similarly, the cattle handling facilities are very good.
Lambs are marketed through a producer group, with the vast majority achieving U3 grades. Due to very careful selection of lambs for sale, carcass weights are remarkably uniform on the farm which is set to host the IGA event.
The average carcass weight for lambs sold in 2023 was 21.25 kgs with no meal fed prior to weaning, lambs are not castrated and only ram lambs fed meals after weaning.
Faecal sampling is used to determine if lambs require anthelmintic drench, mature ewes never receive a dose for worms, but receive a Fluke dose.
The foundation for achieving such high-output of lamb is excellent management by Margaret and Jack concentrating on good animal nutrition based on excellent grassland management, they regularly make silage with a DMD of 75% from cutting in the third week of May.
Attention is paid to soil health and fertility with regular whole farm soil analysis, use of Protected Urea and slurries are land-spread using Low Emission system.
Good grassland management is a key driver of the high output achieved on the Stevenson farm with paddock grazing central to this. Mixed grazing is practiced when possible.
The IGA farm walk is an evening event with light refreshments available from 6:00pm and the event starting at 6.30p.m and finishing at 8.30 pm.
All farmers are welcome to come along to the event which promises something for all sheep farmers and indeed, suckler farmers.