Creep feeding lambs?

kk.man

I am half thinking of buying a creep feeder for lambs. Just the basic cormac one. The lambs were born circ 17th March.
My question is does it pay to creep feed them ? I have a small flock of 35 ewes and grass is not an issue.

Vote4Napoleon

Are they thriving at the moment?
DOB?
Current weights?

charolais0153

kk.man wrote: »

I am half thinking of buying a creep feeder for lambs. Just the basic cormac one. The lambs were born circ 17th March.
My question is does it pay to creep feed them ? I have a small flock of 35 ewes and grass is not an issue.

Feb lambs ya, march probably not. Higher ko and adg. 300-400g/head/day is optimum

Vote4Napoleon

Apologies I missed date of birth. If they're thriving at the moment leave them as is. Grass shud be more than enough

kk.man

Vote4Napoleon wrote: »

Apologies I missed date of birth. If they're thriving at the moment leave them as is. Grass shud be more than enough

Lambs are thriving but I was just looking at the economics of buying one.

Siamsa Sessions

charolais0153 wrote: »

Feb lambs ya, march probably not. Higher ko and adg. 300-400g/head/day is optimum

We’re falling between two stools - most lambed from 20-Feb to 7-March here!

Grass is scarce so we’re going to creep. Haven’t weighed them but singles seem to be doing well while twins are back a bit. I’m hoping the extra dry matter might help with worms and general health too, meaning less work for ourselves - albeit leading to slightly lower margins

roosky

To me it doesn't make sense..... do up the profitability of your system all in...last year I made €32 per lamb....if I creep even just at 350 grams per day over 60 days on average because some lambs will take an age to finish even with meal...then that is another €21 in cost so your back to €11 profit then include buying the creep feeder, the coccidiosis linked with creeping, the extra work of creeping them......

And lambing paddy's day you will gain nothing as in price per kg of having lambs ready a fortnight or three weeks earlier.

There maybe justification for taking all lambs that are backward at 10 weeks and creeping them to bring them in line with the flock to avoid feeding them later or selling at stores.

Just my two cents

charolais0153

roosky wrote: »

To me it doesn't make sense..... do up the profitability of your system all in...last year I made €32 per lamb....if I creep even just at 350 grams per day over 60 days on average because some lambs will take an age to finish even with meal...then that is another €21 in cost so your back to €11 profit then include buying the creep feeder, the coccidiosis linked with creeping, the extra work of creeping them......

And lambing paddy's day you will gain nothing as in price per kg of having lambs ready a fortnight or three weeks earlier.

There maybe justification for taking all lambs that are backward at 10 weeks and creeping them to bring them in line with the flock to avoid feeding them later or selling at stores.

Just my two cents

60x.350=21kg .021t x280=6euro. ??
If lambs go 2 weeks sooner. It can often be 60 or 70 cents in the difference in june.

wrangler

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

We’re falling between two stools - most lambed from 20-Feb to 7-March here!

Grass is scarce so we’re going to creep. Haven’t weighed them but singles seem to be doing well while twins are back a bit. I’m hoping the extra dry matter might help with worms and general health too, meaning less work for ourselves - albeit leading to slightly lower margins

I'd probably agree with you, if grass is scarce you'll be waiting months to get rid of your lambs.
Very hard to know what to do, the ewes have taken far too much meal already because of the poor weather,

Siamsa Sessions

wrangler wrote: »

I'd probably agree with you, if grass is scarce you'll be waiting months to get rid of your lambs.
Very hard to know what to do, the ewes have taken far too much meal already because of the poor weather,

Tis nearly all damage limitation now given how the weather has been so far. Thankfully there’s a bit of grass coming slowly now.

roosky

charolais0153 wrote: »

60x.350=21kg .021t x280=6euro. ??
If lambs go 2 weeks sooner. It can often be 60 or 70 cents in the difference in june.

And that is why you should not post on boards at 11 pm after a few bottles !!!!......my bad

davidk1394

Do it at home. Short answer is the lambs go away earlier, leaving less work e.g lameness, maggots, dosing. While you get a better price the user cancels out the bonus money

Dinzee Conlee

Whatever about the economics of it, be careful that you aren't deciding to go down the the creep feed route to make up for poor grass management...

67yearoldman

if you're thinking of getting the four legged variety, you might need to find a way to secure it to the ground. i only have a few sheep and they can toss it around easily.

Siamsa Sessions

Would it be OK to give 12-week-old lambs “finisher” meal?

We got the “lamb creep” stuff to get them used to it as it’s cooked and sweeter, but tis expensive and they’re all used to it now.

The plan is to transition them onto finisher now, but I’m wondering if it might cause upset bellies.

Hard Knocks

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Would it be OK to give 12-week-old lambs “finisher” meal?

We got the “lamb creep” stuff to get them used to it as it’s cooked and sweeter, but tis expensive and they’re all used to it now.

The plan is to transition them onto finisher now, but I’m wondering if it might cause upset bellies.

Lamb finisher should be fine