Poor quality grass is not productive to young lambs
AS we approach weaning time, with short supplies of grass ahead for lambs on many farms, meal feeding is becoming a more talked about option as poor quality grass is not productive to young lambs.
The optimum age to wean lambs is 100 days or 14 weeks of age; leaving lambs suckling for longer will have a negative effect on both parties.
If feeding meal to lambs after weaning, it is important to achieve maximum growth rates with close attention on quality and quantity of feed used.
There are two ways of achieving this:
First off, feeding a high quality ration, such as Southern Milling’s intensive lamb pencil, is the most important step as feeding a poor quality formulation will not achieve peak results.
The second important step is fitting lambs in your flock into three groups:
Below 30kgs these are: Long: keep lambs, more than 12 weeks - total live weight gain of 80/100g per day
Medium: keep lambs 6-12 weeks - total live weight gain of 6 to 12kgs, 90/110g per day
Short keep lambs, over 35kg, less than six weeks - total live weight gain of 5 to 6kg, 140 to 160g per day
A growing lamb will eat around 4% of their bodyweight as dry matter per day. For example, a 30kg lamb will eat 1.2kg DM per day.
Worm levels in lambs is another big issue on farms at this time of year. However, using the correct active ingredient in any product is essential. By using pre-dosing, lower faecal egg counts this can be achieved .
For more information on any of the issues above, contact: Adam Heffernan, Kelliher’s Feed and Agri, Ballymullen, Tralee.