Flushing ewes, which involves increasing their feed before and during tupping to improve ovulation, has been a common practice for many years. However, with advancements in sheep management, grazing strategies, and modern techniques like sponging, using teaser rams, and selecting fertile tups, flushing may be becoming less necessary.

Egg shell quality is mostly influenced before the egg is laid. The thickness of the shell is directly related to the time the egg spends in the shell gland—generally, the longer it remains in the gland, the thicker the shell will be. This means that eggs laid earlier in the day tend to have thicker shells compared to those laid later.

Focus: Improving Soil Management

For livestock farmers, soil management is often overlooked in favour of more immediate concerns like animal health and feed supply. There seems to be a misconception that the soil will grow crops regardless how its farmed.

Well, what a strange weather year this is turning out to be?!
Some of you are saying that you have had one of your best grass years and others of you are saying that the rain never seems to have stopped falling from the sky?! One of the main reasons that we all love agriculture is that no two days, seasons or farms are the same. At a time where we are seeing fluctuating markets, challenging harvesting windows, high costs, what can we hope to achieve by 'controlling the controllables'?