with thanks to Matthew Isaac
Maximising meat purely from grazed grass is the way to go to maintain a profitable business, says Matthew Isaac who together with his brother, Daniel farms over 600 acres in south Wales. “A mix of traditional and Innovis genetics perfectly fit the strategy, reducing labour and stress at lambing while annually leaving up to 15% more lambs reared, he says.
“Introducing the Aberfield to cross to our Welsh Glamorgan ewes has significantly boosted output with 10% to 15% more lambs reared than previous; they’re an easy to manage, healthy sheep and they’re smart looking. We then swapped our Texel terminal sire for the Abermax and achieved a further 15% more lambs reared. These lambs are finishing purely off grazed grass and the same system also maintains both ewe flocks in BCS 3.0 to 3.5, 365.”
We’ve always tried to farm with minimal inputs without cutting corners, and these genetics enable us to do that without any purchased inputs…
He continues: “We’ve always tried to farm with minimal inputs without cutting corners, and these genetics enable us to do that without any purchased inputs, we don’t need to grow fodder crops and apart from tidying thistles, we don’t need to use a topper. We also find we’ve now more time on our hands which we put to use in our diversification agri-engineering business.”
The Isaacs used to breed their own Welsh Glamorgan ewes and cross to homebred Texel tups for finished lamb production. “We had read about Innovis genetics, we liked what we saw and decided to invest in our first Aberfield tup in 2012. There was no turning back.
“Introducing the Aberfield Glamorgan has made things so much easier. Apart from these ewes being more prolific, they’re easier to lamb, make very good mothers and mastitis incidence is minimal. We lamb the 600 ewes outdoors in April and this year the job was completed within 2.5 weeks. We check the lambing paddocks throughout the day, however they do get on and lamb themselves.”
The Isaacs next decision was to replace their Texel tups with the Abermax. “Again, we found they were easier to lamb thanks to a combination of the ewes having a wider pelvis and the lambs narrower shoulders.
333 acres grassland, 730’ – 1,150’ plus 300 acres grassland off farm
600 Welsh Glamorgan ewes crossed to Aberfield
140% scan
125% reared
1 : 60 ram to ewes
900 Aberfield x Welsh Glamorgan ewes crossed to Abermax
183% scan
178% reared
18.5kg to 19kg target deadweight from 12 weeks
20-week ave age finished
65kg – 75kg ewe mature weight
1 : 90 ram to ewes
“Lambs are reaching 18.5kg to 19kg target deadweight from weaning at 12 weeks and most are gone by seven months of age. The majority are grading within spec with 70% Es and Us. After weaning, we weigh the lambs at two-week intervals to make sure they’re on track. We also weigh the ewes at weaning – they’re averaging 65kg to 75kg mature weight.”
Ewes and lambs are initially rotationally mob grazed, if the weather permits. “We stock at an average 200 ewes and lambs on 10 acres; I don’t measure sward height, I know from experience when it’s time to move on.”
After weaning, lambs continue on the mob grazing system and are rotated depending on seasonal growth including access to 30 to 40 acres of annual GS4 reseed mix. Dried off ewes are moved to older leys.
The Isaacs Innovis tups are working for an average four to five seasons. “When it comes to investing in new tups, we call up Innovis’s technical advisor, and ask him to pick the best to suit our flocks – we like to buy Elite Aberfields selected for maternal traits and Elite Abermax for growth and carcase weight traits. On arrival we find they are good sound sheep, and they go on to do what it says on the tin. We couldn’t ask for more than that.”
