This week Welsh farming programme 'Ffermio' headed to Llansawel in Carmarthenshire to visit young couple Sion and Claire Williams. Last year the pair took on a 10 year lease of a 255 acre farm, and in the past 12 months have built up stock numbers to 1,000 breeding ewes, including Aberdales, Mules, Texel Mules and some purebred Texels.
The programme focused on how Government grant's for newcomers into agriculture have helped Sion and Claire to stock the farm and reseed 70 acres within the first 12 months of tenancy. There was a big focus on the Aberdale ewes that Sion has purchased over the past year, both the Aberdale Welsh and Aberdale Dorset ewes. Sion explained that Aberdale ewes carry the Inverdale prolificacy gene, which makes them very fertile. The idea for the Aberdales over time is to run them tight on one half of the farm, and finish lambs and keep his other ewes on the other half of the farm. Two days before filming, Sion scanned the 170 Aberdale Dorset yearling ewes that are due to lamb indoors in January. It just happens to be that the ewes scanned higher than any other Aberdale ewes have ever scanned, at just under 250%, including two ewes to scan for 5 lambs, the first time any Aberdale ewes will ever have given birth to 5 lambs!
It was evident to see on the programme that the ewes were looking very well, and are good strong ewes to cope with a heavy load of lambs. Sion explained that he was happy with the ewes that had scanned as triplets, but he is a little more worried about how the ewes scanned with 4 and 5 lambs will get on. Innovis will be working closely with Sion and Claire over the coming weeks, working out appropriate feed rations for the ewes and considering what the best options are for the extra lambs, such as hiring in a lamb feeding machine.
The coverage of Aberdales on 'Ffermio' highlights just how prolific Aberdale ewes can potentially be, especially for early lambing ewes that are being flushed in April - May when grass quality is at it's peak, and Aberdale ewes do not need flushing! Last year the average flock scan result for Aberdale ewes was 192%, up from 186% the year before. These results highlight that Aberdale ewes generally scan between the range of 185-205%, but if grass quality is too good and there is too much feed available, they will be flushed and scan higher. This was the case for Sion, as he is starting out on a new farm in a very fertile area, and being under stocked has meant that the ewes have had a better place for tupping that he would have planned on giving them.
Over the coming months we will keep updating you on how the Aberdales are performing with Sion, including feedback on how lambing goes, what system Sion decides to go for in coping with the extra lamb numbers, and to see how many kg of lamb is reared per ewe and what return that gives him next year. Watch this space to keep updated!
If you would like to watch the programme, follow the link below. If you don't understand Welsh but would like to see the programme, English subtitles are available.
http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/c_level2.shtml?series_id=469907094
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