Irish minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Brendan Smith has announced a fresh cash injection into the Irish cattle and sheep breeding sector worth €1.08m. Around €880,000 will be invested into the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and an additional €200,000 will be pumped into Sheep Ireland, which is a newly established association linked with [...]
Strategic use of creep feed, attention to grassland management and the use of EID as a management tool, were the talking points at the recent Irish Grassland Association Sheep Conference, County Kilkenny, Ireland A demonstration of EID technology, used to collect data for a new Irish sheep genetic index, proved it could be put to [...]
Nematodirosis is a severe disease of 6-12 week old lambs, which become infected through ingesting large numbers of infected larvae present on contaminated pasture. Infection is characterised by profuse diarrhoea and wasting and mortalities in untreated lambs can be high. Nematodirus larvae invade the intestinal mucosa and in some cases death may occur before signs [...]
Speaking from Brussels, IFA President Padraig Walshe said the significantly increased modulation cuts on the Single Farm Payment agreed by the EU Farm Council overnight was another direct hit on the incomes of individual Irish farmers on top of the Government's own Budget cuts. Mr Walshe said however, the outcome of the EU negotiations gives [...]
IFA National Sheep Committee Chairman Henry Burns met the French Minister for Agriculture Mr Barnier in Paris together with Mr Liam Aylward MEP and a delegation of French Sheep Industry representatives. Mr Burns said he was very encouraged by the positive approach of Mr Barnier towards the sheep sector and his willingness to drive forward [...]
FROM the Nitrates Regulation point of view all livestock farmers should farm at less than, or equal to 170 Kilos of Organic N per hectare. A cow (irrespective of her weight or age is deemed to produce 85 Kilos of Organic Nitrogen (N) in a year (12 months). If you are farming at two cows [...]
By Michael Gottstein Farming Independent The most recent figures available (Dec 2006 sheep census) for sheep production suggest that there are 3.6m sheep (less than 3m ewes) and 35,277 flocks or producers engaged in sheep production. As has been the trend for the past number of years, the Irish sheep population continues to decline in [...]
By Maeve Dineen Tuesday January 08 2008 Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) sheep chairman, Mervyn Sunderland, has said that early 2008 presents an opportunity for sheep farmers. "The clever farmer will bargain hard at this stage, because even though €3.65 is being offered, there is more to be got. There was an excess [...]
Foot infections and the associated lameness are major health issues for sheep farms. Studies carried out on Irish sheep farms have shown that keeping lameness below the target 5pc is a major challenge. Over the Christmas period many mid-season lambing flocks will be housed. During the housing period, sheep farmers have an opportunity to get [...]
Michael McHugh, a marketing specialist with the Irish farm advisory service, reckons that for sheep in New Zealand to compete with the dairy sector, the price of lambs sold direct from farmers needs to be closer to £40 per head. It is little wonder then that more than three million ewes have recently disappeared in [...]
