Management of pregnant ewes will be up for discussion at the second meeting of the Shetland monitor farm later this week.
Two sisters – Kirsty and Aimee Budge – are the monitor farm hosts for the Shetland region at their Bigton Farm, which is located on the west side of the Shetland south mainland.
The farm is one of nine farms taking part in the new monitor farm programme being run by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds.
Funded by a £1.25million grant from the Scottish Government, the scheme aims to help improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Scottish farm businesses.
Bigton stretches across 740 acres of mainly permanent pasture and intensive grassland. The Budge sisters run 240 Shetland cross Cheviot ewes, and 70 Salers cross Shorthorn suckler cows.
The next meeting at Bigton, which takes place on Saturday, April 1, will focus on ewe management with a view to discussing how to improve scanning percentages and lamb survival rates.
Starting at Bigton Hall at 11am, the Budge sisters will start the meeting by explaining how they manage their ewes in the run up to lambing.
In 2016, Bigton ewes scanned at 157%, and this increased to 164% this year. However the sisters, who have managed the farm since 2014 with support from their family, are really keen to improve their current rearing percentage of 109%.
Kirsty said: “Bigton generally has a good scanning percentage but we lose a lot of lambs before weaning.
“So we are keen to hear from others on Shetland about how we can improve this as clearly every lamb successfully reared makes an important contribution to our farm income.
“We would also like to learn why some of our ewes lose their lambs after scanning and hope that others who farm on Shetland will share their experiences so that all the flockowners in Shetland can benefit and reduce losses in their own flocks.”
Other topics up for discussion at Saturday’s meeting include the importance of condition scoring ewes, ewe health and tips on how to save hypothermic lambs. Speakers include Graham Fraser from SAC Consulting and Jim Tait of Shetland Vets.
The meeting, which runs until 3pm, is free to attend however farmers and crofters are asked to register in advance by contacting Mr Fraser on 01595 693520, or email frbslerwick@sac.co.uk.