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* 1. In what county is your farm?

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* 2. Area of land farmed (include rented and commonage) - specify if your answer is in acres or hectares

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* 3. What age category are you in?

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* 4. What best describes your farming system?

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* 5. Details of your sheep numbers at time of census December 2023

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* 6. If you have a breeding flock, please state number of lambs on farm at weaning time in 2024 (including those sold at an earlier date)

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* 7. Do you work off the farm?

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* 8. If Yes how many hours on average per week do you work in your off farm job?

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* 9. How many days per year do you take annual leave from your off farm job to complete farming tasks e.g. lambing time, shearing, silage, mart/factory etc.

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* 10. How many different land blocks do you use for your sheep?

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* 11. Does the land you farm involve the transport of sheep by trailer between a number of different land blocks?

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* 12. For which of the following task do you use a contractor? (tick all that apply)

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* 13. Do you have designated sheep handling facilities? (not also used for cattle handling)

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* 14. If Yes, please indicate which of the following you use (tick all that apply)

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* 15. What length is the race in your main sheep handling unit (please state whether feet or metres)?

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* 16. Do you use a footbath for lameness prevention in your flock?

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* 17. If Yes, which of the following best describes your foot bathing facilities

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* 18. How many ewes can your footbath hold at one time?

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* 19. Tick all features on the list that you currently have as part of your handling facilities (tick all that apply)

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* 20. Do you feel that improving or adding features to your sheep handling facilities could reduce labour with your flock

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* 21. Which of the following best describe how your ewes are overwintered?

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* 22. If ewes are housed, for how many weeks pre lambing are they housed?

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* 23. If you house ewes, which housing type do you use?

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* 24. Have you availed of TAMS funding for any of the following? (tick all that apply)

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* 25. Do you identify problem ewes for culling on an ongoing basis throughout the year?

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* 26. Which of the following best describes your situation in terms of assistance with sheep work?

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* 27. Select the day of the week that sheep tasks are most often carried out (one answer only)

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* 28. Which of the following do you have in place on your farm? (tick all that apply)

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* 29. Rank the following from 1 to 6 for how you see they contribute to overall labour efficiency in carrying out your sheep farming activities (1 being most beneficial, 6 being least beneficial)

  1. Well trained sheepdog
  2. Quad/ATV/RTV
  3. Well designed sheep housing facilities
  4. Good sheep handling facilities
  5. Good sheep fencing
  6. Availability of help

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* 30. How many individual lambing pens do you have?

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* 31. Do you have a system to supply piped water to individual lambing pens eg drainage pipe or piped drinker for each pen?

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* 32. Do you have a hot water heating system and sink in place in the farmyard?

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* 33. Where it is not possible to cross foster surplus lambs at lambing, which of the following best describes how you manage other pet/surplus lambs

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* 34. Rank the following from 1 to 6 in terms of labour demand during the lambing season (1 being most time spent, 6 being least time spent)

  1. Dealing with problems ewes/weak lambs
  2. Dealing with surplus lambs (fostering, artificial rearing etc.)
  3. Looking after individual pens (feeding, water, bedding etc.)
  4. Delayed turn out due to weather (group pens)
  5. Observation and assisting ewes lambing
  6. Data collection, weighing, tagging lambs etc.

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* 35. Rank the following from 1 to 6 in terms of labour demand from turn out after lambing to weaning (1 being most time spent, 6 being least time spent

  1. Checking/herding sheep
  2. Feeding concentrates to ewes and/or lambs
  3. Lameness treatment
  4. Blowfly control/maggots
  5. Dosing/stomach worm control
  6. Shearing

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* 36. Rank the following from 1 to 6 in terms of labour demand from weaning to mating (1 being most time spent, 6 being least time spent

  1. Checking/herding sheep
  2. Feeding concentrates to lambs
  3. Lameness treatment
  4. Blowfly control/maggots
  5. Dosing/stomach worm control
  6. Weighing/drafting and selling lambs in mart/slaughter plant

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* 37. How regularly are lambs weighed/drafted for sale?

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* 38. Do you carry out other tasks such as worm treatment, mineral drenching, lameness treatment etc. when lambs are gathered for weighing/drafting?

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* 39. Rank the following from 1 to 6 in terms of labour demand from mating to lambing (1 being most time spent, 6 being least time spent

  1. Checking/herding sheep/monitoring breeding including applying raddle to rams
  2. Feeding forage/concentrates to ewes an/or lambs outdoors
  3. Lameness treatment
  4. Feeding, bedding etc of housed sheep
  5. Dosing/stomach worm control/liver fluke treatment
  6. Weighing/drafting and selling lambs in mart/slaughter plant

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* 40. Please list any measures you have taken on your farm which have reduced labour with your sheep flock

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* 41. Please list any measures you would like to implement on your farm which you feel would reduce labour with your sheep flock

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* 42. Have you already or are intending to reduce sheep numbers on your farm?

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* 43. Which of the following would be the main reason that would influence you to decide to reduce sheep numbers or get out of sheep altogether