Sheep on tack - important changes

The wet September conditions mean a lot of cows have been housed sooner than usual. Growing conditions have been good and many farms have a lot of grass cover. There may be a temptation to utilise this grass with young stock but beware as heifers are unlikely to achieve more than 0.4kg of gain per day (compared to the 1.2kg of gain possible in April and May) so supplementation is likely to be needed.
The other option is to have tack sheep which can generate a useful income as well as improving sward condition for good quality silage and grazing next spring. There have, however, been changes to the records that need to kept for sheep on tack.

The dairy holding receiving the sheep needs to have a holding register. This is available from DEFRA on 020 7238 6575 or you can download it on line at www.defra.gov.uk

• In the holding register you should record all sheep movements on and off the holding, including deaths, and keep a running total of sheep numbers. This is needed in addition to the familiar animal movement license and entry in the farm movement book. It is the responsibility of the dairy farmer to keep this holding register and failure to do so may jeopardise SFP payments.
• As before it is important that the sheep arriving have the appropriate ear tags as it is the dairy farmer that will be liable if the tags are not correct, so ensure that they are in order at delivery.
• IBERS (formerly IGER) has shown that grazing up to the end of January does not affect spring growth but grazing in February will reduce spring grass growth by up to 20% especially in wet winters.

Summary

Provided you keep the correct paperwork tack sheep could be beneficial this autumn but make sure that they do not outstay their welcome and go home at the end of January at the latest.