Experiences feeding calf milk replacer to lambs?

[Jo Lupton]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of feeding calf milk powder to lambs and if it was/wasn't successful? I know lamb milk replacer is higher in fat and protein, but I've read that calf milk contains too much copper for lambs so is not viable.

 

[Cripper]

Feeding lamb milk by mistake to a calf scoured it but not badly

Feeding calf milk to aged lambs >3 weeks no ill effects. Never tried it with younger lambs

 

[neilo]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of feeding calf milk powder to lambs and if it was/wasn't successful? I know lamb milk replacer is higher in fat and protein, but I've read that calf milk contains too much copper for lambs so is not viable.

Copper aside, lambs grow purely on milk solids. Everything else is just water. Cow’s milk, or calf milk replacer mixed at the ‘calf’ recommended rates, is much lower in solids. Lambs reared like that well might well survive, but they won’t thrive and you will need to keep them on milk for longer to get to decent weaning weights. They will likely end up pot bellied as a result too.

To get the required level of solids into them, I guess you would have to mix ‘calf’ milk replacer at a higher concentration (exaggerating any mineral imbalances & toxicities), which means it wouldn’t be any cheaper than doing the job properly in the first place.
The same goes for rearing them on whole cow’s milk. It’ll rear them, but not as well as doing the job properly.

 

[SLA]

Calf milk powder no, the best lambs I ever reared have been fed on raw cows milk mixed with half rate lamb milk powder. Works very well, even better than goat milk.
I have been told that in the past they would use half rate lamb milk powder for calves and double rate calf milk powder for lambs, however I would imagine that the “science” has probably improved since then with a better understanding of the nutritional requirements of the different species.

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

Always rear any we have on cows milk and do ok maybe get to fat sometimes
Have heard quite a few use calf powder once they get going and seen plenty of pot bellied lambs fed on the expensive stuff. Think it's more about who's rearing them not what they're fed on
Also if it's about milk solids why do some keep a goat for lambs milk? Had some for a litter of pups recently and I would have said it was white water. Just my opinion though

 

[neilo]

Always rear any we have on cows milk and do ok maybe get to fat sometimes
Have heard quite a few use calf powder once they get going and seen plenty of pot bellied lambs fed on the expensive stuff. Think it's more about who's rearing them not what they're fed on
Also if it's about milk solids why do some keep a goat for lambs milk? Had some for a litter of pups recently and I would have said it was white water. Just my opinion though

How can it not be about milk solids? The only other component in milk is water. If the sole diet is milk, then it is only milk solids that they have to grow on.

Milk solids are also said to be converted at 100% in the first 3 weeks, a FCE that will never be matched again.

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

I didn't say it wasn't about milk solids
Just wondered about the difference between goats milk and cows milk as both are lower in solids than ewes milk

 

[Lili]

I've reared a lot of pet lambs on goats milk and they've always done better than any on lamb milk powder. Why? no idea.

 

[Agrivator]

I've seen lambs reared by the Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh on out-of-date Long-Life milk obtained from a nearby shop.
They were just about the healthiest pet lambs I've ever seen.