Oats at lambing 3in1

[ilovebalingtoo]

Thinking about feeding my ewes at lambing. Texelxbfl indoor start lambing end of march start feeding mid Feb? Haylage adlib, Unrolled Oats in a 3 in 1 feeder 600g per day, molasses adlib, Free access minerals adlib.
Change my Mind.....

 

[tepapa]

How will you be providing the DUP In last three weeks of pregnancy?

 

[ilovebalingtoo]

I usually feed 18percent nuts. Was thinking if im looking at trouble I could go back to them.... Your obviously suggesting I'll be short in protein?

 

[Dealer]

Supplement your oats with 34% 3 mm protein balancer pellets

75% oats 25% pellet

Perfect simple and cheaper than compound pellets, you would not need the molasses either, if using balancer.

 

[tepapa]

Analyse your haylage as a starting point and see what's deficient.

 

[neilo]

As above, you can’t begin to formulate a diet without having at least a rough idea of forage quality. Scrap the (straight?) molasses if you are intending feeding oats (or any cereals) through feeders, and find a way of feeding protein (& particularly DUP in late pregnancy).

You can get a protein balancer to go with the cereals in the feeder, but will obviously need mixing beforehand, and I’ve no idea if those pellets lead to sh*te building up in the slot (restricting intakes further). Obviously you’ll be cleaning that out of the slot every day anyway (& not counting the time & inconvenience of doing so).

Be sure to monitor just how much they are actually eating too, rather than just having someone top the feeders up whenever. Lambing time is too late to find out that you’ve ‘saved’ a fortune on feed because they haven’t taken any, leaving you with thin ewes and no milk. I’ve heard of several places that have seen just that....... reduced their feed costs though.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Nwf 34% protein / blend pellets , have good quality, consistant ingredients and they are small, making them be ok in a 3 in 1.but as said above though, will need mixing well beforehand of course.
Trouble is feeding from a 3 in 1 is quite variable ime.
It can be that some sheep return constantly, and others don't bother with it at all.

 

[Dealer]

As above, you can’t begin to formulate a diet without having at least a rough idea of forage quality. Scrap the (straight?) molasses if you are intending feeding oats (or any cereals) through feeders, and find a way of feeding protein (& particularly DUP in late pregnancy).

You can get a protein balancer to go with the cereals in the feeder, but will obviously need mixing beforehand, and I’ve no idea if those pellets lead to sh*te building up in the slot (restricting intakes further). Obviously you’ll be cleaning that out of the slot every day anyway (& not counting the time & inconvenience of doing so).

Be sure to monitor just how much they are actually eating too, rather than just having someone top the feeders up whenever. Lambing time is too late to find out that you’ve ‘saved’ a fortune on feed because they haven’t taken any, leaving you with thin ewes and no milk. I’ve heard of several places that have seen just that....... reduced their feed costs though.

Buy a good quality pellet made with hardener and coated with oil, minimal dust then as the pellets are similar size to grain they will flow ok as there is only a quarter of the ration made of pellets, also small pellets with hi protein content have less filler.

As for cleaning invert the adjuster guard so the lower slot has more feed available but restricted by the guard, then the dust takes longer to build up, the HD feeders have stainless steel troughs and adjusters so smoother materials ease flow and less prone to blockages.

As for shy feeders they have access to feed all day so have the feed opportunity.

Small amounts of feed help reduce prolapse and maintains the ruman ph so the microbes convert the feed more consistently.

 

[Mc115reed]

How will you know they’ve only taken in 600g a day? Surely the fat pigs of the group will just eat until they blow up.. or prolapse which ever comes first...

 

[Dealer]

Saliver is the restriction

They lick the feed from the feeder

Only lick for 5 minutes then the mouth dries up it won't stick to tongue

They are still hungry so they take in forage
Creates the same affect as TMR even when at grass

 

[Well Refreshed]

Have many of you tried using them to feed ewes inside with the 3 in 1’s? I really like the concept and reducing the scrum at feeding time can only be a good thing.

 

[ilovebalingtoo]

I agree I should abviously get my silage tested first IF I'm going to start mixing anything.
I don't scan
I have always traditionally fed 18% cake 500g once a day on the floor inside. Crouch bind set.
Used 3in1 feeders last year and they were really good, only problem was with my normal cake I couldn't shut them back hard enough without blocking too easily (even though I cleaned twice daily). They were on nearly 1kg to get them to work.
That was my thinking to go whole grain, as it should flow better.
But if you think I'll get protein problems from straight oats/Barley, could I get my 18%in starter pellets?

 

[Dealer]

Normal 6mm pellets indoors 750g to 1kg per day is what we would expect as minimum ration indoors, less if outdoors as they graze/ roam from the feeder. We don't hide this as the minimum restriction for sheep with 6mm feed

A 3 mm protein balancer pellet with grain is perfect

If you want to feed 3mm compound pellets they work fine

Not in your area but dugdale nutrition (north of the country) make complete ewe pellets for the feeders in 3mm.

In general the bigger the feed particles the wider the gap needs to be so it will flow, the more feed sticks to the tongue when they lick.

Minimum gap for sheep to lick the feed is circa 8mm cattle it is 25mm. You cant get a 6mm pellets through 8 or 10mm gaps the sheep lick but it can't get through the gap then it gets wet with saliver and goes to mush.

 

[John Chance]

3mm pellet. Highest protein you can get = lowest inclusion rate = better flow.

Cleanest oats you can get.

Remember CP includes non protein Nitrogen so check the ingredients list.

 

[neilo]

I fed some housed lambs to fatten last year on 3mm lamb creep pellets using my 3-in-1 feeder (opened right up), as it was the only hopper I had. It kept bunging up, despite daily cleaning, limiting intakes. When I changed to Alkagrain (whole grain with a low level of pellets in the mix) intakes shot up significantly and it didn’t need cleaning out.

This year I bought a ‘proper’ hopper and fed the Alkagrain mix through it, with intakes significantly higher again.

@ilovebalingtoo , I feed my indoor lambing ewes by throwing ewe rolls on the floor. It’s a simple system, with little loss and little effort, and don’t intend changing from it. It’s certainly far more simple/reliable than trying to get the intakes right through a 3-in-1 feeder, although the diet will obviously be a bit dearer.

 

[Bury the Trash]

3 in 1 feeders are meant to feed dry whole grains. That's what they were designed for,
.... to enable the better use of corn for supplementary feeding in Australia to finish stock , energy mainly but theirgrain could well be higher protein as well actually come to think of it.
Anyway , the use of availiablegrain most likely on farm as well ...when theres not enough other feed of a suitable enough type .

Just saying ..... a bit of back story...

Theres something else I was gonna write but iveforgotten it now...

If walk throughs ring feeders for thelikeare used especially along concrete , why not feed out some haylage and then run the corn / conc. mix out on top , let the ferret through it as in tmr.
But that still wasnt what I was gonna say....

 

[ilovebalingtoo]

I fed some housed lambs to fatten last year on 3mm lamb creep pellets using my 3-in-1 feeder (opened right up), as it was the only hopper I had. It kept bunging up, despite daily cleaning, limiting intakes. When I changed to Alkagrain (whole grain with a low level of pellets in the mix) intakes shot up significantly and it didn’t need cleaning out.

This year I bought a ‘proper’ hopper and fed the Alkagrain mix through it, with intakes significantly higher again.

@ilovebalingtoo , I feed my indoor lambing ewes by throwing ewe rolls on the floor. It’s a simple system, with little loss and little effort, and don’t intend changing from it. It’s certainly far more simple/reliable than trying to get the intakes right through a 3-in-1 feeder, although the diet will obviously be a bit dearer.

@neilo im not worried too much about the cost if it saves me time at lambing Its money we'll spent, I would happily use rolls but my sheep Are in pens of 100 in the shed and all that pushing can't be good for me or them. (I will use rolls if it doesn't work This year)

 

[Bury the Trash]

Pens of hundred heavily pregnant ewes indoors is too many , should be half that at least.

and the point is making sure each ewe gets the right amount of feed .

@spin cycle .....you just wait till you get old and forgetful.....

 

[neilo]

I run about 100 in a single mob normally (sometimes more), but they are in an old cattle yard with a raised feed manger through the middle that allows me to stand and chuck it out with a bucket.

We used to run 350 in a mob at home, letting them out into a yard so that we could run rolls round the outside of the shed, then let them back in twice a day. I never saw mob size as any problem particularly.

 

[ilovebalingtoo]

Pens of hundred heavily pregnant ewes indoors is too many , should be half that at least.

and the point is making sure each ewe gets the right amount of feed .

@spin cycle .....you just wait till you get old and forgetful.....

Why is 100 too many? If the shed is big enough and plenty of feed space what's the issue?
I know that's the point that's what I'm trying to resolve?