Posted: 15 July 2025

Holiday Season – Don’t Miss the 90-Day Weighing Window

July and August are typically holiday months for many – a time to take a breather after the rush of lambing season, with indoor feeding behind us and ewes and lambs out on grass. Whether your break is just a few days away or a longer getaway, the farm jobs don’t stop – and neither should your performance recording.
If you want your sheep performance data to be meaningful when it comes to

selecting replacements or culling, it’s essential not to overlook key tasks like weighing lambs at 90 days. This is the cornerstone for tracking ewe productivity and making sound breeding decisions.
Select Sheepware helps you here – it converts lamb weights recorded between 70 and 140 days old into a calculated 90-day weight, linking them back to both dams and sires. Later in the year, when you’re making decisions, you’ll want to know which ewes are the top performers – usually measured by total 90-day lamb weight.
The number of lambs per ewe – whether singles, twins or triplets – also matters. For example:

• If you’ve got good fostering or artificial rearing facilities, you might favour ewes with a history of triplets: more lambs = more sale weight = more profit.
• If fostering is too labour-intensive or unreliable, you might prefer twin-bearers.
• For mountain flocks, you may select for ewes consistently producing singles, where resilience and survivability count.

Select Sheepware doesn’t make decisions for you – you remain in control – but it does make it easier. The software filters and sorts data based on your breeding goals, helping you make better-informed choices.
Weighing lambs is easier than ever. Using an Allflex (Agrident) stick reader with a Bluetooth weigher makes the process fast and accurate – especially when the right software is installed. For smaller flocks or setups without Bluetooth, the Select Sheepware app is a great solution. It allows you to record weights with your phone and sync them back to your PC software, which does all the calculations.
Just as the dairy industry embraced milk recording 20–30 years ago to improve genetics, more sheep farmers are now realising the value of lamb weight recording. It gives insights into:

• Ewe milking ability
• Mothering behaviour
• Lamb growth potential
• The best-performing rams and ewes

And for those recording with Sheep Ireland or Signet, Select Sheepware enhances your genetic evaluation by combining star ratings and indexes with real-world data – total 90-day weights and lambs reared – giving you a better basis for selection decisions than genetics alone.
George from TGM says: enjoy your well-earned holiday – everyone needs a break! But don’t forget to slot in that crucial 3-month lamb weighing. It could make all the difference when it comes to getting the best out of your software and your flock.

Please contact TGM if you need any assistance E: info@tgmsoftware.com or T: 028 9268 9681.