Sheep Season

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Lambing in Fermanagh follows a system born out of years of experience

Probably better known for his contracting business, a harvester and a row of tractors are currently parked up beside the yard where Barry Read’s sheep enterprise is just warming up. Farming almost 400 acres around the edge of Lisnaskea and Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh, Barry runs a thriving Agricultural Contracting business but also follows in the footsteps of his late father, who used to lamb up to 1,900 ewes. Using experience gained from a very young age, through to the present day, Barry has created a flock that suits his calendar of working and also fulfils a deeply embedded love of sheep farming. 

For the next eight weeks, Barry will turn his focus to the 550 ewes that will be ready to start lambing by the end of February. With 600 ewes and 300 ewe lambs of Suffolk, Charollais and Texel bloodlines, Barry has a sturdy, and as he describes ‘simple’ system to ensure he can manage lambing time, with additional help during the day and nights predominantly on his own. With a small batch of older ewes already lambed and turned out, the wheels have started turning on ‘sheep season’, but Barry took the time to run through his plans for the coming weeks. 

Forage First

Due to Barry’s commitments in other areas of the business, the key factor for him – and all sheep farmers - is that lambing season is as trouble free as possible, with lambs showing good thrive with the ability to get up and get going as quickly as they can. With grazing being central to Barry’s manageability of the flock, he ensures there is enough suitable ground close to the farm to minimise the time spent in the shed for any of the ewes. With sheltered grazing on re-seeded grassland, the doubles are fed 500g of Ewelac Nuts four weeks prior to lambing and kept out as long as possible. Triplets are fed 750g from six weeks pre-lambing and singles are fed 250g two weeks before. Ewelac nuts are a 19% ration, which have Maize, Wheat and Soya as the main ingredients. They are ideally suited for both the ewe and the lamb in late pregnancy and enhance the milk production levels in early lactation, something Barry has few problems with, as lambs benefit from both quality and quantity of colostrum and milk. Barry generally keeps his diet balanced with home-grown good quality silage, with 25% dry matter, 12.7% protein and 11.4 ME. Barry swears by using the additive Ecosyl and notes that there is no secondary fermentation in his pit, even though the flock has a slower rate of consumption, so it can take a longer time to work through. 

Performance Minerals

When penned for lambing, Barry credits the installation of cameras with allowing him to manage through the night with little help, during peak lambing time. After two days in an individual pen, where the lambs are feeding well, they will be moved into a bigger pen with another six to eight ewes and lambs. At this point Barry just waits on the right weather conditions to get them out to grass, which means it is either cold or wet, but preferably not both. When they are turned out, lambs will be creep fed from about ten days and due to a previous issue with a Selenium deficiency, Barry says that the feeding of Thompsons’ Intensive Lamb Finisher Pellets, which now contains Zinpro’s unique performance minerals Zinc and Selenium, has been pivotal in the performance of the lambs. So much so that Barry attributes an improvement of a half a conformation grading of the lambs, to the fact that they were fed on this product, with no grading ever below U’s and R’s. 

When a batch of ewes and lambs are turned out, Barry follows the same system every time and ensures that each ‘mothering up pen’ is cleaned out between lambings and dusted with lime prior to the next ewe coming in, which he attributes to less health issues and better lamb thrive. With a busy time ahead we appreciate Barry taking the time out of his busy day to give us an insight into his sheep business and we wish him every success for the weeks ahead. If you would like to hear how Thompsons’ sheep and lamb rations can improve the performance of your flock, contact your local Thompsons’ representative or Belfast on; 028 9035 1321. 

 

Posted 02,02,26 by allison.

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