Sheep Newsletter – July 2025

By Sheep Specialist team

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In this month’s edition:

• Grassland management
  The unsettled weather conditions of late May/early June delayed silage harvesting on many farms, which will likely have had a negative impact on silage feed value. There is still an opportunity to make high-feed-value silage for ewes through second cuts or by baling surplus grass covers. It is important to replace the phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) offtakes, especially for higher yielding silage cuts.
• Weaning time
  The aim is to wean lambs at 14 weeks of age as a typical lowland lamb’s grass requirement is up to around 1.2kg dry matter per day at that stage, while grass demand for ewes is in decline. Weaning facilitates putting lambs on the best quality grass available, such as silage aftermath or areas that have been topped post last grazing to reset grass quality. Ewes should be grazed on a low grass cover field for two weeks to complete the drying off process.
• Sheep Improvement Scheme ram task
  For an estimated 7,000 participants in the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS), 2025 is the year they chose to complete the genotyped ram action. The breeding season may seem a long way off for many, but shopping early gives you a better selection of rams to choose from, as well as allowing the newly acquired ram time to acclimatise to his new environment well in advance of mating ewes.
• Sheep Ireland Elite Ram Sale 2025
  This annual sale takes place on Saturday, 23 August, in Kilkenny Mart. Up to 600 rams are expected to be on offer and all entries will be five-star on the Replacement and/or Terminal Index, as well as being genotyped, DNA parentage verified, and SIS eligible.
• BETTER Farm Update – Weaning complete on lowland flocks
  Frank Campion, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway, outlines the post-weaning grazing plan on the BETTER farms. On the lowland BETTER sheep farms weaning has just taken place and the grazing plan for the next couple of months is taking shape. Lambs will graze swards to 5.5-6cm, with ewes, once dried off, following behind to clean out paddocks to 3.5-4cm.
• Research Update – Update from Athenry
  Philip Creighton, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry, Co. Galway, looks at lamb performance in Athenry. Lambs at the Sheep Research Demonstration Farm in Athenry were weaned in late June at 14 weeks of age (100 days). Lamb performance up to weaning averaged 269g/head/day for the lambs grazing the grass-only treatments, 281g/head/day for lambs on the grass plus white clover treatments, and 277g/head/day for lambs on the grass plus white clover and plantain treatments.
• Health & Safety – Children farm safety webinar
  With children home from school, they are particularly vulnerable to dangers on the farm, like vehicles, livestock, and slurry pits. Children must be supervised at all times when they are on a farm. Teagasc recently produced an informative farm safety webinar for children, ‘Stay safe with Jessy’, which featured Agrikids. Jessy is the Teagasc farm safety mascot. Take time to show this to the young people in your life. Watch the webinar back here