creep feeding lambs

roosky

well lads just want yer opinion on creeping lambs ....some say its essential others say its a waste of money!

my dilema....i finished my first two batches of lambs off grass graded about 70% u3 and 30 r3 and average kill-out was 50.5%...nothing wrong with that!

since that the lambs aren't triving as well, partly due to weather so i intoduced the creep today...i bough 12 bags of connaucht gold lamb creep and it set me back 103.20....mad money ....thats 8.60 a bag!

just wondering what ye are feeding and whats the cheapest and what the best and most importantly where is the intermediate ???

Username John

roosky wrote: »

well lads just want yer opinion on creeping lambs ....some say its essential others say its a waste of money!

my dilema....i finished my first two batches of lambs off grass graded about 70% u3 and 30 r3 and average kill-out was 50.5%...nothing wrong with that!

since that the lambs aren't triving as well, partly due to weather so i intoduced the creep today...i bough 12 bags of connaucht gold lamb creep and it set me back 103.20....mad money ....thats 8.60 a bag!

just wondering what ye are feeding and whats the cheapest and what the best and most importantly where is the intermediate ???

Hi Roosky,

70% U - that's very good, and from grass as well - you must manage your grass well. Whats your system if you don't mind me asking?

I am not the best person to be listening to maybe, but I will tell you what I did and found, and can make your own mind up.

I fed rolled barley as creep this year, not much, but a bit kinda constantly. To be honest - I was a little disappointed in it. The kill out % of my first lambs wasn't great (less than 50%)
I changed to adding lamb finishing nuts (not the small creep feed ones, as they are more expensive) Altho the lamb finishing ones are expensive too (7.90 / 25kg bag)
I gave a 50/50 mix of nuts + barley for a while, and I thought it was good. Barley was about 5euro / 20kg bag. You would want to be feeding a lot of lambs, to make any proper savings from feeding 50% barley vs 100% nuts - and IMO, the nuts are a better job for growing lambs.

I wouldn't have the numbers to buy any bulk feed, so I buy in small bags and mix myself if I want.

As to the question of "should one creep feed" - I dunno, I did it last year and this year. I think 'Yes' IF you can justify it - either with high lamb prices (early sales) or the need to move the lambs early cos you need the grass.

I don't think I will do it next season
- I wont have lambs as early next year, so I wont make the Easter market
- I am under stocked, so I am not under pressure for grass, so it doesn't matter to me if the lambs are around for an extra few weeks
- I "crept" the lambs onto fresh grass this year on two paddocks, just for interest. The results were very visible, better weight gain each time.
- *I should* have a better paddock system for next year - and so make better use of creeping lambs onto the fresh grass ahead of the ewes

That post turned out a bit longer than I anticipated. :eek:

That's my two cents anyways Roosky, hope its useful.

roosky

Username John wrote: »

Hi Roosky,

70% U - that's very good, and from grass as well - you must manage your grass well. Whats your system if you don't mind me asking?

I am not the best person to be listening to maybe, but I will tell you what I did and found, and can make your own mind up.

I fed rolled barley as creep this year, not much, but a bit kinda constantly. To be honest - I was a little disappointed in it. The kill out % of my first lambs wasn't great (less than 50%)
I changed to adding lamb finishing nuts (not the small creep feed ones, as they are more expensive) Altho the lamb finishing ones are expensive too (7.90 / 25kg bag)
I gave a 50/50 mix of nuts + barley for a while, and I thought it was good. Barley was about 5euro / 20kg bag. You would want to be feeding a lot of lambs, to make any proper savings from feeding 50% barley vs 100% nuts - and IMO, the nuts are a better job for growing lambs.

I wouldn't have the numbers to buy any bulk feed, so I buy in small bags and mix myself if I want.

As to the question of "should one creep feed" - I dunno, I did it last year and this year. I think 'Yes' IF you can justify it - either with high lamb prices (early sales) or the need to move the lambs early cos you need the grass.

I don't think I will do it next season
- I wont have lambs as early next year, so I wont make the Easter market
- I am under stocked, so I am not under pressure for grass, so it doesn't matter to me if the lambs are around for an extra few weeks
- I "crept" the lambs onto fresh grass this year on two paddocks, just for interest. The results were very visible, better weight gain each time.
- *I should* have a better paddock system for next year - and so make better use of creeping lambs onto the fresh grass ahead of the ewes

That post turned out a bit longer than I anticipated. :eek:

That's my two cents anyways Roosky, hope its useful.

i have nearely all reseeded ground so its not too hard to manage it the lambs and ewes have grass infront of them til 3 weeks ago and its just silage cutting is slowing up the whole lot. i would sooner not feed them but the lambs just aren finishing off the grass at the minute , probably a few factors such as grass quality, ewe milk drop and feckin rain !

i am not really stuck for grass but lots of lads say you have to finish off meal to get the grades with the later lambs!


my system is all sheep , used to have sucklers but T.B, fathers health, wet land, long winters, B.V.D all slowly pushed them out of the farm !!!

all mid season lambs starting first week of march, suflok cross ewes crossed with texel rams and ewe lambs and some ewes tipped with a charolais ram.

lambing about 1.7 L.P.E and as i already said they kill out good , but with the weather they are slow to thrive had 71 % of the lambs gone at 17 weeks old last year !!!

razor8

Creep feeding is an absolute waste of money IMO. You are much better feeding lambs at a trough every day; with creep feeding they will just bust themselves on meal without eating any grass at all. they don’t convert this meal to weight gain to justify the meal/cost

with a trough system they will keeping eating a good level of grass and the extra meal will compliment any grass shortages or quality and maintain a desired weight gain

if the lambs are on the ewes after a few days of giving both meal then introduce a creep gate and start feeding lambs separately. This is something I haven’t tried but i'm sure it would work well

rancher

roosky wrote: »

well lads just want yer opinion on creeping lambs ....some say its essential others say its a waste of money!

my dilema....i finished my first two batches of lambs off grass graded about 70% u3 and 30 r3 and average kill-out was 50.5%...nothing wrong with that!

since that the lambs aren't triving as well, partly due to weather so i intoduced the creep today...i bough 12 bags of connaucht gold lamb creep and it set me back 103.20....mad money ....thats 8.60 a bag!

just wondering what ye are feeding and whats the cheapest and what the best and most importantly where is the intermediate ???

In my system I just keep drawing lambs until mid sept and then introduce creep feeding to what is by then, 20% of my lambs, then the rest are fit in three to six weeks after that and there's usualy a rise in demand then. If you start feeding now,your lambs will be fit in the peak supply time of july/august when prices come under pressure.
If you need them out of the way, you may feed them as thrive is very slow from now on, it all depends on your system, I actually need the lambs on my farm in july /aug to eat grass until i need it for the ewes

flatout11

roosky wrote: »

well lads just want yer opinion on creeping lambs ....some say its essential others say its a waste of money!

my dilema....i finished my first two batches of lambs off grass graded about 70% u3 and 30 r3 and average kill-out was 50.5%...nothing wrong with that!

since that the lambs aren't triving as well, partly due to weather so i intoduced the creep today...i bough 12 bags of connaucht gold lamb creep and it set me back 103.20....mad money ....thats 8.60 a bag!

just wondering what ye are feeding and whats the cheapest and what the best and most importantly where is the intermediate ???

lamb trive always drops off as the year gors on but whats your panic with them, the price drop has already happened id agree with rancher stick with your system and creep the tail end lambs

sheeper

What breed of lambs are they ?

rancher

sheeper wrote: »

What breed of lambs are they ?

Vendeens out of texel/lleyn ewes, most of the the tailenders are usually april born out of ewe lambs, also I castrate with rings at a day old so I can keep them that long without behavioural problems

brownswiss

The trough and creep gate sounds a good idea. Any time i have introduced creep with the standard creep feeders the lambs spend most of their time at the creep. Hard to justify the expense.

Any of you in Producer Groups? Are you happy. Are all the members supplying or some doing their own thing despite being in the group?

razor8

How are your lambs thriving on grass only diets at the moment? Finding it awfully hard to keep lambs thriving

eorna

razor8 wrote: »

How are your lambs thriving on grass only diets at the moment? Finding it awfully hard to keep lambs thriving

No thrive here at all..started feeding them this week..too many left

Username John

Bad here as well - even though they on good grass, its only running through them. I only have a few runty ones left now, so they can stay until Christmas.

I sent away the last few good ones last week - all killed out as R2, the heaviest, who I was sure would kill out overweight only killed out at 19.5kg and then others killed at 18kg :mad:
Disappointed... I thought they would do better...

rancher

Username John wrote: »

Bad here as well - even though they on good grass, its only running through them. I only have a few runty ones left now, so they can stay until Christmas.

I sent away the last few good ones last week - all killed out as R2, the heaviest, who I was sure would kill out overweight only killed out at 19.5kg and then others killed at 18kg :mad:
Disappointed... I thought they would do better...

Everyone may just bite the bullet and feed meal, will probably start myself next week

sea12

rancher wrote: »

Username John wrote: »

Bad here as well - even though they on good grass, its only running through them. I only have a few runty ones left now, so they can stay until Christmas.

I sent away the last few good ones last week - all killed out as R2, the heaviest, who I was sure would kill out overweight only killed out at 19.5kg and then others killed at 18kg :mad:
Disappointed... I thought they would do better...

Everyone may just bite the bullet and feed meal, will probably start myself next week

I am feeding all the ram lambs a bit of meal at the trough everyday for the past 2 weeks. They are also on good after grass. Starting to look a bit better. Ewe lambs are on grass only. Will be interesting to see the weight gain in another week or so.

razor8

got the trough out this evening for the ram lambs , €10 a bag, ahhhhhhh!

I thought i was the only one that was having poor weight gains

razor8

sea12 wrote: »

I am feeding all the ram lambs a bit of meal at the trough everyday for the past 2 weeks. They are also on good after grass. Starting to look a bit better. Ewe lambs are on grass only. Will be interesting to see the weight gain in another week or so.

how much are you feeding per lamb per day if you dont mind me asking?

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

got the trough out this evening for the ram lambs , €10 a bag, ahhhhhhh!

I thought i was the only one that was having poor weight gains

How come the rations for cattle are only around 300/ton blown in, surely similar rations to lamb finisher but different minerals,,, are bags that expensive,
Was thinking of trying the snacker on the quad to feed lambs, works great with the ewes and will be feeding a lot of lambs this year, anyone out there use one with lambs,

Naturaly61

Yes meal is getting very expensive . You say your lambs are not thriving as well now on the grass alone . All minerals and vitamins are essential to lamb thrive . This year with wet grass the uptake has been poor .
You need to give the lambs a good mineral drench . Are you short Cobalt/selenium/Copper. in your area? what type of sheep have you got ? Feeding expensive meal to lambs that may be deficient in vitamin and minerals ...you will not get return that you should!

flatout11

rancher wrote: »

How come the rations for cattle are only around 300/ton blown in, surely similar rations to lamb finisher but different minerals,,, are bags that expensive,
Was thinking of trying the snacker on the quad to feed lambs, works great with the ewes and will be feeding a lot of lambs this year, anyone out there use one with lambs,

was told before that bagging adds €15 to 25 per ton, similar figure for petteting

Naturaly61 wrote: »

Yes meal is getting very expensive . You say your lambs are not thriving as well now on the grass alone . All minerals and vitamins are essential to lamb thrive . This year with wet grass the uptake has been poor .
You need to give the lambs a good mineral drench . Are you short Cobalt/selenium/Copper. in your area? what type of sheep have you got ? Feeding expensive meal to lambs that may be deficient in vitamin and minerals ...you will not get return that you should!

me thinks your selling!!! id be more worried about the major components (energy/CP) intake first - all stock have had a poor thrive this year and it isnt down to their mineral balance

snowman707

flatout11 wrote: »

me thinks your selling!!! id be more worried about the major components (energy/CP) intake first - all stock have had a poor thrive this year and it isnt down to their mineral balance

maybe, but if mineral level are marginal wet conditions will make matter worse,

we bolused any lambs left when we doing the early lambing ewes, and certainly see the difference, while they are not thriving as fast as I've liked, I hope to get them away without introducing meals, .. they are rotating after the cows , so whilst they haven't exactly great grass ,they have the benefit of a fresh pick every few days

I also think that any one in a grass based system should look at easy finished stock, after visiting a hampshire down breeder and seeing his stock, I bought 2 ram lambs to run with the late lambers here.

will be interesting to see how they fare out

razor8

rancher wrote: »

How come the rations for cattle are only around 300/ton blown in, surely similar rations to lamb finisher but different minerals,,, are bags that expensive,
Was thinking of trying the snacker on the quad to feed lambs, works great with the ewes and will be feeding a lot of lambs this year, anyone out there use one with lambs,

its ennis pedigree lamb crunch, its only a €1 dearer than ordinary crunch. i was giving it to a small few lambs earlier and i thought they did really well on it so i wanted to stick with it. was told it went up last week and another hike on the way in two weeks, il know if it expensive or not in a few weeks when i weigh again!

i havent used a snacker but they look really handy

razor8

Naturaly61 wrote: »

Yes meal is getting very expensive . You say your lambs are not thriving as well now on the grass alone . All minerals and vitamins are essential to lamb thrive . This year with wet grass the uptake has been poor .
You need to give the lambs a good mineral drench . Are you short Cobalt/selenium/Copper. in your area? what type of sheep have you got ? Feeding expensive meal to lambs that may be deficient in vitamin and minerals ...you will not get return that you should!

always drench for minerals (done 4 times tis year already)and tried lick buckets for first time, but only have them a week to notice any gains, ive a mix of suffolk and texel lambs, there very close to been fit but not fleshed the way i would like

expensive meal has lots of minerals in it so i dont think i will need to give them any more drenches, took the licks away from the ones on meal encase i end up over doing it on the minerals, not enough grass thats my problem, fields just not green!

DK man

Username John wrote: »

Bad here as well - even though they on good grass, its only running through them. I only have a few runty ones left now, so they can stay until Christmas.

I sent away the last few good ones last week - all killed out as R2, the heaviest, who I was sure would kill out overweight only killed out at 19.5kg and then others killed at 18kg :mad:
Disappointed... I thought they would do better...

I sent two lambs and a cull ewe off this week. Two lambs weighed 45 kgs and only made €162. I had been feeding them for almost 4 weeks and they were on a nice paddock of fertilized after grass. They were dosed a few weeks ago and given a vitamin dose too. Very disappointed they were fat and looked in good condition.

The cull ewe made €52. She was also being fed for the last few weeks and was with the lambs. She was a 2.5 yr old who was in good condition but had a c section last spring.

Making me think that I am wasting my time with all the associated costs!!!

I have 25 ewes mostly Suffolk and a few texals - the ram is a Suffolk - they look decent enough as a flock... This is my second year with sheep and was aiming at getting up to around 100 ewes over the next 2-3 yrs but now I am doing some thinking about it as the returns don't seem to be worth all the effort...

I am feeding the lambs 50 50 meal and barley once a day in a trough...

Anyone with any inspiration...

epfff

DK man wrote: »

Username John wrote: »

Bad here as well - even though they on good grass, its only running through them. I only have a few runty ones left now, so they can stay until Christmas.

I sent away the last few good ones last week - all killed out as R2, the heaviest, who I was sure would kill out overweight only killed out at 19.5kg and then others killed at 18kg :mad:
Disappointed... I thought they would do better...

I sent two lambs and a cull ewe off this week. Two lambs weighed 45 kgs and only made €162. I had been feeding them for almost 4 weeks and they were on a nice paddock of fertilized after grass. They were dosed a few weeks ago and given a vitamin dose too. Very disappointed they were fat and looked in good condition.

The cull ewe made €52. She was also being fed for the last few weeks and was with the lambs. She was a 2.5 yr old who was in good condition but had a c section last spring.

Making me think that I am wasting my time with all the associated costs!!!

I have 25 ewes mostly Suffolk and a few texals - the ram is a Suffolk - they look decent enough as a flock... This is my second year with sheep and was aiming at getting up to around 100 ewes over the next 2-3 yrs but now I am doing some thinking about it as the returns don't seem to be worth all the effort...

I am feeding the lambs 50 50 meal and barley once a day in a trough...

Anyone with any inspiration...

Four weeks not really long eneought to make big differance

rancher

epfff wrote: »

Four weeks not really long eneought to make big differance

Started creep feeding mine on tuesday, eating 1kg/day now, would hope that they put on 6 kgs in 3 weeks and that'll cost me a bag/lamb (9 euros) will kill a lot of them then as thrive really slows down after the first three weeks feeding.
DK man, I kill all my lambs at 45kg to kill out 20 -21... are you sure your scales is right, If you read john fagan in the indo you'd see where he was giving only half kg daily and it wasn't enough.
How did they grade? fat score 2 only annoys everyone....factories hate them and farmers get disappointed with the kill out
Anyway there's a few ideas for you

DK man

rancher wrote: »

epfff wrote: »

Four weeks not really long eneought to make big differance

Started creep feeding mine on tuesday, eating 1kg/day now, would hope that they put on 6 kgs in 3 weeks and that'll cost me a bag/lamb (9 euros) will kill a lot of them then as thrive really slows down after the first three weeks feeding.
DK man, I kill all my lambs at 45kg to kill out 20 -21... are you sure your scales is right, If you read john fagan in the indo you'd see where he was giving only half kg daily and it wasn't enough.
How did they grade? fat score 2 only annoys everyone....factories hate them and farmers get disappointed with the kill out
Anyway there's a few ideas for you

Scales should be ok as they are newish... The 2 lambs had that heavy thud effect when pushed in - they were big and round...

They killed out at 17.5 at 4.70 / kg. both were r 3 grade..

Thanks

rancher

DK man wrote: »

Scales should be ok as they are newish... The 2 lambs had that heavy thud effect when pushed in - they were big and round...

They killed out at 17.5 at 4.70 / kg. both were r 3 grade..

Thanks

At grade R3 they should have killed better than that........ unless they had balls and tails that weighed 5kg each. R3 is a nice lamb

DK man

rancher wrote: »

DK man wrote: »

Scales should be ok as they are newish... The 2 lambs had that heavy thud effect when pushed in - they were big and round...

They killed out at 17.5 at 4.70 / kg. both were r 3 grade..

Thanks

At grade R3 they should have killed better than that........ unless they had balls and tails that weighed 5kg each. R3 is a nice lamb

No tails but were rams... Balls hardly that heavy!!!!!

I am putting my big Suffolk in with 10 sponged ewes this evening so I'm hoping he's in the mood as I need something to get me interested again...

Thanks

rancher

DK man wrote: »

No tails but were rams... Balls hardly that heavy!!!!!

I am putting my big Suffolk in with 10 sponged ewes this evening so I'm hoping he's in the mood as I need something to get me interested again...

Thanks

Got returns today of grass fed lambs that were killed last thurs av wt 46kg, killed out 20.06 made 99.22 euros. 3 euros 50 deductions had to go off that including2 euros transport so 95,72 net... happy out

DK man

rancher wrote: »

DK man wrote: »

No tails but were rams... Balls hardly that heavy!!!!!

I am putting my big Suffolk in with 10 sponged ewes this evening so I'm hoping he's in the mood as I need something to get me interested again...

Thanks

Got returns today of grass fed lambs that were killed last thurs av wt 46kg, killed out 20.06 made 99.22 euros. 3 euros 50 deductions had to go off that including2 euros transport so 95,72 net... happy out

Well done... Good to hear it can be done..

Username John

rancher wrote: »

Got returns today of grass fed lambs that were killed last thurs av wt 46kg, killed out 20.06 made 99.22 euros. 3 euros 50 deductions had to go off that including2 euros transport so 95,72 net... happy out

If you don't me asking Rancher - what breeding were they?
And when were they born?
I have found that once August comes, the thrive seems to disappear on my lambs. Its down to bad grass management I guess
But like DX_man says - its good it can be done, so I am interested to hear as much as I can on how you achieve it

Edited to say good weights (and not just ask a load o questions)

rancher

Username John wrote: »

If you don't me asking Rancher - what breeding were they?
And when were they born?
I have found that once August comes, the thrive seems to disappear on my lambs. Its down to bad grass management I guess
But like DX_man says - its good it can be done, so I am interested to hear as much as I can on how you achieve it

Edited to say good weights (and not just ask a load o questions)

Vendeens out of texel cross lleyn born 15 march but sales not going that well, would normally only have 150-180 left at this time, this year 350...have started meal feeding...12 bags/day...this is goona hurt the pocket...most are over 38 kg so a bag should get them out ....no farm enterprise is gonna do well this year, all you can do is feed the stock

eorna

started trough feeding mine 2 week ago about 0.3/0.4 x head/day..they are in good grass so hopefully should help finish them...mayb they need more meal but will weigh during week and take it from there...same here loads of lambs left for the time of year..

DMAXMAN

DK man wrote: »

I sent two lambs and a cull ewe off this week. Two lambs weighed 45 kgs and only made €162. I had been feeding them for almost 4 weeks and they were on a nice paddock of fertilized after grass. They were dosed a few weeks ago and given a vitamin dose too. Very disappointed they were fat and looked in good condition.

The cull ewe made €52. She was also being fed for the last few weeks and was with the lambs. She was a 2.5 yr old who was in good condition but had a c section last spring.

Making me think that I am wasting my time with all the associated costs!!!

I have 25 ewes mostly Suffolk and a few texals - the ram is a Suffolk - they look decent enough as a flock... This is my second year with sheep and was aiming at getting up to around 100 ewes over the next 2-3 yrs but now I am doing some thinking about it as the returns don't seem to be worth all the effort...

I am feeding the lambs 50 50 meal and barley once a day in a trough...

Anyone with any inspiration...

I have often found that lambs on soft after grass thrive well and handle well but have poor kill out(probably just bellys full of sot grass).last number of years we are only spreading dung on the after grass where lambs are going to graze. also we find that we have to dose them every week with cobalt on after grass

Farmer Pudsey

rancher wrote: »

Vendeens out of texel cross lleyn born 15 march but sales not going that well, would normally only have 150-180 left at this time, this year 350...have started meal feeding...12 bags/day...this is goona hurt the pocket...most are over 38 kg so a bag should get them out ....no farm enterprise is gonna do well this year, all you can do is feed the stock

At that feeding rate would it not pay to buy in bulk blown into a shed. You are feeding 1/3 ton a day. How much are you paying. Would you consider rolled oats or another straight maybe in half ton bags

rancher

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

At that feeding rate would it not pay to buy in bulk blown into a shed. You are feeding 1/3 ton a day. How much are you paying. Would you consider rolled oats or another straight maybe in half ton bags

Due to mixing my own rations for years, I cant tolerate dust now at all, anything I'd save on ration I'd have to give to the pharmacy
Have to get them off the farm at this stage, can't afford to get them in in three weeks and find nothing fit, paying 350 ton

DMAXMAN

just as a guide we picked out the heaviest 20 lambs a month ago.put them on good grass and fed half kilo/day to them. they averaged 44kilos when picked out . sold them today in the mart 49 kilos foe 109.50. definitely paid me well for what they ate, it was only a home mix of barley oats and soya with minerals and vitamins. serious demand in tullow today for good fleshy lambs 47-50 kilos.forgot to say earlier that the lambs were castrated just after picking them out

Farmer Pudsey

rancher wrote: »

Due to mixing my own rations for years, I cant tolerate dust now at all, anything I'd save on ration I'd have to give to the pharmacy
Have to get them off the farm at this stage, can't afford to get them in in three weeks and find nothing fit, paying 350 ton

DMAXMAN wrote: »

just as a guide we picked out the heaviest 20 lambs a month ago.put them on good grass and fed half kilo/day to them. they averaged 44kilos when picked out . sold them today in the mart 49 kilos foe 109.50. definitely paid me well for what they ate, it was only a home mix of barley oats and soya with minerals and vitamins. serious demand in tullow today for good fleshy lambs 47-50 kilos.forgot to say earlier that the lambs were castrated just after picking them out

I can see where you are coming from ranchers often what we save short term we give to the doctor/pharmacy. However at a guess straight barley or oats would come in at around 280/ton could you get away without min and vits like we do with cattle for 6-10 weeks

rancher

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I can see where you are coming from ranchers often what we save short term we give to the doctor/pharmacy. However at a guess straight barley or oats would come in at around 280/ton could you get away without min and vits like we do with cattle for 6-10 weeks

More into the lifestyle of sheep farming nowadays, bags are clean and handy, can bring them round with the quad etc etc, have 300 gone without meal so I'll tolerate a 3500euro bill against the rest.
Would minerals(cobalt) not be more important to sheep than cattle
I also agree that you won't beat a barley/soya ration for any animal

rancher

rancher wrote: »

Vendeens out of texel cross lleyn born 15 march but sales not going that well, would normally only have 150-180 left at this time, this year 350...have started meal feeding...12 bags/day...this is goona hurt the pocket...most are over 38 kg so a bag should get them out ....no farm enterprise is gonna do well this year, all you can do is feed the stock

After a fortnight on meal, I weighed the 350 lambs today, heaviest lamb was 43kg a fortnight ago after drawing 116 lambs for the factory . Today i have 118 lambs 46 to 50 kg, can't believe it, ration must be spot on

supersean1999

rancher wrote: »

After a fortnight on meal, I weighed the 350 lambs today, heaviest lamb was 43kg a fortnight ago after drawing 116 lambs for the factory . Today i have 118 lambs 46 to 50 kg, can't believe it, ration must be spot on

thats great going, just reading through posts, you said soya and barley is great feed, just wondering what ratio you would of used, iv used this before on pigs not lambs and seem to remember using v little soya, maybe im wrong

rancher

supersean1999 wrote: »

thats great going, just reading through posts, you said soya and barley is great feed, just wondering what ratio you would of used, iv used this before on pigs not lambs and seem to remember using v little soya, maybe im wrong

3 to 1 while rearing calves on buckets
4 or 5 to 1 to yearlings and beef cattle, but 4 or 5kgs/day would be as much as I could feed the beef cattle per day without sickening them.
Didn't feed much to lambs that time as they thrived much better in the mixed stocking situation, were usually gone by august

supersean1999

rancher wrote: »

3 to 1 while rearing calves on buckets
4 or 5 to 1 to yearlings and beef cattle, but 4 or 5kgs/day would be as much as I could feed the beef cattle per day without sickening them.
Didn't feed much to lambs that time as they thrived much better in the mixed stocking situation, were usually gone by august

cheers

paddysdream

Contrary to what I have read on this thread I have found lambs to be killing out ok this year especially in the last month or so.
Sent 86 to the factory last week ,27 ewe lambs average 42kg live ,59 rams 44kgs live (all weighed straight from the field). Heaviest lamb was 47 kg (ram),lightest 39kg(ewe).
Killed out an average of 20.48 kgs cold.Came into 99.33 @4.85 before deductions. Lighest lamb was 16.8kg(dont know where that one came from!!) ,heaviest was 22.6kg. Graded 63 u(all u3) and 25 r (5 r4 ; 1 r2).
These were all March and April born texel and char. lambs from Borris type and texel cross ewes ,no meal.
This I will admit is unusual as I usually find lambs to kill out poorly from August onwards without meal.
I put this down to a few things;good aftergrass this year ,admittedly a bit late as hay,silage only done mid July;liver fluke under control in ewes;last 2 years dosed 5 -6 times a year(lost 40-50 ewes 3 years ago with it);younger ewes(culled strongly and keeping a lot more ewe lambs);better rams;less lame ewes
All those lambs were dosed twice this year ;mid May and late July;weaned in July and ewe lambs and ram lambs seperated at this time.
Land is 75-25 dry good and very wet and late
This is from a flock of average 500 ewes lambing 100 in early Feb. 400 mid March with ewe lambs in end of March until early May.
Now after all that I think its time to root out the creep feeders as whats left (97 rams,80 ewe) aint going to finish this side of christmas without meal.
Ewe lambs sheared the last 2 years and vaccinated with 10 in 1 but never vaccinate for abortion(hasnt been a problem here for years)as at 4.5 pew ewe it runs into serious money.
The way I look at it is that if you sell 7 lambs per acre at 90 (630 per acre output) and keep costs down(contractors about 1500(bale,wrap hedgecutting) straw 400 ,fert. 4000 ,meal for ewes 7000 being the main ones)then sheep will pay ok ;at least better than cattle
Set up wouldnt be great ,2 sheds (6 span 40 foot lean-to and 3 span 35 foot a roof ,no concrete) handling pens in 3 places throughout the farm
Dont believe in having sheep in every week eg after lambing sheeps next time to be penned is to dose and pour on lambs in May, then shear in June and dose ,wean in July.This comes from working off farm during the celtic tiger era ie if you aint around during the week then the last thing you want to do is spend all weekend at sheep or cattle(must admit I built up a fairly good SFP at this time due to slaughter premium and beef subs plus some tillage)

Phew time to do some work now

razor8

rancher wrote: »

After a fortnight on meal, I weighed the 350 lambs today, heaviest lamb was 43kg a fortnight ago after drawing 116 lambs for the factory . Today i have 118 lambs 46 to 50 kg, can't believe it, ration must be spot on

How did they kill out?

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

How did they kill out?

Killed out at 20.6 kg and made 99.91 euros less over 3 euros deductions, another 48 went thurs

razor8

rancher wrote: »

Killed out at 20.6 kg and made 99.91 euros less over 3 euros deductions, another 48 went thurs

that really good, killed 40 this week but only averaged 19.4, was disappointed with kill out, had only 8 u3 and the rest were all r3's which isnt bad but not happy with the weight.

when people are weighing the lambs live before they go to factory, are they weighing straight from the field or leaving them a few hours to empty?

and what kind of kill out percentage would you be hoping for this time of year for both ram lambs and ewe lambs?

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

that really good, killed 40 this week but only averaged 19.4, was disappointed with kill out, had only 8 u3 and the rest were all r3's which isnt bad but not happy with the weight.

when people are weighing the lambs live before they go to factory, are they weighing straight from the field or leaving them a few hours to empty?

and what kind of kill out percentage would you be hoping for this time of year for both ram lambs and ewe lambs?

Those were weighed straight in off the field, not just 47 kg average, tails and balls ringed at birth 44% ko

razor8

rancher wrote: »

Those were weighed straight in off the field, not just 47 kg average, tails and balls ringed at birth 44% ko

thanks. mine had balls but no tails just averaged 41%, had only one ewe lamb that killed 45%, i usually sell my lambs liveweight so the above is all good to know