Whats the thought of molasses for sheep this year

[wdah/him]

Basically as above, a farmer i bale for always praised molasses for his sheep prelambing, he still fed meal but said he noticed that molasses helped, he had good silage to start with and texel cross ewes with very good shapes.

I can get molasses at £218 a ton never used it before but this year i have quite a few hoggets and ewe lambs with the ewes and no easy way to divide them and keep them divided so expect them to be bullied when feeding meal. Silage would be ok and very dry with option of early may hay, which smells lovely but is a very old ley-it is all leaf. Thinking behind molasses is it is ad lib and always available as energy source and Dad said minerals would be able to be mixed in too. Other places i have looked into have said to water it down but no one mentions adding minerals, some add urea but not an option that i know of to be.

Ewes here are llyen, romney crosses bit of suffock cross in some comming to llyen, romney or dorset tups. Normally no real issues lambing and very little milk issues, 50 to lamb roughly as a guess out of 55 waitng for scaning and due from 17 march on to end of april. Will be housed fulltime from Monday to about march 12 when they will be out in day and in for meal at night. Whats peoples thoughts.

 

[will6910]

Iv been feeding molasses on top of silage twice aday for 3 years now and find it great. Have hardly seen a issue with twin lamb disease since started it. But feeding twice a day I know they all getting some. Never found that had to water it down. I go collect with a IBC cube when I need it. Place I’m getting from comes in a 21p a kg

 

[JSmith]

Ring Dennis brinicombe they’ll sort you out an advise on best blend for you! Minerals in it, stopped twin lamb in its tracks here! Very good for us any way

 

[neilo]

Basically as above, a farmer i bale for always praised molasses for his sheep prelambing, he still fed meal but said he noticed that molasses helped, he had good silage to start with and texel cross ewes with very good shapes.

I can get molasses at £218 a ton never used it before but this year i have quite a few hoggets and ewe lambs with the ewes and no easy way to divide them and keep them divided so expect them to be bullied when feeding meal. Silage would be ok and very dry with option of early may hay, which smells lovely but is a very old ley-it is all leaf. Thinking behind molasses is it is ad lib and always available as energy source and Dad said minerals would be able to be mixed in too. Other places i have looked into have said to water it down but no one mentions adding minerals, some add urea but not an option that i know of to be.

Ewes here are llyen, romney crosses bit of suffock cross in some comming to llyen, romney or dorset tups. Normally no real issues lambing and very little milk issues, 50 to lamb roughly as a guess out of 55 waitng for scaning and due from 17 march on to end of april. Will be housed fulltime from Monday to about march 12 when they will be out in day and in for meal at night. Whats peoples thoughts.

If you feed it ad-lib, without urea added, they will just drink it like it's going out of fashion. A liquid feed containing urea and minerals will be self-limiting at 100-150 ml or so a day, but it will be a dearer product to start with.

Personally, I would consider feeding straight molasses unless I could mix it with the feed, or drizzle it over the forage somehow. The liquid feeds can make a useful supplement to concentrates though.

 

[wdah/him]

Might look into urea. Will be tight for feeding space if all in lamb I would think. Not much twin lamb here, think that's because we let them out o grass during the day again before lambing, we had more trouble the years we kept them in all the time.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I would avoid Urea in it like the plague. Urea poisoning from the molasses has cost me a lot this last 2 years before I pinpointed the cause. Stick too high sugar

 

[neilo]

I would avoid Urea in it like the plague. Urea poisoning from the molasses has cost me a lot this last 2 years before I pinpointed the cause. Stick too high sugar

How so? I’ve fed many thousands of litres of the Brinicombe product (& before that, FSL Bells) without ever having any problems.
I’m confused as to how it could happen?

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I don’t know but we would get ewes blown up and dead within 20 minutes of filling the molasses feeders. Classic Urea poisoning. PM too prove it in the end. Tried claiming from the molasses supplier but no joy. 15 ewes died before I worked out what the problem was. We’ve fed molasses for 40 years and never had an issue before. They had changed the standard blend and I hadn’t noticed as I expected the product too be the same as it always had been. So now I won’t touch anything with Urea. I’d rather pay more and have soya/rape meal in the corn. Just my experience, some of.my mates swear by it. But it’s not for me

 

[Bill dog]

Blimey, that’s hellish. I guess it was the same supplier?
I’ve never heard of urea poisoning, but a poor show from them pretty much telling u to F off!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Blimey, that’s hellish. I guess it was the same supplier?
I’ve never heard of urea poisoning, but a poor show from them pretty much telling u to F off!

Yep, you’d think 35 years of custom might count for something. But no. Won’t get another order from me again now.

 

[deere 6600]

Ring Dennis brinicombe they’ll sort you out an advise on best blend for you! Minerals in it, stopped twin lamb in its tracks here! Very good for us any way

Another vote for brinnicombe we've used it for years big advantage they can get a lick whenever they want it

 

[Green farmer]

I've feed molasses to sheep before on top of hay and silage. Sheep love it. Found it gives them the added kick for energy in the cold weather. But, sheep being sheep, the strong ones will blast the weaker ones out of the way to get it, same as meal feeding really. So, whatever suits yourself, give it a try. For the same money you could near buy a tonne meal with the minerals already mixed it.

 

[TexelBen]

I'm considering it this year for ewes at turn out instead of caking.
Had a look at a few and most don't mention including urea in it, I assume they won't have it then?
Thinking a couple of wheel/ball feeders that can move with ewes when I shift them.
Got to be better than getting run into the floor with a bag of cake!

 

[neilo]

I'm considering it this year for ewes at turn out instead of caking.
Had a look at a few and most don't mention including urea in it, I assume they won't have it then?
Thinking a couple of wheel/ball feeders that can move with ewes when I shift them.
Got to be better than getting run into the floor with a bag of cake!

Most with a half decent protein level in them will have it coming from urea. Molasses itself is very low in protein, just sugar, for energy.

I’ve used up odds and ends of liquid feed post lambing, but I’d probably opt for a good quality feed block (Rumevite type) in preference, if I was buying specifically for that job. Or Chrystalix/Optilyx type.

Urea isn’t good for pre-ruminating stock, and they will take some with their mums.

 

[Pistonbroke]

We used to use scotmol,a blend of molasses and pot ale syrup. At the time it was about £65 a ton when barley was £100 and about 60%dm. Price of it now seems very steep

 

[TexelBen]

Most with a half decent protein level in them will have it coming from urea. Molasses itself is very low in protein, just sugar, for energy.

I’ve used up odds and ends of liquid feed post lambing, but I’d probably opt for a good quality feed block (Rumevite type) in preference, if I was buying specifically for that job. Or Chrystalix/Optilyx type.

Urea isn’t good for pre-ruminating stock, and they will take some with their mums.

I didnt know that about the young ones I've not bought anything yet, Just got a few prices for molasses.

We've used some graze dup blocks before, they absolutely destroyed them, been trying to think of better options (sorting the grass Is on our long term plan, soil tests as soon as it's not liquid)
Maybe a harder crystalix bucket would last longer?

 

[neilo]

I didnt know that about the young ones I've not bought anything yet, Just got a few prices for molasses.

We've used some graze dup blocks before, they absolutely destroyed them, been trying to think of better options (sorting the grass Is on our long term plan, soil tests as soon as it's not liquid)
Maybe a harder crystalix bucket would last longer?

Urea feeds rumen bugs, which provide protein for the animal. If the rumen isn’t working yet, as is the case with very young animals, they don’t make use of it, and excessive amounts ‘could’ be harmful.

Chrystallix type blocks have urea in too, but not as much.
They’d take less of them, but that would obviously provide less energy then too.

If you’re feeding just a few tons, the price difference between blocks and concentrates would soon buy a snacker, if your weakly legs are the only reason for changing.

 

[TexelBen]

Urea feeds rumen bugs, which provide protein for the animal. If the rumen isn’t working yet, as is the case with very young animals, they don’t make use of it, and excessive amounts ‘could’ be harmful.

Chrystallix type blocks have urea in too, but not as much.
They’d take less of them, but that would obviously provide less energy then too.

If you’re feeding just a few tons, the price difference between blocks and concentrates would soon buy a snacker, if your weakly legs are the only reason for changing.

Always a bit wary of lambs with the snacker, why don't you pop up and cake some of these texel X mule idiots

 

[neilo]

Always a bit wary of lambs with the snacker, why don't you pop up and cake some of these texel X mule idiots

Come down and feed some pedigree Charollais ewes, then those weedy Texels will seem easy.

Lambs soon learn to move out of the way of a snacker, but feeding concentrates will be replacing forage, whereas a block is supplementing it. They'll still eat a kilo of concs if you put it out, whether they need to or not.

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

Most with a half decent protein level in them will have it coming from urea. Molasses itself is very low in protein, just sugar, for energy.

I’ve used up odds and ends of liquid feed post lambing, but I’d probably opt for a good quality feed block (Rumevite type) in preference, if I was buying specifically for that job. Or Chrystalix/Optilyx type.

Urea isn’t good for pre-ruminating stock, and they will take some with their mums.

@neilo What do give your early lambers once they are turned out ? and do your outdoor lambers get anything post ( or even pre ) lambing.