Archive Article: 2000/03/17
John Martin
John Martin farms with his
parents on the Ards Peninsula
south of Belfast. The 65ha
(160-acre) Gordonall Farm
and 16ha (40 acres) of
rented land carry 400
Suffolk x Cheviot ewes, a
small flock of Suffolks and
40 spring calving sucklers.
About 20ha (50 acres) of
barley is grown
OF late I seem to have been spending much time on my knees, although not to pray, I might add.
But having visited the accountants recently, a request for divine intervention certainly seems necessary.
However, the real reason is that I have to climb into lamb creep feeders every day to remove dirt and encourage lamb creep intake. Lambs have been thriving on forage rape, but, with only stalks left, they now have access to grass via a creep gate, leaving their mothers to clear up forage rape.
We did lose a couple of lambs at about six weeks old; it goes without saying that they were among the best of the batch. Post-mortem examinations confirmed our suspicions of clostridial disease and the rest have since been vaccinated.
We have also begun our annual crusade to control lameness in early lambs due to scald. Regular footbathing means some extra work, but it is necessary to maintain lamb growth rates.
March lambers had their clostridial vaccine booster and were offered concentrates at the end of February, with a few thinner ewes receiving an extra helping. One change this year was to turn 45 March lambers out to grass on Feb 20, about a month before lambing.
These are part of a research project which aims to cut lamb production costs through shorter housing and fewer lambing difficulties associated with outdoor lambing. The other group of 45 ewes are housed in the conventional way and their associated costs, lambing problems and birthweights recorded for comparison.
Not having lambed sheep outside since my sandwich year at college, it will be a relatively new experience for both man and beast.
Suckler cows started calving pretty much on cue at the end of February and have continued steadily since. Each calving begins a paper-chase almost immediately that calves have been registered with the NI department of agricultures computer system.
Each calf has this seasons latest fashion accessory; it is a lovely item in yellow with an ultra modern all-numeric look. Alpha-numeric ear-tags have been assigned to the wardrobe. *
Time on his hands and knees… John Martin has been spending much time on his knees cleaning out creep feeders in the last month.