RED DEER – Getting lambs to market at the optimal weight is based
on a conscientious feed program that starts at birth, says a Masterfeeds
nutritionist.
Since there is little research on lamb and sheep feeding, the company ran its own trials on a number of large flocks, said Alan Dyke at a lamb feeding seminar in Red Deer.
A healthy start comes from a good intake of colostrum to gain essential maternal antibodies. Cow milk colostrum can be used in a pinch.
Read Also
Dry summer conditions can lead to poor water quality for livestock
Drought conditions in the Prairies has led to an decrease in water quality, and producers are being advised to closely monitor water quality for their animals.
“It makes a big difference in how fast the colostrums can be absorbed,” Dyke said.
Lambs start to nibble on feed when they are as young as one week of age and they can be offered dry products to develop a taste for it.
“The faster lambs go on dry feed and decrease their reliance on the ewe, the better.”
Big, strong lambs can damage the udder and that may lead to mastitis for the ewe.
Young lambs sort through types and texture of feed. They will take rolled grain but spit out pellets when often the nutrition they need is in the pelleted feed. They do not have fully developed rumens at this time so the introduction needs to be gradual. This first feed is like a baby food because their capacity to digest is different than an adult’s.
Do not wean lambs until they are consuming about three-quarters of a pound of dry feed per day. They are usually five to six weeks old at this point.
Put out fresh feed each day and increase the amount as they grow. Leftover feed gets wet and lambs will refuse to eat it, so troughs need to be clean and free of clumped feed or manure.
Their initial weight gain after weaning slows especially if they are not used to dry feed. Keep them on a dry starter feed for about a week after weaning. They could start to eat some hay, which they need to buffer the rumen.
Young lambs only need about a handful of roughage. Let them chew it because the sodium bicarbonate produced in the saliva neutralizes the acid in the stomach.
While the lambs will bulk up from the fibre, forage is low energy so their gain slows. The energy in forage is in the cellulose, which takes longer to break down in the digestive system.
“The energy that they can take in even from a high energy hay is much reduced from what they can take in from grain,” Dyke said.
Lambs also need adequate protein at the early stages of growth to build a strong body frame. A low protein, high energy diet will end up as fat rather than muscle.
Check the manure. If lambs produce a long soft stool, they are receiving high energy, but if they drop pellets, the fibre level is too high.
When they reach about 75 lb., their feed may be changed to a supplemented, rolled grain ration that may continue until they are slaughtered. They only need about one to two lb. of supplement.
Ewe nutrition is also important because it results in higher lambings with healthy twins and triplets.
Higher nutrition can be offered a month before lambing. A quarter lb. per day of supplements along with grain provide the ewe the added nutrition for health and survival.
An undernourished, heavily pregnant ewe will draw down on her body fat and muscle mass to support multiple lambs.
A breakdown in fat can result in pregnancy toxemia.
