Global Ovine blog: Wise ewe management post weaning

[News]

Feed allocation to mobs that return the most profit post weaning is the desired aim of sheep farmers conscious of their feed supplies. Without exception, the growing lambs have the highest priority to receive the best pasture at this time of the year. Therefore the mob with the lowest priority is the cull ewes which go to slaughter. These should be sorted as soon as possible post weaning, even if it means checking udders again later to remove any ewes where problems were not palpable immediately post weaning. So, if you have your breeding ewe flock almost sorted this early, how do they look?

Some farmers may weigh a sample to see if average weight is near to that which they annually call their mating weight goal. Others may do similar using average Body Condition Score (BSC). Both share the same problem of not giving the farmer sufficient information. Averages do not describe the range and diversity of either measurement in the mob.

Let me give an example; I was asked to assist a farmer on a difficult summer dry hill farm. About half of his ewes scanned with twins which he set stocked prior to lambing until weaning on areas with the best shelter for lambing. Despite the singles being run at a higher stocking rate, nutrition was no better for the twinning ewes and their lambs. The following mating weight was normal, but half of his ewes were in light condition, while his single rearing ewes were heavy. A bar graph of the live weights showed two population peaks. Over the following two years ewes and lambs have been rotationally grazed after a month from the mid lambing date. After weaning all ewes in lower condition were lifted by preferential feeding to the desired BCS. The production results have been huge; flock weaning improved by 19%, cull ewes were reduced by 17% and most significantly the average days to slaughter was reduced by 6 weeks. The net effect of these performance changes was an increase in profit of 40%. All this was due to more precise feed allocation, especially ensuring all ewes were in peak mating condition.

I prefer BCS to live weight assessment in mature ewes. Optimum performance comes at BCS 3.5 in any breed of sheep on any land type.

Throughout the temperate sheep world around 30% of ewes are lower than BCS 3.5 when joined with rams. Those ewes could all be BCS 3.5 with better feed allocation after weaning.

What will you be doing for your ewes?

Murray Rohloff

Sheep genetics and management consultant @Global ovine

Eight years at Invermay Agricultural Research Centre in sheep reproduction physiology (prolific flock management, breed comparisons and lamb survival studies).

Twenty five years as a leading progressive ram breeder. Awareka rams mated over half a million commercial ewes annually. Many Awareka sires have featured as trait leaders on SILACE. An instigator of Sheep Improvement Ltd. (industry owned national sheep recording facility) and instigator and leading breeder for host resistance to internal parasites. The Awareka flock was sold in 2008 and has since won the most awards for maternal breeds in the NZ Sheep Industry Awards under its new ownership since their inception in 2012.

Increased involvement in strategic and business planning of farming and restructuring of veterinary businesses since 2002. During this time numerous visits to the UK and Ireland on instructional and speaking engagements organised by Teagasc, DARNI, SAC, Eblex, HCC and Suffolk Breed Society. Part of the set-up team for Sheep Ireland in 2008.

During the last 15 years have held ongoing science and advisory roles to AgResearch Ltd. (crown owned research provider) and Ovita Ltd. (research funding provider). Instigator and former chair of FT200, an industry owned sheep production and financial benchmarking provider.

Evaluated novel genetics for out-of-season lambing, especially 3 lambings in 2 years. The original importer of Charollais and Ile de France sheep breeds, now farmed in Otago under joint ventures. Chair of Charollais breed society.

A joint venture owner of EasyRams UK based near Ellesmere.

Specialist field is strategic planning of agricultural businesses to be more profitable through appropriate structures, goals, genetics and management.

Currently is a part time farmer with 350 Ile de France ewes on irrigated pasture in Central Otago.

www.easyrams.co.uk

 

[exmoor dave]

Weaning my Feb /early march lambs lambs now.

Go throu ewes, check mouths and udders, cull problems
Cull ALL ewes with orange management tags (my cull tags) once a ewe gets a orange tag thats it, it's culled.
Anything exceptionally poor is culled (usually it's lack of teeth).

Moderately poor ones get a green mark.

Then all weaned ewes incl the marked poorer ones are chucked up on one of the hill blocks for the 8 wks till 2-3 weeks pre tup when hopefully they can move to other farm on to silage aftermath to flush.

When I move the ewes to the other farm, if the poorer ones haven't caught up condition with the rest I cull them because I feel once they go to ram there's no way of gaining condition later with out preferential treatment which I don't want to do.

From reading the above article, I guess I could improve output by keeping those poorer ewes down in the fields rather than the hill but then I'd be risking having to give them extra/better grazing etc all the way thru pregnancy. Where as I tend to believe if they can't hack it as dry ewes then they need to go.

I did get caught out last year as the hill block they get is the driest part of a dry farm in a drought last year, the hill was bare, also the cattle get priority out the other farm and for one reason and another the sheep weren't allowed out other farm til the day before they went to ram. So rather than 2-3 wks flushing they spent 3weeks clearing acres of bracken...... . .......result scan result of 150% rather than 180-185%. But ewes condition was fine all thru pregnancy.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Dave, is there a risk with your approach that you cull those ewes which have worked the hardest and reared the best lambs and so could have done with a bit kinder recuperation period?

 

[exmoor dave]

Dave, is there a risk with your approach that you cull those ewes which have worked the hardest and reared the best lambs and so could have done with a bit kinder recuperation period?

Yes, but in practice, out of those ewes who get a green mark at weaning, I'd only end up culling 3-4 more (out of 400 ewes) by tupping time, so I'd argue I'm weeding out the ones who can't hack it and gain condition in the 10wks dry period.
Problem I have is, typical dry summer, I'll be short of grass june-early Sept, dad keeps the cows set stocked over the whole home farm so I just don't have the spare good ground for dry ewes.

Of course if this rain continues (plus some warm sunny weather hopefully!) I might have enough grass for the green mark poorer ewes.

 

[$Sheep]

The advice advocated by GO is real, practical and very pertinent for the commercial sheep farmer wanting to enjoy better profitability.
From our own experience the huge advantage conferred by lifting liveweight and condition score of the lower BCS ewes from weaning to mating has become the surest and easiest way to improve productivity for minimal cost when put into the context of whole farm management and profitability. The immediate measured advantage will be improved conception i.e. less barren MT ewes and higher pregnancy scanning %age i.e. more twins and this also comes with the additional benefit of higher lamb survival at weaning. The other benefits are less wastage and better longevity i.e. reduced culling for non performance and deaths associated with low BSC therefore the advantages are immediately apparent translating into higher profitability. Also remember to add in the reduced replacement rate which is itself a big cost for any sheep enterprise.

It is therefore all about setting up a grazing plan that puts the grass in front of those ewes that will convert it to the most profitable value. There is no profit in a fat ewe getting fatter!

We operate our breeding flock divided into two; the A flock Maternal bred for replacements and B flock Terminal bred for prime lambs. It would be fair to say we are probably the most demanding commercial farmer our maternal ram breeder has but we do not hesitate to pay a fair price for good rams in return. Note we learnt a lesson some years ago about ensuring the ram breeder is fully in sync with our expectations and philosophy. The ‘stretch’ target level of performance we demand from our A (maternal bred) ewes is that every ewe must rear two good lambs without assistance. To achieve this target the rams we purchase must be fit-for-purpose and functional along with having good balanced breeding indexes and importantly they must be bred from ewes that themselves haven’t required any preferential treatment. In line with this philosophy any ewe in our A flock that also requires the preferential treatment goes into the B flock.

Why and how to condition score