Farmer Focus: Winter forage sown but weaning weights down

The farm is starting to green back up after finally getting some decent rain, which is a relief.

We’re still feeding haylage to one group of ewes and we’ve started to rotate the B flock behind the fat lambs.

This is what we wanted to do earlier in the year, but the grass growth just wasn’t there.

See also: Benefits of breeding values in lamb weights and ewe fertility

About the author

Louise Elkington

Louise Elkington runs 500 breeding ewes and a small suckler herd in Lincolnshire with husband Chris. Gelston Lamb sells all meat produced on the farm through pop-up shops, deliveries and catering. They have 54ha (133 acres) of grass on a farm business tenancy and agreements for stubble turnips and hay aftermaths.

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Lambs are still unwormed and are growing well, but since the rain, we are on the lookout for signs of any worms and are keeping up with regular faecal egg counts.

We’ve now weaned the last group of ewes and lambs, which averaged 28.96kg – the lowest weaning weight we’ve had in four years. In 2024, the average was 29.98kg; 2023’s was 31.25kg; and in 2022, it was 31.01kg.

These ewes and lambs are on a purely grass-based system, so we expected weights to be down this year.

We’ve drilled 40ha (100 acres) of forage rapeseed and 20ha (50 acres) of stubble turnips for winter keep and caught a few rain showers, so hopefully it won’t be long before they are up.

Then there’s the question of how much fertiliser we put on it – if the flea beetles don’t get to it first.

We’re hoping it grows well as we’ve used a fair amount of haylage this summer so don’t want to be feeding it in the winter too.

We have hired a bull for our Stabiliser cows – we only have a small herd, so it’s not cost effective to buy one yet.

We’ve chosen Lincoln Red because it’s a local breed that will retail well through our butchery.

We contacted the Lincoln Red Society who were extremely helpful and put us in contact with a breeder who was happy to hire a young bull out.

We have been busy with catering events, which are hard work but a great advert for what we do.

We have seen a drop in the revenue from the fresh meat sales, but this is normally the case in the summer with holidays, warmer weather and people buying barbecue items rather than large joints for roasts.

We are also very proud to have been awarded another two Great Taste Awards, this time for our lamb leg steaks and our Lincolnshire pork sausages.

It’s a great feeling to know people love what we’re producing.