Ensuring the correct nutrition for breeding ewes on the run up to lambing can be challenging when there can be high numbers of triplets and quads, however rather than being a burden, these extra lambs contribute to the overall profitability of Rodney Blackhall’s Banchory-based sheep farming enterprise.
Rodney, who farms some 900 acres over various units in partnership with his brother Alex, attends to most of the sheep work, while his brother looks after the suckler cow herd, and both work together on the arable enterprise.
Rodney also owns some 80 pedigree Texel ewes, 45 registered traditional Bluefaced Leicesters and a further 40 Blue cross Texel ewes in his own right, which in recent years have produced some impressive scanning figures of 190, 200 and 190% respectively. He also attends to the partnership’s 450 commercial ewes that regularly scan at 192%.
Within these percentages, there can be a least 150 sets of triplets and a fair few quads.
“Our ewes can carry and rear triplets, if need be, with minimal issues when they’re fed Tore Ewe Rolls although we do foster one onto a single-bearing ewe at birth whenever possible,” said Rodney.
“Harbro rolls are a well-formulated product and the most consistent of all the pre-lambing feeds we’ve tried. Tore Ewe Rolls are of the highest quality and contain the most protein of all the Harbro pre-lambing concentrates. This gives me confidence that ewes are getting the same level of nutrition at every feed, so we rarely get bothered with twin-lamb disease and have very few prolapses.
“Our ewes are fit and healthy throughout their pregnancy which leads to lambs being born full of vigour to get up and suckle. They also benefit from an abundance of colostrum from their mothers due to good nutrition on the run up to lambing.”
Rodney added that he has tried other products in the past but found that some ewes would start scouring which he felt was due to inconsistent protein levels within the rolls.
Triplet and quad-bearing ewes are introduced to Tore Ewe Rolls five weeks prior to lambing while the twin mothers are fed the same feed three weeks before their due dates on fields that are well grazed to monitor intakes. Hay is also provided.
The 450-strong Bluefaced Leicester cross Texel ewe flock is crossed to Texel and Bluefaced Leicester rams to produce finished lambs and replacement females. A week before their due date on April 1, triplet and single-bearing ewes are housed to enable wet fostering.
In previous years, twin-bearing ewes would have been lambed outside, but with predators becoming an increasing problem, these sheep are now lambed within a straw-bedded coral next to the main lambing shed.
Lambed ewes and their newborns are put into individual pens for up to 24 hours to allow them to bond and strengthen which in turn has reduced mortality. Vet students are also taken on at this time to help with the night lambing.
To avoid mis-mothering in the early days at grass, Rodney provides additional ewe nutrition with Energyze Vitality buckets and swedes/turnips.
However, after about a week, he reintroduces Tore Ewe Rolls which are fed via a snacker until there is sufficient grass.
For the past 25 years, the strongest twin and triplet ewe lambs born in the first cycle are ear notched at birth for replacement females. It’s a policy which is paying huge dividends in that not only has it increased the number of ewes lambing in the first 17 days, but it has also reduced the barren percentage. Last year, the tups were put out on November 5, for 25 days, which resulted in the last ewe lambing on April 24 and just 3% failing to hold to the tup.
Rodney’s pedigree sheep, of which his Texel shearlings regularly produce some of the highest averages at Thainstone and Huntly, while the Bluefaced Leicesters are within the top rankings at the Kelso Ram Sales, are lambed before the commercial ewe flock from mid-February and March.
Bluefaced Leicesters and Texels carrying triplets are brought inside to straw-bedded courts three weeks before their due date, with the remainder of the Texels joining them a day before lambing is set to start.
Tore Ewe Rolls are again fed to the pedigree females, twice a day, depending on their scanning results, which in turn ensures their energy levels remain constant throughout the day, a policy Rodney has found minimises the risk of twin-lamb disease.
While most of the commercial lambs are finished off grass, this year, bought in lambs are being fattened using home-grown barley treated with Maxammon. The business also relies on Harbro to analyse their pit silage before feeding it with various other products to the cattle thereby ensuring the correct ration is being fed through a feed wagon.
