Farmer Focus: Dorper experiment on lambs does the trick
Patrick Morris-Eyton © John Eveson It’s a week we look forward to every year – slaughtering a prime beast we’ve reared for all the staff on the farm.
They are a great team and really put a lot of effort in, and with the cost of living currently it’s a small thing we can do to show our appreciation.
First-cut silage is safely in and sheeted in the shed. The first half got a few showers on it, but hopefully it hasn’t affected the quality too much, as it was still nice, young grass.
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The yield was incredible – probably 25% more than we expected – thanks to the relatively kind and warm spring and winter we have had. Fertiliser and slurry followed quickly, and now we are setting up for the second cut in the week of 6 June, forecast depending.
All youngstock and dry cows are now outside, enjoying the weather. Even though we keep getting heavy showers, the grass is growing and the stock seem happy with regular shifts onto fresh grass.
A lot of cows are due to calve in the next few months, so we have dried them off recently. We usually try to have a level calving profile, but with many heifers to calve as well, calving is accidentally weighted to the end of summer. Hopefully, we will remedy that for next time.
We have finished lambing and it has been a great season for us. Other than a few rough days at the start, it was ideal weather-wise.
Grass has kept growing and the lambs have been hitting the ground running. We have just wormed the first half of the twins for nematodirus. We’re very impressed with the lambs, and the ewes are in great condition.
Our experiment using a Dorper (a South African breed with a black head) as a terminal sire to leave lambs with obvious markings has worked a treat.
We have had the fewest issues with these lambs, and they are growing like mushrooms off grass alone. If this continues, they will be close to slaughter weight at weaning.