Although grass may be tight on farms that have been suffering badly from a lack of rain in recent weeks, those who have grass have been urged to take advantage of the cheap weight gain it offers.
At the Teagasc Better Farm Sheep Programme walk on the farm of Francis Gonley last week, Teagasc’s Frank Campion had a few words of advice for farmers.
“It’s about splitting up your lambs into different groups: Lighter and heavier,” he said.
“Lambs 38kg plus in weight can be separated out and started on meal [to] get them pushing on.”
However, lighter lambs, which should be farmers’ current focus he said, should benefit from the cheap weight gain that grass provides.
“We have to be realistic too, at this stage of the year and as we go further into the back end of the year your lambs are only going to be gaining a 1kg a week on a grass-only diet.
“But, in saying, throwing meal at those lighter lambs is not going to solve that problem and speed up that process of lambs gaining weight quickly.
“Try to put the cheap gain onto them with grass first,” Campion said.
“If you’re tight on grass, and this isn’t an option for you on your farm, you may have to look at the option of selling some lambs on as stores.
“So that grass that is on the farm is there for priority stock that will be on the farm for the rest of the year.”