Live Lambs KTIF - Improving Lamb Survival and Farm Profitability

Geographical location	Scotland United Kingdom
Main geographical location (NUTS3)	Perth & Kinross and Stirling
Keywords	sheep Animal husbandry and welfare benchmarking General
Agricultural sectors	Sheep & Goats meat
Main funding source	Rural development 2014-2020 for Operational Groups (in the sense of Art 56 of Reg.1305/2013)
Project type	Operational group
Starting date	2016
End date	2019
Project status	Ongoing

Title (in English):

Language:

English

Objective of the project (native language):

An existing group of sheep farmers in conjunction with their advisers, researchers and commercial companies would like to identify the main barriers to achieving an increase in the average number of lambs they rear per ewe, and identify solutions which improve farm profitability and viability, enhance animal welfare and reduce the carbon footprint of the sheep industries. Two key areas for investigation will be; improved nutrition to produce healthy well fed sheep, which in turn leads to more viable lambs, and reducing ewe and lamb mortality between scanning ewes and sale of lambs.

Objective of the project (in English):

Description of activities (in English):

This Operational Group will conduct detailed monitoring of five farms, over a three year period, which will help develop an innovative, holistic approach to flock management that maximises lamb survival and output per hectare for the sheep enterprise. Specific items to be covered include measurement of ewe condition score pre tupping and during pregnancy, a planned approach to abortion vaccine use, use of high DUP diets, monitoring of each flocks key performance figures, assessment of causes of lamb deaths, observation of lambing practice and assessment of lamb performance post lambing.

Total budget:

£81,000

Contact e-mail:

iain.riddell@sac.co.uk

Cross-border:

Project coordinator

Organization/Institution name (original language):

SAC Consulting

Contact person:

Iain Riddell

Address:

Sandpiper House, Ruthvenfield Road, Inveralmond Industrial Estate, Perth, PHI3EE, Scotland, UK

E-mail:

iain.riddell@sac.co.uk

Phone:

00447884118208

Partner category:

Adviser

Practice summary

Practice abstract 1

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

The group will meet twice per year and six times over the life of the project to discuss the findings from the five focus farms and relate this to their own farm situation through meetings pre and post lambing. Focus farm data and observations will be used to compare different farms performance and identify areas for improvement. Innovative tools, products and advice provided by fellow farmers, sheep specialists, research staff and commercial partners will assist the group in devising solutions, which will help reduce ewe and lamb losses and improve enterprise performance. The results of the on farm work will be shared with the Operational Group and the wider Scottish and EU sheep industry through a programme of events and a media campaign.

The three year timescale will provide an opportunity to monitor year on year improvement on the focus farms and through comments from the group, although it has to be accepted that factors such as weather at lambing can have a major impact on results.