The Teagasc National Lowland Sheep Conference takes place on Tuesday, 28 January in the Ard Rí House Hotel, Tuam, County Galway, and on Thursday, 30 January in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, County Meath. Both events start at 7pm.

A range of practical and topical sheep production issues will be addressed by speakers from the UK, Teagasc, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The opening talk will be on ‘Low stress Handling for Shepherd and Sheep’, by Miriam Parker from a company called Livestockwise. Miriam set up Livestockwise, a company that provides specialist advice in the area of animal handling and slaughter. She is based in the Welsh Borders region. The company’s clients range from major retailers to meat factories, farmers, national governments, trade sector bodies and Non-Government Organisations.

Seamus Fagan from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Regional Veterinary Laboratory (RVL) will make a presentation on the findings from the ‘Thin Ewe Scheme.’ The Regional Veterinary Laboratories and Teagasc undertook the study to provide information on the causes of ill thrift/poor body condition score in ewes. It investigated ewes from flocks where thin ewes were a substantial problem, despite receiving adequate nutrition.

At the national sheep conferences, Dr. Frank Campion, Teagasc Sheep Research Officer based in the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research & Innovation Centre in Athenry, will deliver a paper on the importance for sheep producers to pay attention to ewe body condition score (BCS) and how to use this assessment to inform management decisions. The influence of ewe BCS at different stages of the year on overall flock performance using data collected as part of the Teagasc BETTER sheep farm programme will be presented.

Sarah Woodmartin, Grassland Nutrition Researcher at Teagasc Athenry, will speak about botanically diverse swards and how they play an important role in enhancing the environmental sustainability of pasture-based sheep production systems. Sarah’s PhD research focused on the addition of clovers (white clover or red clover), or herbs (chicory or plantain) to a perennial ryegrass sward in an intensive sheep production system. Feed intake and digestibility, animal performance, sward quality, methane output and meat eating quality were monitored for the duration of the study. Sarah’s presentation will focus primarily on the findings from her PhD research.

New Sheep Movement App

A demonstration of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)'s Sheep App to notify farm to farm movements will also take place. The development of this new digital app means sheep farmers can now notify their farm-to-farm movements from their phone.

Flock keepers receiving or purchasing stock, no longer need to post the pink dispatch docket that accompanies the sheep to their local DAFM Regional Offices. Instead, once the app is downloaded, the receiving keeper will be able to submit a digital movement by submitting a photo of either the pink/white dispatch document that accompanied the animals. They will, however, continue to be required to record the movement data in their flock register and to keep copies of the pink and white dispatch documents there for record keeping purposes.

The conferences will be addressed by Teagasc senior management. Professor Pat Dillon, Director of Research in Teagasc will speak to sheep farmers on Tuesday, 28 January in the Ard Rí House Hotel, Tuam, County Galway, while Professor Frank O’Mara, Teagasc Director will address the conference on Thursday, 30 January in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, County Meath.

For more details see www.teagasc.ie/sheepcon25

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