Shearing lambs: The introduction of the clean livestock policy (CLP) for sheep has brought stricter requirements about the way sheep are handled pre-slaughter.

There is a strong focus on fleece contamination, with vets particularly concerned as to the cleanliness of animals along cut lines.

Management practices such as fully shearing lambs, shearing belly wool or crutching the area around the tail head will all help keep sheep cleaner.

This is relevant to lambs being finished intensively indoors, or in high risk situations such as grazing forage crops or lands that are prone to poaching.

It should also be considered that if lambs get dirty subsequent to shearing and need to be shorn pre-slaughter, how much wool regrowth will be required to ensure lambs are cleaned satisfactorily.

Teagasc carried out a short-term trial in October and November 2018 to assess the rate of wool regrowth across various areas of the fleece.

Clippings were taken on a weekly basis across the loin, shoulder and belly region, with Scottish Blackface and lowland lambs (Texel, Suffolk and Charollais) included in the trial.

The results showed that for all breed types, four weeks regrowth was sufficient to allow lambs to be re-shorn if required pre-slaughter.

With regard to shearing enhancing performance of store lambs, a number of trials carried out on store lambs in Mellows Campus Athenry show no production benefits to shearing in terms of daily liveweight gain.

Grazing heavy covers: Many farms commencing breeding find themselves faced with grazing heavy covers.

Not restricting the area of grazing offered can have negative consequences on performance.

This is because ewes will graze all the green material first and then be forced to graze off the poorer quality white grass at the base of the sward for longer than desired.

The ideal approach is to split the available area into two-to-three day grazing blocks.

Ewes will be forced to graze lower quality material for a shorter period, before returning to better quality grass. Temporary electric fencing will work well in facilitating this.

The secret is to have a good current in the fence and additional strands of wire to ensure ewes cannot break at the outset.

At this time of year, ewes will require an intake in the region of 1.3kg DM/day. However, it is important to allocate 1.7kg to 1.8kg grass dry matter, as utilisation will only be in the region of 70% to 75%.

There is a higher labour requirement than with set stocking, but any gains achieved will deliver benefits.

Where splitting fields is not an option, consider removing ewes when better quality grass is consumed and returning for a short second grazing when ewes are in mid-pregnancy and can be made to work a little harder. This should not be allowed to affect closing plans.

This also applies to temporary grazing, with availability high at present.

Costs vary greatly this year. I have heard of farmers being offered grazing at no cost just to get fields cleaned off immediately, while typical costs for longer-term agreements range anywhere from 6c/day to 10c/day where the owner is doing the herding, to a top of €1/ewe/week where the landowner is looking after daily herding, fencing and grass quality is excellent.