“All the information that we need to make informed decisions on our flock is available in a simple to use app, to help weed-out our poor performing ewes or poor performing rams," said sheep farmer Tom Staunton.

"At the end of the day, more lambs is what we are looking for; more lambs from the same ewes, that’s the key.”

Tom is speaking about the brand new service for sheep farmers, Flockwatch.

Flockwatch has been created by the same team who developed Herdwatch, the easy-to-use app that is as much about monitoring herd performance as it is about compliance. Its existing members find it very useful to make better on-farm decisions and save an average of three hours/week on paperwork. 

Flockwatch is going to do the same thing for sheep farmers by allowing them to track flock performance and health, individually or in groups, to help make their farm businesses more sustainable and profitable. 

With Flockwatch, sheep farmers now have an app at their fingertips which will allow rapid capture of lambing, breeding, weighing, medicines records and more.

The Flockwatch app will highlight the best and worst performing ewes in order to make better decisions for the following season. 

Father and son team, Tom and Michael Staunton are based on the banks of Lough Mask in Co. Mayo.

Michael is no stranger to the Flockwatch app, having played a major role in the creation of the brand new sheep management tool as part of the Herdwatch team.

Michael illustrated the need for a sheep management app on the market to allow sheep farmers to become more profitable.

"Sheep farmers don't have an app like this, Flockwatch will enable us to make better decisions and at the end of the day when we make better decisions, we are going to have more lambs," he said.

Tom took over the family farm from his father back in the early 80s and up until ten years ago, ran a mixed-stock farm with both cattle and sheep, with a relatively small flock.

However, as time moved on, Tom felt the land didn’t suit cows well and decided to focus his attention solely on sheep. His flock is aptly named ‘Mask View’ as they graze the land overlooking the wonderful Lough Mask.

Throughout the years Tom worked tirelessly, increasing the flock size year in, year out, to where it is today, amounting to over 300 ewes now on farm.

The family run a pedigree flock of Bluefaced Leicesters and also cross breed ewes to produce mules which are part of the Mayo mule producer group. 

The next step to improve operations on the Staunton family farm is the introduction of Flockwatch.

“Performance recording has always been really important to us, being able to assess our flock and our management at the end of the year is key for us to enable us to make decisions," said Michael.

"To have all the information we need at our fingertips is invaluable for us.

"Being able to see all our sheep’s data on the spot will allow us to make decisions in minutes while out on farm when before, it would have taken hours of going over stuff in the evenings and trying to remember which ewes went lame or which ones were lambing down okay but might not have had the strongest maternal skills.

“Flockwatch is designed to help sheep farmers capture that information easily and ultimately sell more lambs.”

With over 300 ewes to get into the Flockwatch, Tom and Michael were able to use an electronic identification (EID) reader to add each animal easily and record the age, breed and gender very quickly for each.

“Getting our sheep into Flockwatch for the first time was a simple process," they said.

"If you have your sheep in a race or in the shed all you have to do is scan through them with an EID reader and there you have it. They go straight into the app and you start adding lambs, medicines or whatever you need to do then."

The most important aspect of keeping their records in the Flockwatch app for the Staunton’s revolves around breeding management.

“From a breeding perspective, Flockwatch is replacing the paper and excel records we had before but the makes the data much more accessible," said Tom.

"Later in the year, once the lamb is tagged, we can then start looking at weight gain analysis and track all of the performance data back to the breeding really.

“I wouldn’t be best with technology but it really is an easy-to-use app and is going to be an amazing tool for sheep farmers of all sizes out there.”

Flockwatch is a brand new service that will help farmers sell more lambs by tracking ewe and flock performance. It is brought to farmers by the same team that created Herdwatch in a simple, easy-to-use app.

To get started on Flockwatch today:

Step 1: Download the free Herdwatch app from the app or play store.

Step 2: Select 'Sheep' and you will be redirected to the Flockwatch app.

Alternatively, visit www.flockwatch.com for more information.