22 March 2023

Watch: Missed the National Hill Sheep Conference?

This year’s National Hill Sheep Conference focused on: flock health and production planning; ACRES; the Sheep Improvement Scheme; and the factors to consider with organic conversion. If you were unable to attend, recordings of each speaker are available below.

ACRES

The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) has two different streams – ACRES General and ACRES Co-Operation. The latter operates in eight defined high-priority geographical areas, some of these would cover extensive areas of sheep farming country. Patricia Deane, Project Manager, South Kerry Development Partnership, provided an overview of the ACRES Co-operation in Kerry / west Cork to delegates at the recent conference.

Organic conversion

The Irish organic sector has experienced a large influx of new farmers in recent years, with now over 4,000 farmers farming organically including just over 2,000 who entered conversion in January 2023. The number of organic sheep flocks in 2021 was approaching 700, with an estimated 66,000 breeding ewes, which will increase with the recent new entrants.

For farmers who have recently converted or are considering the switch to organic production when applications for the next phase of the scheme open later this year, Teagasc’s Damian Costello and Elaine Leavy provided an overview of the practical implications of conversion on hill sheep farms.

Sheep Improvement Scheme

Just over 19,000 of the 36,000 sheep farmers in Ireland have applied to join the Sheep Improvement Scheme, which provides financial support to farmers for taking extra steps to improve the welfare of their flock. Based on completing a number of flock welfare measures, payment rates of €12 per breeding ewe are available. For hill flocks, there is the option of selecting a genotyped and sire verified ram of a hill breed under the category B tasks. Kevin McDermott, Sheep Ireland, discussed what this task will accomplish for the hill sheep sector.

Flock health and production planning

Flock health is the key to productivity on our sheep farms and Jason Barley, from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Veterinary Sciences Division discussed aspects of flock health and production planning to improve returns in hill sheep farming.

Click here to access the full conference proceedings.