Sheep nuts?

melboy

Hi I am new to this farming game and have bought some horned ewes.
Can anyone plz tell me the difference between
Ewe nuts
Hill flock nuts
Intensive lamb nuts.
Before I purchase for winter feed. Cheers

fatoftheland

ewe with lamb nuts usually 18 or 19% protein are for ewes six weeks before lambing and for feeding after lambing.
sheep nuts are a maintenance feed from now till its time for the ewe with lamb nuts.
intensive lamb pellets is for feeding to lambs for fattening

ddogsbollix

only wasting your money buying nuts for maintenance! ya should only be giving ewes nuts coming up to lambing and after if they have a high litter size....thats it

razor8

ddogsbollix wrote: »

only wasting your money buying nuts for maintenance! ya should only be giving ewes nuts coming up to lambing and after if they have a high litter size....thats it

agree

scub

If you only have a few and don't have a good dog, its useful to have the trained to follow you with a bucket and a rattle of some nuts.......

Highland

Don't worry too much about the name on the bag - very often this is just like a trade name and has to do with the type of mineral mix included - i.e. ewe nut will have minerals designed for feeding to ewes whereas lamb nuts will ammonium chloride to prevent urinary calculi.

Look at the ingredients, the most important component is energy - high energy feeds are barley, wheat, maize, pulps, distillers, soyabean meal and in the case of sheep oats also ranks well. average energy feeds are things like maize gluten, soya hulls and rapeseed. Fillers that you do not want to see are wheatfeed/pollard, sunflower and palm kernal.

If you are feeding sheep there is little justification in feeding more than 14% protein unless you are feeding lactating ewes or ewes in the last three weeks of pregnancy in which case protein becomes very important (200grams per day pre lambing and 400grams post lambing)

brownswiss

Just wondering if any of you have worked out the cost of the High Energy buckets versus a tonne of Ewe nuts....our local co op sells a lot of the buckets but i think it is the dearest feed one could buy...

Highland

Buckets are really totally different from nuts. Idea behind buckets is that they can be used in remote places - outfarms etc so the sheep feed themselves and it reduces labour. Often they are relatively high in protein and this helps the animals to digest poor grasses better - ie it increase the digestibility of the forage due to the extra protein that helps the bugs in the rumen to multiply.

So for sheep grazing rough pastures where it is not possible/practical to feed daily buckets can be a very worthwhile investment. On the other hand for sheep indoors or close at hand where daily supplementation with meal is not difficult they are likely to be the most expensive option.

roosky

hi all at the feeding stage of the ewes pregnancy now and looking for advice on feeding ewe lambs

last year i fed 2lbs/day/head to the ewes carrying twins and 1 lbs/day/head to the singles....i also fed the lifeline buckets ad lib

this worked great last year as only lost 2 lambs out of 100 no twin lamb disease no scours and good lively lambs

just wondering what i should give the ewe lambs ...there are ewe lambs carrying singles and some carrying doubles....advice appreciated

Highland

Ewe lambs carrying twins are not problem - feed them well - 0.2kg six weeks out 0.4 kg four weeks out and 0.6kg two weeks pre lambing.

Ewe lambs with singles - be careful - too little and they will be thin and have no milk - too much and you'll need a calving jack to get lambs out. I keep singles on a constant 0.2kg / hd per day with moderate silage - they are in good condition and for the last two weeks before lambing double this to 0.4kg - they are in lamb to belclare and charollais rams. Has worked well for last two years - only the odd one needing a help.

roosky

by constant do you mean they are on .2 kg at the minute....

ill tell ya my craic...eh they are on good quality hay ad lib andno meal in lamb to charolais ram so when should i feed and how much thanks

flatout11

Highland wrote: »

Ewe lambs carrying twins are not problem - feed them well - 0.2kg six weeks out 0.4 kg four weeks out and 0.6kg two weeks pre lambing.

Ewe lambs with singles - I keep singles on a constant 0.2kg / hd per day with moderate silage - they are in good condition and for the last two weeks before lambing double this to 0.4kg .

roosky wrote: »

by constant do you mean they are on .2 kg at the minute....

ill tell ya my craic...eh they are on good quality hay ad lib andno meal in lamb to charolais ram so when should i feed and how much thanks

highland is bang on with his advice and his timelines are pretty clear just have a read of it agian, what weight are your ewe lambs?

roosky

suppose 65 kg just felt them today still in good condition

Highland

roosky wrote: »

by constant do you mean they are on .2 kg at the minute....

ill tell ya my craic...eh they are on good quality hay ad lib andno meal in lamb to charolais ram so when should i feed and how much thanks

Start feeding them 6 weeks out

razor8

Rate the various sheep mixes below, Ingredients listed in descending order

1. Maize - Barley - Soya Bean Meal - Soya Hulls - Cane Molasses- Rapeseed Meal
2. Rolled Maize - Rolled Barley - Soya Hulls - Rapeseed Pellets - Citrus Pulp - Soya Bean Meal
3. Maize Flake - Soya Bean Meal - Barley - Cane Molasses - Wheat Feed - Rapeseed Extracted - Citrus Pulp
4. Barley - Soya Hulls - Rapeseed Meal Distillers - Dried Grains - Cane Molasses - Soya Bean Meal
5. Maize - Barley - Distillers Dried Grains - Soya Hulls - Oats - Maize Gluten - Soya Bean Meal