Sheep
How good is your silage this winter?
How good is your silage this winter? Testing your silage is a good investment that will provide you with the true feed value of your winter forage, writes Ciaran Lynch, Teagasc Sheep Specialist. This, along with pregnancy scanning results, should form the basis of winter-feeding plans and allow you to tailor concentrate […]
13 December 2023
Importance of review
Importance of review Frank Campion of the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway reports on how it is vital to do a yearly review, even more so in difficult years. After a comparatively difficult year with wet weather making grazing conditions difficult and impacting flock performance, most farmers […]
12 December 2023
Teagasc National Farm Survey 2022 – Mid-Season Lowland Lamb Enterprise
0 Teagasc National Farm Survey 2022 – Mid-Season Lowland Lamb Enterprise The 2022 Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) recorded data on over 795 farms, representative of 85,860 dairy, beef, sheep and tillage farms in Ireland. This article summarises results for farms with a mid-season lamb enterprise. Only sheep farms with more than 20 […]
1 December 2023
What lies ahead for sheep sector margins in 2024?
What lies ahead for sheep sector margins in 2024? Anne Kinsella and Kevin Hanrahan, Agricultural Economics and Farm Surveys Department, Teagasc, look ahead to 2024 and what it may entail for sheep sector gross margins. In 2024, Irish lamb prices are forecast to increase modestly on already record high price levels received […]
29 November 2023
Tackling the fluke challenge this winter
Tackling the fluke challenge this winter Veterinarian Shane McGettrick, who is Laboratory Manager at the DAFM Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Co. Sligo is on this week’s OviCast to talk about the fluke challenge this winter. Shane starts by discussing what fluke-related issues they are seeing in the lab at this point in […]
29 November 2023
Managing forage brassicas
Managing forage brassicas This week’s OviCast podcast features Mark Dolan to discuss the different aspects of managing forage brassica crops. The Teagasc Walsh Scholar gives some background to some of the work he has been involved in using forage brassicas to finish store lambs. The yields of different crops, along with the […]
22 November 2023
Finishing store lambs this winter
Finishing store lambs this winter Finishing store lambs in the winter months has numerous benefits and challenges, but there is a potential margin in finishing lambs currently, Frank Campion and Mark Dolan tell us more. A key component of any lamb finishing system is to have a proper budget done. This should […]
21 November 2023
What sets the top and bottom performing sheep farms apart?
What sets the top and bottom performing sheep farms apart? The recently published Mid-Season Lowland Lamb Enterprise Factsheet, generated from the Teagasc National Farm Survey 2022, sheds light on the economic performance of sheep farms in Ireland last year. Representative of 12,288 sheep farms nationally, the National Farm Survey shows that profitability, […]
21 November 2023
Research update: Aiming to eliminate concentrate supplementation to finish lambs
Research update: Aiming to eliminate concentrate supplementation to finish lambs Philip Creighton, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry, Co. Galway reports on lamb performance across the groups on the Sheep Research Demonstration Farm. Rams were turned out to ewes on October 6. Ewe body condition score going to the […]
12 November 2023
Is it time to house finishing lambs?
0 Is it time to house finishing lambs? Teagasc sheep specialists, Damian Costello and Frank Campion, are on this week’s OviCast to discuss the challenging grazing conditions in recent weeks that has put pressure on farms both in terms of lamb performance and grass utilisation and supply. We discuss the option of housing […]
9 November 2023