Like many dry farms in the south of the country, Tullamore Farm was hoping and praying for rain two weeks ago with grass growth slowing down.

Growth for the cover completed on 13 May rose to 71kg of dry matter per hectare per day (kgDM/ha/day) but dry weather and zero rainfall hit grass growth for the following week’s measurement, with grass growth dropping to 40kg/DM/ha/day – just under the total demand figure of 46kgDM/ha/day.

This low growth meant that some heavy covers were kept in the rotation with farm manager Shaun Diver a little cautious about taking out the heavier covers that were over 2,000kgDM/ha at the time for fear the forecasted rain wouldn’t arrive.

Rain did arrive early last week and growth has picked up again. It’s still a little slower than expected but will likely kick on this week. Average farm cover is high at 999kgDM/ha and strong paddocks will be baled up given the first good weather window that comes this week.

The farm is stocked at 1,839kg liveweight/ha with demand steady at 46kgDM/ha/day. Forty-five acres of first-cut silage was made two weeks ago with the crop bulking up light in the pit. Focus will now be on getting a good second-cut to build up fodder reserves ahead of winter 2025.

Slurry has been spread on the same area again at the rate of 2,500 gallons/ac and a further 80 units/ac of protected urea have been applied.

With breeding in the suckler herd starting to quieten down and the first-cut of silage in, Shaun decided to get the ewes and lambs in to weigh the lambs and see how they are performing.

A good indicator of ewe and lamb performance is the 40-day weight with the Sheep Ireland software also giving a predicted 100-day weight if performance continues on the current trajectory.

Lambs aged from 38 days old to 76 days old were weighed and they were sired by a total of nine different rams. The heaviest lamb weighed in at 41kg and the lightest lamb weighed in at 12.5kg. The heaviest lamb was a 76-day-old Texel-cross-Mule lamb that weighed 5.6kg at birth and has been gaining 0.446kg per day since birth.

The lightest lamb was a 42-day-old Suffolk-cross-Easycare lamb that weighed 4.5kg at birth and has been gaining 0.19kg per day since birth.

Overall, the entire batch of lambs averaged a weight of 27.25kg, with an average daily liveweight gain of 0.34kg/day. Table 1 (above) has a full breakdown of lamb performance of the Tullamore Farm stock rams.