The opportunity was taken this week to wean the March born lambs on Tullamore Farm.

The lambs received a mineral drench and were footbathed two days pre-weaning, to ensure lambs where free from foot problems and not lacking in cobalt or vitamin B12 pre-weaning.

A faecal egg count was also taken this week as wet and showery conditions last week followed by high temperatures could make for ideal conditions for an increase in worm activity. That being said lambs on the farm are still carrying a low worm burden at 180 eggs per gram (epg). This has increased by 150 epg since the last faecal sample was taken 10 days ago. This has been the highest egg count recorded in the lambs his year but still not high enough to warrant dosing. Treatment will be held off until egg counts reach closer to 600 epg. However with ideal conditions now in place for the worm population on pasture to rise coupled with the stress of weaning, prohibiting the lambs ability to resist infection, we expect the worm burden to rise rapidly. Another pooled faecal egg count will be taken in 10 days time and action will only be taken if the results suggest we should dose. The amount of samples taken may seem like overkill, but given that our local farm vet practice can carry out the tests on site with results ready within a matter of minutes at a relatively low cost of per sample, it proves to be a cost effective and important measure to help the farm reduce its exposure to anthelmintic resistance by carrying out unnecessary dosing. Unnecessary dosing would also be an inefficient use of labour with sampling being carried out easily by shutting some lambs in a pen whilst moving on roadways between paddocks, allow them to dung, collect the pooled sample and drop it to the local vet with quick turnaround time on results.

43 more lambs where drafted this week as all lambs where weighed at weaning with lambs weights ranging from 42-47 kg. The lighter end being typically Charolais/Texel cross ewe lambs with good fat cover which recorded the best kill out in our first draft. The higher end being typically Texel/Mule cross ram lambs that have recorded good thrive since the first draft or had inadequate flesh cover at that time. We analysed the data from our first draft at lambs and have aimed to use it to our advantage, to make better judgement on how lambs should kill out and what weight to draft at. Lambs this week are being sold at a base of €8/kg and will benefit from a 20c QA bonus plus a further 20c group loyalty bonus. Meaning lambs will be paid at €8.40 up to 21.5kg carcass weight. It’s somewhat disappointing to see processors have been able to shave 50c/kg off the base price since we last drafted on the 26 June.

Cattle

It has been a relatively quiet week on the cattle side of the house as breeding is now came to an end. The opportunity was taken to focus on sheep work this week. However its now the time of year where male and female calves should be split as early maturing heifer calves may shortly hit puberty and begin to show heat. Splitting the bunches will remove the risk of any unwanted pregnancies but will also help thrive of the bull calves who won’t be following heifers and burning energy in the process.

We will introduce creep feed to bull calves once they are split, this is a little sooner than normal for us even though grass quality and supply is good. The current price of weanlings certainly shows an advantage to having bull weanlings achieving maximum weight gain to achieve the top prices this back end. The use of continental Limousin and some Charolais bulls on our cows means we may have calves suitable for the export trade later in the year. Heifer calves will receive no creep just yet but will be introduced 6 weeks pre-weaning to help break the cow calf bond. Forward grazing will be encourage in both bunches from here on in with a long stake being used to raise electric wire allowing calves to travel ahead of their mothers.

Grass

Grass growth remains in a good place this week with growth hitting close to 60kg/dm/ha/day. With a lot of topping done in the last round meaning grass quality, as well as quantity is good. The average farm cover sits at 684kg/DM/Ha and demand remains at 44kg. Demand will fall now as ewes have been weaned and will be used to clean out paddocks after priority stock such as lambs and cows and calves. No fertiliser was spread this week as we aim to allow the ideal conditions for nitrogen fixation from high clover swards do its job. If the forecast shows rainfall in the coming week we will most likely spread chemical N on low clover swards that have been grazed off as the farm looks to build grass cover into the autumn. Second cut silage is growing nicely and will most likely be harvested next week if weather allows. Although conditions have been ideal for making good quality silage this week the decision was made to hold off to make use of temperatures and moisture levels to help the crop to bulk up. Some swards have begun to head out but this isn’t entirely concerning as this silage will be targeted at dry cows on maintenance diet over the winter.

Tillage

Our spring barley received a T2 fungicide last week to help clean up the straw. The crop looks really good with some slight lodging or laying over of the crop is being observed, especially in the field that was in a pea/barley mix last year. The forecasted price of grain is not going to entirely set us up for a very profitable first year in the tillage sector, however, we hope to, given the right conditions bolster over 60% of our straw needs through our own crop which is important given the reduction in tillage in the local area. Our whole crop silage (Barley/Oats/Peas) looks really good and is about two weeks from harvest, the peas are in full bloom and pods are filling well. Bee and pollinator activity is really high in this crop and is really encouraging to see bio diversity being given a safe habitat to live along with us being able to make top quality feed from the crop. The use of pollinator crops such as pea silage are key part in making the farm more sustainable from a biodiversity, reduction in chemical N and less reliance on imported protein point of view.