Feeding ewe lambs before lambing

[Fly]

Got 200 cheviot mule & texel x ewe lambs due to lamb on March 20th - made a pretty good job of f*****g up their feed last year (basically fed them too much too close to lambing and had some disasters with big lambs) and looking to do better this time. They will be out at grass (moderate gras) up until around 2 weeks before lambing and then they will come inside. Would be interested to hear how people are going about feeding ewe lambs in the run up to lambing. what? how much? how little? Thanks in adance

 

[neilo]

Mine will be on grass until they finish the last rotation later this week, then they will be strip grazed on turnips (tight, and expected to clear every last bit) until mid March. Then they will go onto a very tightly stocking 20-25/ac) lambing paddock with the single bearing ewes. That particular paddock is old parkland and still bare now, but I might give them some round bale hay if it’s still completely bare. They have been bolused to get trace elements in.

I want them to grow on slowly, without getting too fat, then hold them tight at lambing to stop lambs getting too big. Once they’ve lambed, they will be shed into some decent grass after a couple of days.

If I was going to house them, I’d introduce them to concentrates just before, so as to avoid a big change at housing. Then only a small amount once they are in, depending on the forage.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Ours will be out at good grass until the end of March (lambing 10th April). If the weather goes bad they get haylage. I start trickling SBP too them (1/4lb each/day) In the middle of March. Too get them all eating before lambing as much as anything else. As long as they are in good order that’s all I’m aiming for. They come in start of April and go on Haylage, mollases and 1/2lb concs a day. Get the odd massive single, but it is only the odd one and I think it’s better than a load of small weak rats and hoggs with no milk?

 

[Bill dog]

I’m putting out my first bale of haylage to the ewe lambs tomorrow as the place is frozen . I’m lambing from the 5 th April, but mine will stay outside on haylage and optilix sweetie tubs . They may get introduced to hard feed with a month to go , but all plans are weather dependent!

 

[neilo]

Ours will be out at good grass until the end of March (lambing 10th April). If the weather goes bad they get haylage. I start trickling SBP too them (1/4lb each/day) In the middle of March. Too get them all eating before lambing as much as anything else. As long as they are in good order that’s all I’m aiming for. They come in start of April and go on Haylage, mollases and 1/2lb concs a day. Get the odd massive single, but it is only the odd one and I think it’s better than a load of small weak rats and hoggs with no milk?

I think you will always get the odd big one, however hard you keep them. Anyone saying otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.

 

[DrWazzock]

With any breeding stock, if one or two haven't died of starvation then somebody will tell you you have overfed them.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I think you will always get the odd big one, however hard you keep them. Anyone saying otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.

Think the same goes for the pair of twins that look like malnourished guinea pigs yet have more “get up and go” than the big single born 5 minutes before?! Last years pair both got reared and were still only knee high when they went in April! But they came to £75 each so I didn’t mind!!

 

[neilo]

Think the same goes for the pair of twins that look like malnourished guinea pigs yet have more “get up and go” than the big single born 5 minutes before?! Last years pair both got reared and were still only knee high when they went in April! But they came to £75 each so I didn’t mind!!

I can honestly say that I can’t remember the last pair of lambs that were born as ‘malnourished guinea pigs’ as twins out of ewe lambs, since I’ve been lambing outside and feeding them on green stuff only. Half of my in-lamb ewe lambs were carrying twins last year, and were treated exactly the same as those carrying singles. They would mostly have been 3.5-4kg born, which I’m more than happy with from 45-50kg hoggs.

I am convinced that sheep on a grazed forage diet compensate for energy requirements by eating more, whereas sheep fed a lb of concentrate a day can only ever eat a lb/day. We see the same in the adult ewes, where we just don’t see TLD any more, where we would inevitably have had one or two in a housed/fed system.
I suspect those feeding a TMR diet would see similar?

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I usually see them in ewe hoggs that have turned up in lambout of the fat hoggs. I always put it down too spurious breeding and not having the right diet for in lambers.

Always been told if the ewes start looking like TLD is starting too turn them out quickly. Apart from this last spring our farm doesn’t lend itself too outdoor lambing unfortunately. Too cold and wet. By the time it dries enough to keep them out in the fields around the farm it will be May and the blowflies start buzzing around! But this last spring was ACE!

 

[Collie dog Sid]

Grass only for mine