Feed Blocks Which Ones?

[Frank-the-Wool]

At this time of the year we seem to get to some of the not so good forage (rough grass) and feel the ewes appreciate a little supplement from feed blocks. Not lambing until April and the sheep are not in a place where they can be fed fodder beet or any other food.

In the past we have successfully used Crystalyx blocks which although expensive seem to have done the job and with no wastage.
However the latest price I have been given for high energy Crystalyx is eye watering and others especially the MVF ones which appear to be similar are far cheaper. However are they really cheaper when you come to use them?
Should I forget the high energy and just go for higher protein?

I would appreciate comments on people who are using a lot of them.

 

[Plopper]

I use the cheap Mole valley ones for ewes that are a bit thin at scanning every year right up to lambing and they do really well on them, not as much energy as the more expensive blocks in them though but would work well for what you want I think , they get through them quick though I would say you will want 2 or 3 per 100 ewes a week

 

[Al R]

Organic crystalyx were around £1320/tonne, ForFarmers organic tubs around £850/tonne.
Placing one of each in the field last year for ewes at point of lambing and they went down at similar rates.

I’ve got a field of triplets on stubble turnips so gave them a tub, worked it out the other day at 16gm/head/day - the label says intakes will be a minimum of 30gm/day so I’m happy their well under as I’m guessing their mineral status must be about right if their intakes are lower than recommended and their carrying triplets.

 

[andybk]

if on old pasture really need something with a few % urea content (feeds rumen bugs that breakdown celulose) so either crystalix , rumenco maxx , or downland optilix , but also needs to be hard enough for slow intake or ewes squit , the mvf or other buckets are more for energy / min / vit intake in run up to lambing and to avoid TLD and i dont think contain urea .

 

[Plopper]

if on old pasture really need something with a few % urea content (feeds rumen bugs that breakdown celulose) so either crystalix , rumenco maxx , or downland optilix , but also needs to be hard enough for slow intake or ewes squit , the mvf or other buckets are more for energy / min / vit intake in run up to lambing and to avoid TLD and i dont think contain urea .

the extra energy feed blocks from mvf contain urea and no squit that ive seen when feeding them .

 

[neilo]

Are the MVF blocks baked hard like Chrystalix? It’s that process that makes them hard enough to be a ‘licking’ block, rather than a (higher intake) ‘biting’ one.

Rumenco will likely be making them for others, as well as Downland. I know they make the Wynnstay Premier (baked) blocks, which are sometimes delivered on the Rumenco lorry straight from Burton-on-Trent, as the Downland ones are.

 

[neilo]

At this time of the year we seem to get to some of the not so good forage (rough grass) and feel the ewes appreciate a little supplement from feed blocks. Not lambing until April and the sheep are not in a place where they can be fed fodder beet or any other food.

In the past we have successfully used Crystalyx blocks which although expensive seem to have done the job and with no wastage.
However the latest price I have been given for high energy Crystalyx is eye watering and others especially the MVF ones which appear to be similar are far cheaper. However are they really cheaper when you come to use them?
Should I forget the high energy and just go for higher protein?

I would appreciate comments on people who are using a lot of them.

I use a few for tupping ewes on deferred grazing. In recent years I have used Rumenco Maxx, Downland Optilix and Wynnstay Premier. All have similar intakes to the Chrystalix I have used previously, and are manufactured in the same way. There are very small differences in the spec, usually in one of the minerals, although the Wynnstay ones have a higher protein (more urea) level too. Rumenco make all of them.

I’d happily use any of them, with the choice being purely on price.

 

[milkloss]

We found pigs and badgers appeared not to bother with the really hard crystallyx type blocks. Not too many pigs about now but there's plenty of badgers.

 

[Northumberland]

All Romneys need is grass....... lol

 

[neilo]

All Romneys need is grass....... lol

That reminds me of a farm walk I went on. The shepherd was busy telling us how he didn’t feed any concentrates to his (Lleyn iirc) ewes at all, doing them all on rotationally grazed grass. Piled at the side of the shed were literally hundreds of the red 100kg Lifeline buckets......

 

[FIL46]

I have tried them all with no noticeable difference other than price, stuck with SUPAlyx High Energy and Protein this year till lambing time starts then it will be megastarts . Paying £17.04 per tub or £750 per tonne.
https://www.rumenco.co.uk/products/sheep/mid-pregnancy/supalyx-high-energy-and-protein

https://www.scotmin.com/product/megastart-ewe-lamb-2/