OviCast

The National Sheep Welfare Scheme

David Buckley from the Department of Agriculture is on this week’s OviCast to discuss key aspects of the new National Sheep Welfare Scheme.  David first gives an overview of the scheme, we discuss eligibility, reference numb…

The key management tasks to do at present

Sheep Specialists, Michael Gottstein and Damian Costello, are on this week’s OviCast to discuss some of the key management tasks to do on farms at present.  We discuss fertiliser application, planning for silage and grazing …

Nematodirus forecast 2024

Dr. James O’Shaughnessy from the Department of Agriculture’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Backweston joins us on the latest OviCast to discuss this year’s Nematodirus forecast.  James first explains the conditio…

Managing challenging grazing conditions

For this week’s OviCast, we discuss grazing management with Dr Philip Creighton.  With the challenging conditions we discuss the grazing situation around the country, opening covers and the impact of delayed fertiliser appli…

Sheep trade update

Sheep and Schemes editor from the Irish Farmers Journal, Darren Carty, is on this week’s OviCast to talk about the current sheep trade.  With prices hitting new highs we chat about the trade at the moment.  Dar…

Preventing grass tetany post turnout

Grass tetany is one of the challenges in early spring and on this week’s OviCast, Teagasc Sheep Specialist, Damian Costello, talks to us about this in more detail.  Damian explains how it occurs, the pre-disposing factors an…

Hill Flocks: feeding & health advice in the run up to lambing

Sheep specialist, Michael Gottstein, is on this week’s OviCast to discuss some timely advice for hill flocks in the run up to lambing.  Michael discusses some of the key areas to focus on this spring highlighting how ewe con…

How to correctly set up a fertiliser spreader

When focusing on improving fertiliser use efficiently, one often overlooked aspect for the return on investment is the fertiliser spreader itself.  For this episode of OviCast I’m joined by Teagasc machinery specialist, Fran…

Scanning, condition score and preparing for lambing on the BETTER farms

For this week’s OviCast, we catch up with Dr Frank Campion to get an update on the BETTER farm sheep flocks. We discuss this year’s scanning results, dealing with issues and benchmarking performance. We move on to ewe condition sco…

Vet lab submissions

For this week’s OviCast, we’re joined by Seamus Fagan from the Department of Agriculture’s regional veterinary lab in Athlone.  As a follow-on from his talk at the recent Sheep Conference, we discuss the importance of record…