William Egerton 31 County Fermanagh
Growing up on a progressive sheep and beef farm in Northern Ireland, William has always been open to new ideas and technologies - and it was clear during the ambassador interview process the enthusiasm for the latest advances was a passion of his. Despite much exposure to this, William enjoys learning and is looking to build on his knowledge and experience gained on the programme. He comments: “Many farms are not familiar with the technology available to them and how it could help their farms reach their full potential. I hope I can share my experience as well as learn more about this with my fellow ambassadors and others I meet during the programme.” As well as his family farm experience running 250 ewes, a suckler herd and finishing beef cattle, William has also spent time in Scotland working on larger enterprises and enjoyed the opportunity to view different systems. He now is looking forward to visiting the range of farms explored as part of the ambassador delivery sessions.
Feb/March Update
With the challenging year of 2023 now becoming a distant memory and with 2024 of to a fantastic start with being chosen as one of this year’s ambassadors, I am looking forward to what the rest of this year has in store. With spring just around the corner and all my ewes housed for lambing I am currently preparing my lambing shed for all the new born lambs that’s to come. I am involved in a grasscheck program and I will be doing my first walk of the paddocks to measure the grass covers this weekend. One of the key take home messages from the first ambassador session was, the key to a successful lambing is cleanliness which is why pre-lambing I wash all lambing pens and disinfect. Lambing time can be one of the most rewarding and yet stressful times of year and unfortunately for me this year I had a poorer than normal scanning which will result in less pet lambs but as with previous experience I’m sure there will be no less hardship.
April/May Update
Lambing has now finished and to say it was challenging would be an understatement. It lasted exactly six weeks which is a week longer than last year but that was due to a management decision the thinking was to stretch it out slightly this year to take the pressure of the lambing pens, but thanks to mother nature weather was less than favorable. At one stage I had 70 ewes in the house with lambs on them although this might not be a lot for some with a flock of 250 ewes it was challenging for me. The sheep are now all in their main batches and started on their paddock systems. Grass growth has been pretty good this year and I cut my first surplice grass on the 22nd of April averaging 5 bales to the acre. This is my first ever time cutting in April. Lambs have now received their first wormer and been weighed with the older batch averaging 300g dlwg and the younger ones on 270g dlwg I am very happy with how they are preforming considering how harsh the weather has been. Over the coming weeks I’ll be trying to control weeds and monitoring my grass wedge ensuring I cut surplus grass while maintaining a good quality grazing platform to help the lambs thrive.
June/July Update
It is now July and the farm is still pretty busy, the oldest lambs have been weaned a couple of days averaging 34kg each which is 3kg up on last year. The remainder of the lambs will be weaned in a couple of weeks. Grass over the past two months has been extremely hard to manage with May being warm and wet I had an average growth of over 100kg of dry matter per hectare, then in June the weather turned very cold and grass growth stalled with it all going to seed head but through topping and taking paddocks out for bales, I have now regained control of the grass and now there is good quality grass +in front of the lambs. Recently I hosted two farm walks on grazing management and parasite control, both of which were really well supported with over thirty farmers at each. I really enjoy having groups on farm showcasing what I’m doing. I find it not only helps other farmers but myself as well, everyone always has a story or a solution to share.
August/September Update
It’s now mid-September, lambs are starting to finish well now after a very wet August were lambs had stalled. I had plenty of good quality grass but with everything being so wet the lambs weren’t getting the value from it so I started to introduce concentrates at 300grams per head per day. I have also picked out 55 of my best ewe lambs for breeding these were selected using the figures that I have collected over the years. With the remainder of my ewe lambs nearly all sold of farm to returning customers. Attention is now turning to the next breeding season, I got a selection of ewe’s blood sampled lately and it showed up an iodine deficiency. Going by these results I decide to bolus all my ewes and ewe lambs this year. Routinely every year I weigh and body condition score my ewes before tupping the Lleyns averaged 65kg while the Suffolk’s averaged 70kg and any ewes that are down in flesh go to better grass before the rest. I find this information very useful as it allows me to see how well the ewe is preforming compared to the rest.
Growing up on a progressive sheep and beef farm in Northern Ireland, William has always been open to new ideas and technologies - and it was clear during the ambassador interview process the enthusiasm for the latest advances was a passion of his. Despite much exposure to this, William enjoys learning and is looking to build on his knowledge and experience gained on the programme. He comments: “Many farms are not familiar with the technology available to them and how it could help their farms reach their full potential. I hope I can share my experience as well as learn more about this with my fellow ambassadors and others I meet during the programme.” As well as his family farm experience running 250 ewes, a suckler herd and finishing beef cattle, William has also spent time in Scotland working on larger enterprises and enjoyed the opportunity to view different systems. He now is looking forward to visiting the range of farms explored as part of the ambassador delivery sessions.
Feb/March Update
With the challenging year of 2023 now becoming a distant memory and with 2024 of to a fantastic start with being chosen as one of this year’s ambassadors, I am looking forward to what the rest of this year has in store. With spring just around the corner and all my ewes housed for lambing I am currently preparing my lambing shed for all the new born lambs that’s to come. I am involved in a grasscheck program and I will be doing my first walk of the paddocks to measure the grass covers this weekend. One of the key take home messages from the first ambassador session was, the key to a successful lambing is cleanliness which is why pre-lambing I wash all lambing pens and disinfect. Lambing time can be one of the most rewarding and yet stressful times of year and unfortunately for me this year I had a poorer than normal scanning which will result in less pet lambs but as with previous experience I’m sure there will be no less hardship.
April/May Update
Lambing has now finished and to say it was challenging would be an understatement. It lasted exactly six weeks which is a week longer than last year but that was due to a management decision the thinking was to stretch it out slightly this year to take the pressure of the lambing pens, but thanks to mother nature weather was less than favorable. At one stage I had 70 ewes in the house with lambs on them although this might not be a lot for some with a flock of 250 ewes it was challenging for me. The sheep are now all in their main batches and started on their paddock systems. Grass growth has been pretty good this year and I cut my first surplice grass on the 22nd of April averaging 5 bales to the acre. This is my first ever time cutting in April. Lambs have now received their first wormer and been weighed with the older batch averaging 300g dlwg and the younger ones on 270g dlwg I am very happy with how they are preforming considering how harsh the weather has been. Over the coming weeks I’ll be trying to control weeds and monitoring my grass wedge ensuring I cut surplus grass while maintaining a good quality grazing platform to help the lambs thrive.
June/July Update
It is now July and the farm is still pretty busy, the oldest lambs have been weaned a couple of days averaging 34kg each which is 3kg up on last year. The remainder of the lambs will be weaned in a couple of weeks. Grass over the past two months has been extremely hard to manage with May being warm and wet I had an average growth of over 100kg of dry matter per hectare, then in June the weather turned very cold and grass growth stalled with it all going to seed head but through topping and taking paddocks out for bales, I have now regained control of the grass and now there is good quality grass +in front of the lambs. Recently I hosted two farm walks on grazing management and parasite control, both of which were really well supported with over thirty farmers at each. I really enjoy having groups on farm showcasing what I’m doing. I find it not only helps other farmers but myself as well, everyone always has a story or a solution to share.
August/September Update
It’s now mid-September, lambs are starting to finish well now after a very wet August were lambs had stalled. I had plenty of good quality grass but with everything being so wet the lambs weren’t getting the value from it so I started to introduce concentrates at 300grams per head per day. I have also picked out 55 of my best ewe lambs for breeding these were selected using the figures that I have collected over the years. With the remainder of my ewe lambs nearly all sold of farm to returning customers. Attention is now turning to the next breeding season, I got a selection of ewe’s blood sampled lately and it showed up an iodine deficiency. Going by these results I decide to bolus all my ewes and ewe lambs this year. Routinely every year I weigh and body condition score my ewes before tupping the Lleyns averaged 65kg while the Suffolk’s averaged 70kg and any ewes that are down in flesh go to better grass before the rest. I find this information very useful as it allows me to see how well the ewe is preforming compared to the rest.
