The farm of Bernard Fox in Ballivor, Co. Meath, hosted the Irish Country Meats (ICM) on-farm lamb production event on Thursday evening, August 6.

Large crowds of farmers attended the practical demonstration and information event, which focused on all aspects of Irish lamb production relevant to sheep farmers running both large and smaller-scale operations.

ICM managing director Daniel Lyons welcomed all those in attendance to the event and agri-sustainability manager Stephen Connolly explained that ICM is hosting the event to support family-farm suppliers and showcase what is working well on farms to ensure an efficient, profitable lamb production systems.

Bernard's farming system is unusual in that it entails land in both counties Meath and Roscommon. He is farming approximately 200ac in Co. Meath and 180ac in Co. Roscommon.

The system on the farm entails a flock of approximately 640 mid-season lambing ewes with 55 spring calving suckler cows.

The sheep enterprise was the main focus of the event on the farm.

The sheep breed types on the farm are primarily Suffolk and Suffolk-Belclare cross.

Replacement ewes are produced on farm and approximately 180 ewe lambs are retained annually for breeding.

The pedigree rams on the farm are Belclare and New Zealand Suffolk.

In 2025, the flock had a scan rate of 2.1% with a weaning rate of 1.7%. The average carcass weight of the lambs produced was 19.8kg.

40% of the 2025 season lambs graded a 'U' and 60% graded an 'R'. 87% of the lambs produced were fat score '3' and 13% were fat score 'R'.

The ICM lamb procurement team gave a presentation on drafting lambs for slaughter and advised farmers to select lambs based on finish rather than live weight alone.

ICM's Conan Fitzpatrick advised farmers to handle lambs over the loin which is behind the last rib and said that a finished lamb's backbone should be smooth and well covered but still detectable.

He advised farmers to draft and check lambs regularly and said that ewe lambs generally finish earlier than ram lambs.

Next up, Teagasc's Edward Egan presented guideline budgets for finishing both lowland and hill store lambs and stressed that the figures used are simply guideline figures.

He encouraged farmers finishing store lambs this winter to do up budgets with costings relevant to their own system.

Aine Gaffney from Teagasc outlined some of the key grant supports that are available to sheep farmers and Fiona Doolin discussed options available to farmers under the Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP) initiatives.

Teagasc's Ciaran Lynch gave an in-depth presentation of drafting cull ewes ahead of the upcoming breeding season and getting the breeding ewe flock into correct condition ahead of mating.

He also stressed the importance of checking over rams ahead of going out to breed with ewes.

Veterinary practitioner Liam Carroll from Blackwater Vets discussed flock health and also gave an update on the bluetongue situation.

There were some interesting discussion points on lameness control and foot bathing highlighted also.

The event drew to a close with a market update from Bord Bia's Seamus McMenamin before a raffle took place with several impressive prizes up for grabs.

Attendees were also treated to complimentary lamb burgers sponsored by ICM.