Alister Davies first steps into sheep farming were much the same as those of any other producer trying to get on to the farming ladder.
He and his wife Eirian acquired a small parcel of land, rented more whenever they could and bought-in a small flock of breeding ewes.
Appropriately choosing Lleyns for their Machynlleth location in mid-Wales, they found the breed to be prolific and easy to manage.
They set-stocked in the traditional manner, lambed in mid-February and had usually sold most finished lambs by the end of summer, with a few stragglers remaining until autumn.
And then came an enlightenment which changed the whole system.
He says: I went to Ireland in 2014 where we saw farmers grazing ewes and lambs behind electric fencing in paddock systems.
It was something I had only seen practised on dairy farms before, but it was obvious the amount of grass they were utilising was massively more than we were achieving at home.
Every day the grass was at the right stage of growth, the three-leaf stage.
It was never tall and stalky and the regrowth was far quicker. Determined to implement the same practices at home, Mr Davies immediately started improving his grassland in preparation for setting up paddocks, which would be grazed by the flock on a rotational basis for one to two days at a time.
We limed the fields where it was needed, corrected the phosphate and potash and reseeded with Trojen, a fast-growing mixture of highly digestible grasses and clover from the ForFarmers Topgrass range.
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Describing the difference in grass growth as massive and the rates of recovery as so much quicker, he was able to increase annual stocking rates from the previous five ewes per hectare (two ewes/acre), to 15 ewes/ha (six ewes/acre).
Buoyed by the improvements in grassland management, Mr Davies began to pay closer attention to his ewes and lambs nutrition throughout the year, and as an account manager with ForFarmers himself, was well placed to know the companys advice.
Keenly focused on using the live yeast Levucell SC in his ewe and lamb rations, he explains his thinking.
He says: Levucell SC is the only rumen-specific live yeast on the market, which is why ForFarmers has run with it as a company for more than 20 years.
It was originally licensed for cattle, but as soon as it was available for sheep, we started to use it in our top-of-the-range feeds. Highly effective in improving rumen health and function, Levucell SC achieves this through numerous mechanisms.
This includes scavenging oxygen and therefore promoting the anaerobic conditions required by other desirable rumen microflora and mopping up lactic acid.
Stabilising rumen pH in the process, it also increases the rumens microbial biomass, its synthesis of protein and vitamins, and increases fibre digestion.
All of this is exactly what we want for our ewes, so we are feeding Ewbol Gold rolls and Levucell in late pregnancy, he says, explaining how it has almost eliminated prolapses in the flock.
Any farmer who is honest will tell you their flock has prolapses and it is not uncommon in prolific flocks for these to reach a level of about 10 per cent.
For ewes carrying more than one lamb, there is limited space in the rumen and, because most pregnant ewes are fed a high fibre diet, anything you can do to speed up fibre digestion relieves the pressure inside the ewe.
In our flock we have found it has taken the risk away and, out of our 70 ewes, this year we had just one prolapse.
At the same time we have had a higher lambing percentage, scanning at 200 per cent, due to better nutrition at tupping and genetic selection of our best stock. Continuing with the Ewbol in early lactation, he says this is cut out within two to six weeks depending on the availability of grass.
See the rest here:
Grazing and nutrition transforms flock performance - ForFarmers - FG Insight
