Livestock - The Ewe Flock
The farm has approximately 800 Mule ewes which are maintained as a spring lambing grassland flock. Replacements - around 100 per year - are purchased as ewe lambs.
The ewes are mated with Suffolk and Texel rams from the Sire Reference Schemes to lamb in late March-early April. The ewes are scanned and split into groups depending on the number of lambs that they are carrying. Ewes with single lambs remain outside and generally receive no supplementary feed. Ewes with twins and triplets are housed from late December until lambing. These ewes are fed silage from the time of housing onwards, concentrates are also fed during their final six weeks of pregnancy. The level of concentrates fed rises throughout the final six weeks, to a daily maximum of 1 kg per ewe for ewes carrying twins, and 1.25 kg for those carrying triplets.
After lambing the ewes are held in individual pens for at least 24 hours and then intensively set-stocked on pasture at 15 ewes plus lambs per hectare. The annual stocking rate, including the provision of winter fodder, is 10 ewes per hectare. Normally 30% of the lambs are sold for slaughter off the ewes with the remaining 70% being marketed after weaning, having finished on silage aftermaths.
Lambing percentage (ie lambs weaned per 100 ewes mated) generally averages 185%. A clean grazing policy is achieved by alternating sheep with cattle and silage on an annual basis.