The current weather is particularly hard on outwintered ewes and as such, a greater focus should be placed on ensuring that late pregnancy diets satisfy nutritional demands. The same can be said of maintenance diets for later lambing ewes.

Ewes losing excessive condition in the final weeks of pregnancy is linked to higher lamb mortality, lower weaning weights and increased labour with lambs born at lower weights. The volume and quality of colostrum produced will also be negatively hit if ewes lamb below optimum body condition.

Monitoring ewes regularly and identifying those requiring preferential treatment will help to prevent such problems developing. This is also where records have a role to play, with repeat offenders identified for culling. The value of performance recording and using the technology available to identify issues is touched upon on a number of occasions in this year’s lambing focus.

Ewes losing excessive condition in the final weeks of pregnancy is linked to higher lamb mortality, lower weaning weights and increased labour

This week there is an important article detailing the latest advice on treating ewes for worms. The message is clear – healthy mature ewes should not receive worm treatment and where a doubt exists, faecal egg counts should be used to identify the need for treatment. Faecal egg count reduction tests are used to assess the efficacy of the anthelmintic class used.

The feasibility of performance recording has improved with advancements in electronic reading equipment and sheep handling facilities. Sheep Ireland has launched a new, free app for producers to use, with more information discussed here.

Advance preparations are crucial for a successful lambing. The experience of two farms operating at a high standard and working through a very busy period are shared this week.

We share Stuart and Eddie Hammond’s transformation to an outdoor lambing flock of 1,700 ewes and 600 ewe lambs, which they describe as requiring a low labour input.

Eoin McCambridge details how attention to detail and advance preparations are key to dealing with a high prolificacy flock.