The benefits of raddling rams

Sheep specialist, Damian Costello, joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to discuss why farmers should consider raddling rams this breeding season. Damian discusses the two types used - either raddle paste or ram harnesses - and offers tips on their use and ways to leave it easier to catch rams to top these up. He explains which order different raddle colours should be and discusses how to make use of changing raddle colour to better predict lambing date and plan feeding programmes in late pregnancy. Damian and Ciarán discuss how raddling can be used to monitor ram fertility and the level of repeats and finally Damian offers some practical tips to safeguard against this in flocks. For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast