A switch from a traditional lowland ewe flock to milking sheep has improved the profitability of a Cumbrian farm and added a new dimension to its visitor attraction. However, the Friesland ewes producing high quality milk for cheese production developed listeriosis problems from the big bale silage they were being fed, resulting in deaths and lost production. Simon Peet, who runs Langwathby Hall Farm at Langwathby, near Penrith alongside the family animal feed business Jim Peet Agriculture (JPA), managed to tackle the disease by using a biological inoculant on the big bale silage. After losing the farm's 900-ewe lowland flock in the 2001 foot and mouth cull, the decision was taken to re-stock with milk sheep. Not only did they prove more profitable, but they also provided an added visitor attraction for the open farm, Eden Ostrich World. The Friesland ewes' milk averages 7% butterfat and 6% protein and as a result it takes less than half as much of the ewes' milk as cows' milk to make a kilo of cheese. A small amount of milk is made into ice cream for the visitor centre shop. Forage, and particularly silage during the winter months, is an important part of the ewes' diet for milk production. Two thirds of the flock are bred pure to produce replacements and, through a careful selection process, milk production has risen to average 285 litres a ewe, rising to a maximum of 600 litres from the highest yielders. Two thirds of the flock is lambed at the end of January-early February after being dry for three months. A second batch, which includes some of the younger sheep, follows on in April and May. "We will be milking 220 ewes this year, said Simon Peet. "Currently we're milking 170, which are yielding as much milk as the 260 we were milking in our second year of the flock. "The forage is the most important part of the diet for our milk sheep from when they are housed at the beginning of December. We try to keep intakes as high as possible as silage is the only feed they have outside the parlour. "It was during our second year with the flock that the listeriosis problem developed and we realised it was caused by the big bale silage. As a result, we lost about a dozen ewes, some of them older sheep which were giving more milk. "At the time the flock was averaging 200 litres a ewe and the sheep deaths accounted for around £2,000 in lost milk sales as well as the replacement value of the sheep. Ewe lambs are worth £150 a head while good milking sheep in their second or third year are worth nearer £300 each." The bacterial cause of listeriosis, Listeria monocytogenes, proliferates in soil, faeces and rotting vegetation and can replicate at low environmental temperatures. The bacteria can also tolerate the high temperatures which are sometimes generated during aerobic fermentation of poor silage. In anaerobic conditions, it cannot survive below pH 5.6 but in poorly consolidated silage with some oxygen present it can survive at pH levels as low as 3.8. The switch was made to clamp silage which helped alleviate the problem, but Simon prefers to feed the softer big bale silage to the sheep. JPA began to sell Sil-All4x4 biological inoculant and Simon decided to try it three years ago. He recalls that the weather at the time was unpredictable and the crop taken at the end of May beginning of June did have rain on it. With four complementary lactic acid-producing bacteria and four different sugar-releasing enzymes, Alltech's Sil-All4x4 offers an unrivalled formulation to maximise the quality of ensiled grass or other green forages by improving fermentation and enhancing feed value. Added versatility and reliability stem from the first ever inclusion in a forage inoculant of Lactobacillus salivarius. The specially selected strain of this beneficial bacteria provides fermentingpower in extremes of temperature and pH that no other formulation can claim. "We try to get as good a wilt on the grass as possible, almost like haylage," adds Simon Peet. "After mowing we wilt it for a full day and then row it up and let it wilt for another day, depending on the weather conditions. Last year instead of using a haybob we used a rowing-up machine to minimise soil contamination of the grass. "This winter the silage has been outstanding. I have never seen round bale silage so palatable. When we took the wraps off there was no mould. "The big bale silage made last year was 41% dry matter at 12.7 % protein and a D value of 76. ME was 10.6 MJ/kg and pH was 4.6. We have only had two cases of listeriosis this year, both coinciding with buying in silage as we had run out of our own. It has definitely been worth using the inoculant." Last year's silage crop was made off 45 acres which also fed the farm's 35-cow suckler herd. The ewes are flat-rate fed in the parlour with sheep nuts for lambing ewes. The ewes are susceptible to copper poisoning and the ration they receive contains molybdenum and sulphur which locks up the copper. | 
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Enterprise North East
Evening Gazette's
