- Location
- North devon
Hi has anyone reared orphan lambs on a ad lib milk heatwave if so how well did they grow.
Milk heatwave for lambs
- Thread starter Smokey16
- Start date
I have, they do better than been on the ewe. It depends on how long you leave the lambs on milk
Timbo
Member
- Location
- Gods County
Dont be under any illusion that you will make any profit though
M-J-G
Member
We reared about 30 this year and 40 odd last year, I just put teats and pipes in a big crystalyx tub and set it inside another that had water and an £8 fish tank heater.
Milk doesn't sour if mixed every day.
The only way I could make it easier is to get an auto feeder.
I'd wondered about a heatwave but I've yet to see any way of labour saving sive milk has ro be mixed manually anyway.
Milk doesn't sour if mixed every day.
The only way I could make it easier is to get an auto feeder.
I'd wondered about a heatwave but I've yet to see any way of labour saving sive milk has ro be mixed manually anyway.
LuckyEleven
Member
- Location
- Brittany
slighlty obvious question maybe but once the lambs have become accustomed to drinking from the bottle, whats the advantage of warm milk? I only heat it for the first week or so and they seem to do fine.
M-J-G
Member
I suppose it depends on when you lamb and your climate, we're often getting pretty hard frosts and significant windchill until well into and even after lambing, so I think warm milk helps keep pets stay warm when they dont have a ewe to lay next to in their early days.
A fish tank heater isn't hard to run for a month, I do go over to cold milk once they get a few weeks
Last edited:
- Location
- North devon
Do you think they grow quicker on a heatwave then being on a ewe.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
If you manage them well, artificially reared lambs will do as well as those on the ewes. The machine used to supply the milk ad-lib makes little difference to that, just to the amount of work involved.
We used to rear plenty of calves on a couple of feeders that were very similar, heating milk as it passed through a coiled pipe sat in a heated water bath. Worked well enough, at little cost. Better than heating the whole vat of milk to multiply bacteria imo.
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Same here re teats into a mineral bucket... but I don't bother with the water bath.
New born lambs go onto the shepherdess for a week/10 days, then move onto the open bucket with teats. The milk is mixed warm, fresh twice a day. Once the lambs are going well, the milk temp is reduced until they're getting it cold - keep them on it til the youngest lambs are 5-6 weeks old then wean the whole lot.
Been doing this for a couple years now and they do much better with this than they ever did on warm milk in the shepherdess. Can't really see a heatwave doing any better a job
Yes. 4 weeks on milk, and a very good starter lamb pellet then abruptly wean off.
Talking with my neighbour today, who tends to whip triplet lambs, straight onto powder. He uses a simple bucket and warm milk, then move to cold asap. Very happy with the system, which is very similiar to how I reared calves 40 years ago...
His argument is that feeding cold reduces bacterial issues in the milk.
I like teh sound of this idea a lot. A DIY heated bath is a very simple idea indeed, just need a bit longer bit of pipe to act as the heat exchanger...? Copper would not like the acid in the milk, so stainless or plastic?
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Iirc, those feeders had a length of coiled plastic pipe in the heated water bath, probably coiled plastic air hose?
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
It's a simple job which people try to be smart at and over complicate - usually because the College has told them so
Once they're a week old it's a waste of time giving hot/warm milk IME - and you run the risk of Red Gut.
The milk stays fresher for longer cold so yes there's bound to be less bugs
I used to feed warm until they were weaned off it and lambs always looked shyte and we're here til well on in the year. Can't remember when I switched to the method of rearing above but since, the pet lambs go away mixed with the rest of the lamb crop and can't be picked out coming off the trailer at market or abattoir
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It's a simple job which people try to be smart at and over complicate - usually because the College has told them so
Once they're a week old it's a waste of time giving hot/warm milk IME - and you run the risk of Red Gut.
The milk stays fresher for longer cold so yes there's bound to be less bugs
I used to feed warm until they were weaned off it and lambs always looked shyte and we're here til well on in the year. Can't remember when I switched to the method of rearing above but since, the pet lambs go away mixed with the rest of the lamb crop and can't be picked out coming off the trailer at market or abattoir
Mine go likewise, but a lot will have had warm milk right through to weaning.
Not because I think it's necessary but because I have one machine feeding older lambs, as well as new ones going onto it.
I do turn the temperature down when the last ones have been on a week or so, which is usually early May.
Norfolk Hill Farmer
Member
What make of milk powder do people put through the heat wave ? Have found some makes will gum the coil up.
Timbo
Member
- Location
- Gods County
You're meant to run the hypochlorite through it every couple/ three days for this reason
Carrs own brand, I think lamblac make it for them
I'm using a ewe2 feeder. They run it down to nearly empty and the bucket gets rinsed out with some hot bleachy water and then pull some.hot bleachy water through the pipes and then flush with fresh milk. Job done. Maybe 5 minutes total including chucking them some fresh straw and creep. The best I've ever done them was on bottles with fresh cows milk. They grew like weeds and even better the milk was free but id doesnt keep warm in the feeder without going to cheese! Time is in short supply nowadays otherwise I'd go back to bottles and raw milk.