The IGA Sheep Event sponsored by Mullinahone co up, takes place on the sheep enterprise of Mountbellew Agricultural College on Thursday 27^th of August at 6.30pm.

The ATU College sheep enterprise consists of 155 mainly Suffolk X Belclare ewes run in a mixed grazing system with a suckler and dairy calf to beef enterprise. The ewes are stocked at 10 ewes per ha with a split lambing season to facilitate practical skills training for students. 50 ewes are synchronised to lamb in mid Feb in one cycle with the remainder of the flock lambing from mid-March. 45 Hoggets are retained for breeding each year and are mated to Charollais rams. Suffolk ewes are mated to Belclare rams, and the Belclare x ewes are mated to Suffolk rams. The flock in general is a highly prolific flock with the early lambers scanning at 2.10 and the mid-Season flock scanning at 2.45. The high scanning rate results in a number of lambs artificially reared and a batch of ewes rearing triplets. Ewes are all lambed indoors and are winter housed around the 20^th of December each year. The flock is monitored using Sheep Irelands LambPlus service therefore data on flock performance, lamb drafting for sale and ewe and ram performance will be available at the event.

The event will focus on flock performance, grassland management, genetics and lamb finishing for factory specifications.

Refreshments will be available at 6.00pm for all those who arrive early followed by the event and interviews with the College farm manager Ronan Grealis and enterprise Lecturer Barry Boner.