Commercial flock starts to drop in Mountbellew

APPROXIMATELY 150 ewes were set to begin giving birth at the ATU Mountbellew campus over the past few days.

The secondary school students who attended the Agri Aware walk and talk event on Thursday March 6 and Friday March 7, heard from ATU Mountbellew staff members that the due date for the pregnant sheep in their commercial flock was between March 12 and 14.

More than half of the ewes seen by the students inside a shed in the farmyard of the ATU Mountbellew campus were Suffolk crosses, with some Belclare ewes and Charollais crosses also on view.

“Between 60 and 70 per cent of the flock is Suffolk crosses. We find the Belclares to be very maternal sheep. There are nearly 60 hogget ewes. They’re first-time lambers,” said Ian Deasy of ATU Mountbellew.

“Once they start lambing, they’ll be going 24 hours a day. We have 18 lambing pens. The pens are 1.5m by 1.5m. They are the ideal size.

“This shed was built to house approximately 180 ewes. As you can see, we’ve two ewes here who have prolapsed. It is a weakness in some pregnant sheep where their uterus starts showing. We have a strap put around them for support.”

Teagasc’s association with the Agricultural College in Mountbellew is not solely restricted to educational course offerings. The Teagasc facility in Athenry buys more than 100 lambs from ATU Mountbellew each year.

“We’re involved with the LambPlus programme through Sheep Ireland. We’ve a commercial flock here,” continued Ian Deasy.

“Data is collected from the tags of the sheep using the EID reader and given to Sheep Ireland. The lambs are weighed at three intervals, after 40 days, 100 days, and 140 days. A lot of data is recorded.”

A new sheep housing and handling facility is being built at the ATU Mountbellew campus, after the sod was officially turned at the site last May.