01 May 2025

A little help goes a long way for Signpost Sheep farmer, Tomas O’Toole

Farming in Clifden, Co. Galway, Signpost Programme and Better Farm Sheep Programme participant, Tomas O’Toole reflects on a busy spring period, highlighting the importance of having sufficient help for lambing and his plans for maintaining lamb performance and building soil fertility.

Lambing, for the most part, went well this year, although there was a higher incidence of mastitis in comparison to last year; some ewes required antibiotic treatment, prescribed by my local vet.

Lambs will be given the last of the full course of the clostridial vaccine over the next few weeks. They will also be dosed for coccidiosis, as I have had issues with coccidiosis on the farm before. Cobalt and a white drench for Nematodirus will be administered in a few weeks’ time, generally at six weeks or older for the latter when lambs are beginning to graze. Also, some lambs are lame, so I’m treating by foot bathing which I do regularly on the farm; I find this keeps hoof issues under control during the year.

More from Teagasc Daily: Nematodirus and coccidia in lambs

A little help

Veterinary medicine students from UCD have been on placement on the farm for a few weeks. They were a great help on the farm, especially during lambing.

They helped with recording data for the Teagasc Better Sheep Farm Programme by tagging, weighing, ringing and marking lambs, and also treating the navel with iodine when born. They also helped identify ewes for culling after lambing. All of this data collection is a great tool in identifying ewes for culling, lambs that are performing well and general flock data.

Soil fertility and fertiliser applications

I got my soil sample results and some plots are showing low for phosphorus, at index 2. I will look at trying to improve on these indexes over the next year or so, concentrating on liming and also using the correct fertiliser.

I got an updated Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) from my advisor which gives me an idea of how much phosphorus and nitrogen that I can allocate and to put in place a plan for what fertiliser to use. By getting the soil samples taken and the NMP completed, it gives me more of an idea of what plots I need to focus on to improve and also plots where I can reduce fertiliser applications.

Earlier in March, I put out some protected urea. I have found the response so far to be poor for the first round of fertiliser. Grass growth, in general, has been slow the past few weeks and I am feeding concentrates to ewes at grass to help maintain body condition and milk production. I have also started to creep feed lambs which will help with weight gain and earlier weaning.

I put out 18:6:12 and CAN in the past week based on the soil sample results, and I can already see a response in some fields after this application.

Silage ground was also closed up in early April and this should be ready to cut in the last week of May. I am grass measuring each week and inputting that information into PastureBase Ireland, which helps to forward plan how much grass will be available for stock.

It has been a busy but rewarding spring so far.

For more information on the Teagasc Signpost Programme, visit here.

Find out more about the Teagasc Better Farm Sheep Programme here.

The above article was adapted for use on Teagasc Daily from an article first published in the Farming Examiner, Irish Examiner.