whole barley

nagshead

Hi lads , weaning lambs in the morning and from weighing last week i have approx 70 % between 36 and 39 kgs, had not planned to feed any meal to them but only ok for grass and would be great to get a large batch gone in the next month or so , i was thinking of trying feeding them small amounts of whole barley good/bad idea ? anyone do this before with lambs ?. thanks in advance

sea12

nagshead wrote: »

Hi lads , weaning lambs in the morning and from weighing last week i have approx 70 % between 36 and 39 kgs, had not planned to feed any meal to them but only ok for grass and would be great to get a large batch gone in the next month or so , i was thinking of trying feeding them small amounts of whole barley good/bad idea ? anyone do this before with lambs ?. thanks in advance

Why don't you sell s batch as store lambs. Prices st the moment are high and you would make as much as trying to feed them

nagshead

Yes store prices seem very good and if i had any less grass they would be gone , really would like to experiment and see if 3 or 4 euros worth of whole barley along with average to good grazing would get them to 95- 100 euro in the factory rather than 80 - 85 euro as stores.

sea12

nagshead wrote: »

Yes store prices seem very good and if i had any less grass they would be gone , really would like to experiment and see if 3 or 4 euros worth of whole barley along with average to good grazing would get them to 95- 100 euro in the factory rather than 80 - 85 euro as stores.

Rangler will give you the conversion rates but they gain most in the first 30 days

grassroot1

Whole barley on its own might cause digestive upsets

rangler1

sea12 wrote: »

Rangler will give you the conversion rates but they gain most in the first 30 days

We're doing about 1.2kg/ wk here on grass, mainly because of the weather,
Ad lib meal feeding would build up to 1kg meal/day and gain about 2 - 2.2kg ,iveweight/ week, but they won't eat much grass on adlib meal so you'd be saving there.
As you say conversion rates drop after a month so we'd hold off until they're over 38kg.
We'd usually only have to feed less than 20% of the lambs

Username John

grassroot1 wrote: »

Whole barley on its own might cause digestive upsets

We used to creep lambs on rolled barley before and it didn't cause any problems...

I think as long as they have grass to go with the barley there shouldn't be problems - from what I saw anyways...

Jonny303

rangler1 wrote: »

We're doing about 1.2kg/ wk here on grass, mainly because of the weather,
Ad lib meal feeding would build up to 1kg meal/day and gain about 2 - 2.2kg ,iveweight/ week, but they won't eat much grass on adlib meal so you'd be saving there.
As you say conversion rates drop after a month so we'd hold off until they're over 38kg.
We'd usually only have to feed less than 20% of the lambs

Are you saying its the first 30 days on meal that you get the boost and then conversion rates drop?

rangler1

Jonny303 wrote: »

Are you saying its the first 30 days on meal that you get the boost and then conversion rates drop?

Yea in mature lambs anyway, ours would be 4 - 5 mths old, probably after eating lower quality august /september grass there'd be a compensatory growth from the meal, This is all just our experience

WellKiiid??

rangler1 wrote: »

sea12 wrote: »

Rangler will give you the conversion rates but they gain most in the first 30 days

We're doing about 1.2kg/ wk here on grass, mainly because of the weather,
Ad lib meal feeding would build up to 1kg meal/day and gain about 2 - 2.2kg ,iveweight/ week, but they won't eat much grass on adlib meal so you'd be saving there.
As you say conversion rates drop after a month so we'd hold off until they're over 38kg.
We'd usually only have to feed less than 20% of the lambs

Do you kill lambs on weight or when there is a good fat cover rangler? If so what weight?

rangler1

WellKiiid?? wrote: »

Do you kill lambs on weight or when there is a good fat cover rangler? If so what weight?

We always aim for maximum weight and fat score 3, sending them over 44kg at the moment to kill out 21, the last load average 20.8.
maximum weight is up to 21.5 next week so we'll be sending over 45kg
some of the lambs out of the ewe lambs won't make the weight and will be sold when fat

orm0nd

rangler1 wrote:

We always aim for maximum weight and fat score 3, sending them over 44kg at the moment to kill out 21, the last load average 20.8. maximum weight is up to 21.5 next week so we'll be sending over 45kg some of the lambs out of the ewe lambs won't make the weight and will be sold when fat

You're getting good KO % Vendeens x ?

rangler1

orm0nd wrote: »

You're getting good KO % Vendeens x ?

Actually the last load were mostly Lleyn wether lambs, av 45kg and killed 20.8....46%
The lleyn lambs are born first here to give the ewe lambs every chance,,
Vendeen born from the last week march and only coming fit now