THE LATEST findings of a project aimed at reducing lamb losses on Scottish farms will be shared during an open event at Glensaugh Research Farm in Aberdeenshire this Friday, July 14.

SAC Consulting – part of Scotland’s Rural College – is currently delivering the three year Scottish Government Rural Development Funded project, working with six focus farms around the main sheep areas of Scotland.

One year into the project, the project team will be sharing some initial findings during the event at Glensaugh, which will feature the experiences of Live Lambs Focus Farmers Duncan McEwan, of Arnprior near Stirling, and Andrew Baillie of Carstairs Mains, Carstairs – both previously QMS Monitor Farmers.

They will be joined by Aaron Byrnes, originally from Australia but now farming near New Deer in Aberdeenshire; Donald Barrie, farms manager at the James Hutton Institute hill farm at Glensaugh; and Peter Eccles, Lothians farm manager from Saughland Farm, Pathhead.

Their activity is boosted by additional information collected from SRUC’s Kirkton and Auchtertyre Farms near Crianlarich, and through the involvement of Mark Gray near Durham, funded through AHDB Beef and Lamb.

Sheep specialist at SAC Consulting Poppy Frater said: “Under the project, the farmers focus on the following five key areas – body condition scoring, abortion control, late pregnancy nutrition, lambing management and lamb loss recording.

“This helps to coordinate an effective whole farm management approach to achieve target scanning percentage and, more importantly, target rearing percentage.”

Ms Frater said the team at SAC Consulting react to issues and questions as they arise: “For instance, this year, there have been many questions relating to trace element nutrition. Therefore we conducted a trace element audit for each farm to compare what they are feeding with what the ewes require.”

The event will also feature presentations by nutritionist Karen Stewart, and veterinary investigation officer Heather Stevenson, who will deliver a technical session on trace element nutrition and related health issues.