OviCast

With the rams sales season kicking into high gear, Dr Alan Bohan from Sheep Ireland joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to discuss how genotyping has improved the genetic information available to breeders and farmers alike.

Alan discusses the increase in the number of animals genotyped this year and explains the process and costs involved in genotyping.

He then discusses the benefits of genotyping animals from parentage verification to scrapie genotyping.

Genotyping also provides a genomic evaluation which improves the accuracy of the index and Alan explains why this is a major benefit to farmers.

Finally, he discusses this year’s Sheep Ireland multi-breed sale and the use of the ram search tool to find rams and pedigree breeders in your own locality.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

As the breeding season for early lambing and pedigree flocks is starting, Prof. David Kenny Head of the Animal Biosciences Dept in Teagasc, joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to discuss various aspects of synchronisation in ewes.

David starts by explaining the pros and cons of synchronisation in sheep and he discusses the role of sponging and PMSG in the synchronising process as well as the protocol used, including the timing of ram introduction.

David then highlights the importance of the correct ewe to ram ratio and discusses some strategies to deal this.

He finishes up discussing the rate of PMSG used and how ewe prolificacy and time of season affect the level of response.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Michael Gottstein Head of Sheep in Teagasc joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to discuss the role of cobalt supplementation in lambs.

Michael starts by describing how cobalt supplementation helps lamb performance and he moves on to discuss some of the typical signs of cobalt deficiency in lambs.

They discuss supplementation strategies and the pros and cons of each and how the type of cobalt contained in the supplement may affect the lamb’s ability to absorb it.

Finally, Michael encourages producers to check whether they are getting a performance benefit from supplementation with minerals.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Dr. Frank Campion joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s episode of OviCast with an update on some of the performance and management decisions on the Teagasc BETTER sheep farms as we head into the mid-summer period.

Frank starts by discussing current activities on the farms and discusses lamb performance on the lowland flocks to date as well as some of the challenges they faced so far this year and how it influenced performance.

Frank highlights how lamb weaning weights can effect management for the season and how checking the proportion of lambs that fall into different weight categories is a useful check for farms at the moment.

He moves on to discuss the flocks on the hill side of the programme and how they have performed to date before finishing up discussing their options for selling or finishing lambs later in the season.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Traditionally in mid-summer the idea of dosing and moving to clean or cleaner pasture in the form of reseeds or after grass was common practice, but with the increasing development of anthelminthic resistance, that practice has become problematic.

To explain why, on this week’s episode of OviCast, Ciarán Lynch is joined by Dr. Orla Keane. Orla sets out what the key issue is with dosing and moving to clean pasture and in doing so she also explains what is considered to be clean and cleaner pasture on sheep farms.

She discusses managing refugia and maintaining a susceptible worm population and how dosing and moving to clean ground gives resistant worms a competitive advantage and can speed up the development of resistance.

Orla and Ciarán also discuss seeding pasture with susceptible worms by grazing with un-dosed lambs or following with ewes can provide a source of refugia for this cleaner or clean ground, and Orla explains why this is not as important a factor on ground frequently grazed by sheep.

Finally, Orla highlights why producers should consider using faecal sampling as a basis for decisions on worm dosing as the season progresses.

Find out more about anthelminthic resistance:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/flock-health/anthelmintic-resistance/

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Mark Plunkett, soil and plant nutrition specialist with Teagasc, joins Ciarán Lynch on the latest OviCast podcast to discuss some key areas to maintain soil fertility.

Mark discusses the importance of replacing p & K offtakes from surplus silage and discusses the fertiliser requirements for those considering a second cut of silage with Mark outlining a number of options.

He also explains why sulphur inclusion is an important consideration highlighting the responses achieved on a range of soils there is a discussion on the benefits of low emissions slurry spreading at this stage of the season.

Lime usage nationally is highlighted as well as explaining why current ground conditions provide an ideal opportunity to consider applying some to correct soil pH issues.

Finally, there is a discussion on the use of Protected urea as a choice of N fertiliser during this stage of the season.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Seamus McMenamin, sheep meat sector manager with Bord Bia, joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to discuss the market situation so far this year.

Seamus starts by discussing the trade in the year to date and the impact of tighter lamb supply on price.

They discuss how that has impacted the export market – and despite lower volumes the value of exports has gone up this year reflective of a higher global demand for sheep meat.

Seamus explains how the trend in lamb supply week on week is lower than last year to date relative to previous years before discussing the increased demand from EU markets and how the UK sectors supply into the EU has influenced this and the potential for Irish lamb to increase its market share.

Seamus then highlights how the opening up of food service may impact demand in the market and what to expect for the summer period with the upcoming EID festival in July.

Finally, he discusses the live export trade this year to date.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Dr Tim Keady from Teagasc who is the lead researcher in Ireland for a new EU-funded project called Sm@RT joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to explain the project.

Sm@RT brings together a network of researchers from eight countries: Ireland, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, UK and Israel. Tim explains how the aim of Sm@rt is to increase the awareness of those working in the sheep and goat sectors of newly available precision livestock farming (PLF) tools. He also explains what PLF tools are and how they can potentially improve productivity and labour efficiency.

Tim then discusses how improving efficiency and reducing labour input is a challenge for the sector right across Europe. He outlines how the network of researchers involved will pool resources to identify solutions for the respective countries involved.

As the project is in its early stages those involved in the project are seeking farmers and stakeholders opinions on PLF tools via a survey.

The survey is available at the following link:

https://bit.ly/3sI0Eni

Tim encourages stakeholders in the sheep supply chain (farmer to processor) to have their voices heard by identifying their needs and areas of interest.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

This week’s episode of OviCast finds out about an ongoing study between Teagasc and UCD examining how companion forages – chicory, plantain, red and white clover - perform alongside a perennial ryegrass sward in sheep systems.

Lisa McGrane a postgraduate student who is working on the project joined Ciarán Lynch on the podcast to explain more and began by discussing the crops and how they are being managed as separate farm lets in a system.

She then discussed how they are examining the effects on animal performance. They are also investigating how the sward performs under grazing conditions and the changes seen in sward composition during the year.

In addition to the animal component of the study Lisa discussed another aspect of it that is looking at various establishment methods and seeding rates to see how these influence the sward composition and performance. Part of this is also examining the effect of different post grazing sward heights on how these companion forages perform.

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Incorporating clover into a sward has multiple benefits in livestock systems and to discuss this in more detail on this week’s OviCast, Ciarán Lynch is joined by Dr Philip Creighton.

From recent work being conducted in Teagasc Athenry, Philip starts by explaining the impact that increasing the clover content in swards has on animal performance.

He goes on to explain how this can reduce the requirement for chemical nitrogen during the mid-season period.

Philip and Ciarán then discuss inclusion levels in a reseed mix and Philip highlights the clover varieties that should be considered for sheep swards before moving on to focus on over-sowing clover into existing swards with Philip outlining why the coming weeks are an ideal time to consider this.

They discuss the various methods available to accomplish this and what impact pre-sowing sward management and site selection have on the successful establishment of a clover in the sward.

Finally, Philip discusses grazing management post-sowing and why frequent grazing of lighter covers is of benefit to clover establishment.

For more on the grass and white clover recommended list varieties for Ireland 2021 go to: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/8dbf3-grass-and-white-clover-recommended-list-varieties-for-ireland-2021/

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast