This year, the Irish Grassland Association (IGA) sheep event will be slightly unique as the entire event will take place on-farm.
Eddie and Aidan Connell will host this year’s event at their farm in Coolygagen, Clonbullogue, Co. Offaly.
The father and son duo have a mixed farming enterprise over 90ha (65ha owned land and 25ha rented).
Together they farm 15ha of tillage for feed crop; a 400-ewe mid-season lambing flock and a bull beef operation, with approximately 200 cattle.
The flock
The Connells’ ewe flock consists mainly of Borris ewes. They do not keep any replacement ewe lambs, with replacements purchased as hogget ewes.
Texel rams are used across all ewes; the pair pay close attention to the genetic potential of the sire at purchase.
On average, they have a scanning rate of 1.8-1.9 lambs/ewe, however their December scan rate was down to 1.65. Although this is still above the national average, the Connells were disappointed, saying “it is below the target for our farm”.
They explained that the farm suffered from drought in summer 2022 which limited the build up of grass for flushing ewes pre-mating.
Grazing management is a priority for the Connells. Their grassland is divided into permanent paddocks with mains electric fence and water available in all paddocks.
Mixed farming
The Connells are strong advocates for mixed grazing; ideally they have cattle and sheep graze together.
“This contributes to achieving better grass utilisation and animal performance compared to grazing animals separately,” Eddie said.
Major objectives for the family are lamb rearing and finishing from a mainly grass-based diet, and where possible, all of lambs are reared on ewes.
The farm’s aim is to have the lambs sold by September. They then purchase weanlings for the bull beef enterprise.
Labour efficiency is a goal shared by Eddie and Aidan. A new sheep shed in 2018 combined with a sheep handling unit has not only made life much easier for the Connell family, but also helped time efficiency.
Martin Ryan from Mullinahone Co-op said: “We at Mullinahone Co-op are delighted to support the IGA since the outset.
“In particular their [IGA] sheep conference as it allows sheep farmers to look at efficient and sustainable production systems that will help overcome the challenges which will inevitably face sheep farmers over the next decade.”
The Mullinahone co-op-sponsored event is taking place at 6:00p.m on Thursday, May 18, at the farm at Coolygagen, Clonbullogue, Co. Offaly.