Michael Gottstein re-joins us for the second part of the episode on store lambs, with a focus on those purchasing lambs.    He highlights the importance of getting health treatments in place on arrival and what impact this has.  We discuss expected performance, diets and mineral nutrition particularly for those lambs that will be intensively finished on farms, and explain the importance of feed and financial budgets and what hill flocks can do to improve saleability.  You can find the store lamb calculator at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/financial-management/  For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

We’re joined over the next two episodes by Michael Gottstein, Head of Sheep knowledge Transfer in Teagasc, to discuss store lambs.  In this first part, Michael discusses the current market condition for stores, some of the challenges and the potential of store lamb finishing.  We discuss the options for lowland and hill farmers with remaining lambs on farms, the importance of feed and financial budgets and what hill flocks can do to improve saleability.  For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

David Coen from Sheep Ireland is on this week’s OviCast to talk about progress in breeding in the hill sector. David discusses the impact hill genetics has on the national flock, SIS scheme and ram eligibility.  We discuss the work by the 17 breeding groups over the past year to get rams genotyped and the impact this has had on developing flock books. Finally we finish up with David discussing how breeders can build on this going forwards to improve genetic improvement in hill flocks. Some links discussed in this week’s episode to search for potential rams or to sign up to Sheep Ireland are:Ram Search:https://appsh.sheep.ie/ram-searchRam sales/catalogues:https://www.sheep.ie/?page_id=29Sign up online form:https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=AH5m37xZikKh2Tgra-Oid02OFzIK2SJKuUbHvUCuGqJURVpMT1ZLRU02RkxPTDdGTkhFRFNKNFpLTS4uFor more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Dr. Fiona Mc Govern is on this week’s OviCast to discuss the impact of ewe condition at mating on ewe productivity.  Fiona discusses the usefulness of body condition scoring as a management tool.  She also explains the impact of condition on litter size and its carry over effects on lambing assistance, lamb birth weight and productivity next spring.  We finish up with Fiona discussing the importance of getting condition right this autumn to build ewe body reserves.   For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Dr. Finbarr O’Regan from the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) Inspectors joins us on this week’s OviCast.  Finbarr discusses the introduction of the National Fertiliser Database and the fertiliser register taking us through the key dates, registration process and how it will work for the coming season including some of the implications for both merchants and farmers.  We finish up discussing the importance of entering the closing stocks this autumn. For more information visit the DAFM National Fertiliser Database page at:https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/98355-national-fertiliser-database/  For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast