Grass quality may have caught up after months of less-than-ideal growing conditions, but slow growth is keeping optimal feed conversion at the forefront of farmer Jonathan Goodfellow’s mind.
Like many other shepherds he is finally reducing reliance on silage and hard feed but a lack of grass growth continues to hamper lamb development, causing concern that ewes wont be in optimum condition for tupping.
“Grass is up to two months behind,” says Mr Goodfellow. “Lamb weights are the biggest indicator; at the last weigh-in those we would expect to be 35kg were around 25kg even though we’ve been creep feeding to make up for the shortfall in grass.
Mr Goodfellow uses Farmer’s Choice Ovine Conditioner pre-finishing, typically when the grass quality drops off towards the end of summer. “That may have to be brought forward this year to keep the lamb’s daily live gain on track, but the bigger problem is likely to be getting the ewes ready for tupping.”
Drenching ewes pre-tupping and pre-lambing is routine on his farm, and since he started he’s observed more multiple births. “They are easier births too, and there are benefits post-lambing: ewes have more and better quality colostrum and lambs are stronger.”
Rams that receive Farmer’s Choice Ovine Conditioner pre-tupping have increased vigour, says Mr Goodfellow. “It’s one of the most visible changes when using an Ovine Conditioner,” he explains. “We dose the tups at the same time as the ewes, but always end up having to bring them inside to stop them getting to the ewe’s too early. I’m sure this surge in activity is why our lambing period is now so tight, this year over 85% of our flock lambed in two and a half weeks, a tighter lambing period focuses the mind and means triplets are always available for pairing on to singles, this gives us many more twinned lambs and a lot less pet lambs.”
According to Farmer’s Choice pharmacologist Eddy Mehta, there are a number of reasons why Ovine Conditioners may have an even bigger impact this year: “The vitamins, minerals, trace elements and other nutrients Ovine Conditioners supply are active in a wide range of biological processes. A deficiency of any one has the potential to limit the uptake of other essential nutrients and affect efficient metabolism.”
“Helping livestock make best use of what is available to them is important, whether that is getting the most out of low volumes of forage or maximising the nutritional value of expensive concentrated feed.”
Silage supplies are also likely to be affected by slow grass growth with consequences for next year too. “First cut normally takes place at the end of June but this year it will be the end of July,” adds Mr Goodfellow.
