A silage test is the best money you will spend on feeding

By shortening the winter housing period, the workload associated with feeding and bedding has also been reduced.

Tommy Boland

As December begins things have come to a natural lull with the sheep flock. Lamb sales from the 2019 lamb crop are all but finalised, rams have been removed from the breeding ewes, and grazing is more or less complete on the sheep platform.

Ewes are grazing multispecies swards now. These swards were established during the year, and are intended for cattle grazing, but as weather conditions have been so poor of late, it was not possible to graze them off with the cattle. So, the cattle were housed, and the sheep are now being used to remove some of the heavier covers so these are not carried over the winter months.