Increased selection pressure improves hill flock performance

Lambing outside without concentrate feed has increased the challenge of a Welsh upland farm’s system and allowed the best maternal genetics to shine.

This strategy is saving money and helping to market the flock, Irwel Jones told the Sheep Breeders Round Table last week (16 November).

Irwel Jones has made a raft of changes at Aberbranddhu, his hill farm at the head of the Cothi Valley near Pumpsaint, where he runs a flock of improved Tregardon Welsh Mountains with his wife, Charlene, and father, Eirwyn.

See also: Performance recording helps lift lamb cheque by £9k/year

As a result, the farm is producing more 18kg carcasses at R3L off forage for Dawn Meats, Llanybydder, and selling 10 more yearlings through the new Prohill sale at Aberystwyth. In addition, about 15 rams are sold at the traditional Tregaron sale each year.

The A flock has been DNA-recorded – with Hybu Cig Cymru covering some of the £15/test cost – and ewes that don’t make the grade are drafted into the B flock to be crossed with an Aberfield. About 350 cross-bred ewe lambs are sold privately as breeding stock.

“I look at type, performance data and index, and very often a ram could be drawn for either the new Prohill sale or the traditional Tregaron sale,” says Mr Jones.

Tupping ewe lambs

• Ewe lambs are outwintered on dairy ground. About two-thirds make tupping weight (37-38kg) and run with Easycare rams
• Ewe lambs scan at about 80% (200 lambs rear about 150 lambs)
• Some empty lambs are sold as hoggets
• The cross-bred lambs help pay for the dairy tack, and outwintering challenges them so they enter the purebred flock as “proven”

Lambing outside

• Due to limited shed space, the farm has moved lambing outside over the past seven years. This year was the second year everything was lambed outdoors. Previously, only multiples were lambed indoors
• This was achieved by delaying lambing by two-and-a-half weeks until 23 March – lambing lasts for two cycles
• Rearing rate dropped from 140-145% to 135%, with mortality from lambing at 10-15% – some losses are believed to be from ewes that “crept through the system” when lambed inside
• The system is run with very low interference. Mr Jones and the shepherd check the sheep twice a day. Only breaches or singles with big heads tend to need help lambing
• Singles are marked and twins are numbered – the colour is changed every four-to-five days to give an approximate date of birth at the end of lambing when lambs are tagged and tailed
• Any lambing difficulties or issues that require housing are recorded as a drafting/culling offence

Concentrate reduction

• The farm used to buy 20-25t of cake. This was cut to 10-12t by producing a high D-value silage and rationing sheep on a 34% protein pellet indoors. However, for two years, the farm has been concentrate-free, which at £300/t across 20t is a saving of £6,000. Ewe lambs are trained to eat concentrate in case of a bad winter
• They wont rule out using energy buckets/cake if the quantity/quality of grass isn’t sufficient
• Rotational grazing on four-to-six-day shifts has been achieved by putting hedges where fence lines were and splitting fields with electric fencing, turning 4-6ha (10-15-acre) fields into 2ha (5-acre) fields
• This has further improved the in-bye ground, which was ploughed and reseeded in the 1970s
• Grass is rested to ensure covers are sufficient for lambing time. This is done by selling ram lambs as stores, wintering ewe lambs and the B flock on dairy ground and wintering what’s at home on 4ha (10 acres) of swedes

Future

After fluctuations in sheep numbers from losing and gaining rented ground, the Joneses are looking at raising the selection bar further trying to moderate the size of the 55kg ewes.

“We are already drafting some sheep out of the pure flock on kilos weaned,” says Mr Jones. “Some sheep wean 100% of their weight, so we will no longer keep a good-looking ewe if her twins are only 20kg.”