Lamb Rearing

The ad lib way - like what mother does.

We are excited to have in-stock the Heatwave automatic lamb feeders. There was a number of farmers last year that got these and it has changed the way they view rearing extra lambs. “Lambs do a lot better, and it is much less hassle”. It mimics what happens naturally. Lambs are never completely emptied out, so always have energy in the system to grow optimally. Because the stomach is full, they don’t gorge and blow-up like they can do on twice-daily feed milk replacer.

The Heatwave are a simple design and much lower cost than the bigger commercial scale feeders that are fully automated.

The work required is to mix cold milk once per day and clean the piping through with water and alkali (5 minutes and very easy). Training the lamb on the teat will depend on the lamb and the teat type. They still require colostrum for 3 days. This will not flow very well through automatic feeders.

Have lamb starter mix and fresh water available. Scratching pet lambs earlier is advised with automatic feeders to prevent them spreading scabby mouth.

What milk powder?

We have Sprayfo milk powder in stock. It prevents bloat deaths at that 3-6 week stage, especially with bottle fed lambs. It also works well in automatic lamb feeders due to its ease of mixing. Other standard lamb milk replacers can work in automatic feeders also.

Meal and quality grass

To make lamb rearing “stack-up” getting lambs onto meal/muesli seems to be critical. This develops the rumen environment faster. On a per kg of energy basic meal is 1/3rd the price of milk replacer.

If bottle feeding lambs when lambs are eating 100gm of meal per day you can drop out a milk feed (~400ml). The early milk wean system is when lambs are eating 200gm of meal per day then they can be weaned (10-12kg liveweight) and remain on 200-600gm of meal per day for another month whilst on grass until 25kg liveweight. The trick is to keep the hens, birds and adult sheep out of it!

Quality spring grass for orphan lambs will ensure best results.